Q: Are eggs vegetarian?
A: Ever come across an image that changed the course of your life? For me, as a tender teen, all it took was a filmed scene in a chicken factory to turn me off eating land-roamers forever.
I know, I know – vegans will grimace at those of us still consuming eggs over easy, scrambled or baked into muffins, and, in turn, vegetarians will argue that no animal died to give us those yolks.
And they’re right – eggs aren’t aborted chickens, but remarkably tasty chicken periods. But what vegetarians might not know is that a lot of hens are being fed slaughterhouse by-products when we’re not looking.
You see, while the poultry industry advertises its flaxseed, corn and alfalfa feed, it’s pretty standard that meat by-products have been mixed into it unless your eggs are labelled “vegetarian” or “no animal by-products.”
Those widely used by-products are usually slaughterhouse leftovers including meat and bone meal, feather meal, blood meal and oil/fat from all sorts of animals including, gulp, poultry.
Yep. So while those raising ruminants like cows are now banned from feeding them other cows, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it’s okay to feed approved chicken bits to chickens. And just so you know, the CFIA says a producer can claim “vegetable-grain fed” on the product label as long as the feed is just 85 per cent grain. The other 15 per cent can be animal by-products.
FYI, industry groups concede that animal protein can be contaminated with heavy metals, cancer-linked dioxins and pesticides, though the CFIA says feed is inspected for such contaminants.
“But I only eat happy eggs,” you say, “from free-roaming chickens.” Well, keep in mind that the free-run label just means they’re cage-free in open-concept barns, not that their feed is any different.
When it comes to organic, some egg producers like Burnbrae give hens organic animal products like whey (milk protein) or eggs but slaughterhouse leftovers are strictly forbidden. Organic standards outlaw dead mammal and avian bits in feed.
What if you want it all – vegetarian and organic free-range? You’re in luck. One of the biggest organic brands, Organic Meadow, sticks to Ontario-grown organic grains like corn, barley, oats and flax. Like all organic layers, Organic Meadow hens are housed in open-concept barns and get to poke around outdoors, weather permitting, in the warmer months (making them “free-range”). On pasture, chickens will gladly munch on bugs and the like, but humans aren’t feeding Organic Meadow hens animal by-products.
While they’re not organic, all Rowe Farm eggs are animal-by-product-free (unless you count incidental lard that may be found in bread crumbs in feed). By the way, regular Rowe-Farm-branded eggs are antibiotic-free, but the hens are still battery-caged. Only Rowe’s Green Valley eggs are free-run (hens kept in an open-concept barn). The company says hens producing Rowe Farm eggs will be switched over to larger enclosures with perches, scratch pads and nests by early 2012.
Daydreaming of getting your eggs from an old-fashioned chicken farm? Scout your local farmers’ market for indie sources or check health stores for Hope Eco-Farms Small Flock eggs.
All in all, how do eggs stack up in terms of their larger environmental impact? Carbon-footprintwise, eggs are a better protein source, ounce for ounce, than pork, beef or even milk. Nonetheless, beans will beat them at the carbon game every time.
Not that carbon footprint is the be-all and end-all of ethics and sustainability, as I’ve said before. You see, eggs laid by battery-caged hens involve fewer greenhouse gases than free-range or free-run eggs, since more chickens are jammed into every square metre.
How about brown eggs? Well, they may have a larger carbon footprint, egg for egg, than white eggs – not because they’re necessarily raised any differently, but because they’re often laid by Rhode Island Red chickens. Rhode Islands are a bigger breed, so, according to producers, they eat more feed than, say, Leghorns.
Waste-wise, you’ll want to avoid eggs in unrecyclable plastic cartons.
And there, curious readers, is your answer in an eggshell.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
