Cought Up...

[Hans Bulvai]

Is anyone surprised about this? I have ordered the destruction of all eggs in my fridge, so I put them in a box and placed them in the trash.

But seriously, this is the kind of shit that happens when you allow profits to surpass reason.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_ ... inted_eggs

[Tinker]

Well, this is how it is when you have massive factories producing the food, a large supply can get contaminated together if it infects the equipment that is processing the eggs.

It's just how it goes.

[Hoosiernorm]

egg prices had been falling. This will get rid of the smaller operations and make the larger ones more profitable.

[noddy]

im a big fan of free range chickens and eggs and do think they taste better, i also despise battery farms for being sadistic and disgusting - as a kid I got a job in one of those places and walked away from it within the hour, angry.

yet, I look at my country being almost totally cleared - and wonder just where we are going to keep all these chickens.

[Hans Bulvai]

I have seen first hand a chicken plant. We had to wear protective clothing. It was one of the most disturbing sights that I have seen; even worst than the pig slaughter house.

The point is, what are these people doing that is causing salmonella to originate in the ovaries of the chickens? rat shit my ass.

40 day growth spurts will only come back to bite you.

I too only buy eggs from our local farmer. Best eggs I have had.

[Torchwood]

The US is relatively weak compared to other civilised countries on farm animal welfare laws, but then you did take an awful long time to get rid of human slavery - and factory farming is an abomination comparable to this (mark you, the US never took practices to the point which caused mad cow disease in the UK).

The EU is to outlaw battery cages for hens by 2012, although the new minimum standard is still not free range - Germany is going further.

I only buy free range eggs - widely available in supermarkets - and the premium to ordinary eggs has declined substantially. For free range chicken or pork, the premium is still quite large but less than it was. If you care about animal welfare, beef or lamb is best, and veal is a no-no. But consumer power can only do so much - will you stop restaurant meals or buying cakes? Very doubtful if the meat or eggs are free range.

One has to press to outlaw factory farming. Proposing to increase the price of food in a recession, great, that will be popular. But health and safety and minimum working standards add to costs, there are more important things some time. The high cost of free range food is because of higher margins as retailer see it as a market of middle class do-gooding suckers. Those margins come down if legislation is enforced.