Pasture Raised Vs Cage Free

May 14, 2021

Pasture Raised Vs Cage Free

Chickens that are treated well and fed their natural diet will produce superior quality eggs. Check out our comprehensive guide to understand the difference between Free Range vs pasture-raised vs cage-free and what labels conscious consumers are choosing to purchase.

What Are Cage Free Eggs

This shift to cage-free will represent a marginal improvement in hen welfare thanks to additional room for movement within the barn but its not enough.

Pasture raised vs cage free. Per bird which is approximately 106 sq ft more per bird than the shoddy free range requirement. Cage-free and Free Range eggs in particular tend to be misleading for consumers. Pasture-raised is not regulated by the USDA.

Visual Chickens still live their entire lives inside a building with an average of 1 square foot per chicken and they dont have access to the outside. However the problem is that most eggs come from unhealthy chicken and thus the eggs are also unhealthy. To be free-range and certified humane there must be a minimum of two square feet of outdoor space per bird.

The facilities where cage-free hens are raised in no way represent what a consumer would consider to be a farm in terms of scale crowding cleanliness or transparency. This means the hens can eat fresh living grass every day. But heres a bit more context on this claim.

So if cage-free isnt the best option then what is. Cage-Free These chickens are raised in conditions a little better than conventional in that theyre able to roam around without cages. The Shocking Truth About Free Range Cage Free and Pasture Raised Eggs Eggs are a great source of protein and increase your good cholesterol.

When I fully came to understand this I was outraged. The difference is that theyre fed organic feed without animal by-products antibiotics hormones or pesticides. At the store pasture raised eggs that are certified humane come from hens that live in humane conditions eat their natural diet and are provided outdoor access.

In this video you can actually SEE the difference between eggs from hens that were raised in a pasture and eggs from cooped hens and the difference is huge. Not to mention with pasture-raised hens field rotation is mandatory. Our hens are NEVER caged so this isnt even a factor for Organic Valley hens.

With the exception of Pasture Raised most of the terms used on an egg carton have been hijacked by the egg industry as marketing ploys. Like free-range and free-roaming the birds have unspecified outdoor access. These birds have more room than caged hens as they are each provided with less than 1 square foot.

Obviously most of the people who would go to the trouble of buying a Cage Free egg are doing it and paying more money because they think it is better for the environment and the chicken. They are confined to the barns and eat a diet of corn or soy. Most people think of free range birds as birds outside on pasture.

Its important to point out that cage free egg laying hens are treated poorly. Thats 108 sq. Free range is a very wide category encompassing everything from a nearly confined animal operation to chickens merrily chasing.

Cage-free is the squirrelliest of the claims because although it sounds good it still leaves birds open to a world of other inhumane treatment. This brings us to the question of pasture raised eggs vs free. While both sound positivegenerally you find few people advocating for cages or restricting animal.

But in order for pasture-raised eggs to also be labeled certified humane it means that the ladies were given ample space to roam outdoors were talking 108 square feet but also have access to a barn for cover. Those ARE free range birds however free range are ALSO birds raised in cage free houses such as the one pictured above who have doors accessing dirt lots of a certain size per bird. According to All About Eggs by Rachel Khong cage-free facilities have more hen-on-hen violence and lower air quality than facilities that use cages.

Cage-free chickens can still be crammed together wing-to-wing in a giant indoor space -- sometimes even having two levels -- containing hundreds of thousands of birds.

Food Labels 101 Free Range Cage Free Or Pasture Raised Eggs