As bakers, we don’t typically like to share our secrets. But today we’re making an exception in the name of animal welfare.
One of the reasons our shortbread cookies taste so dang good is because we use organic, cage-free eggs. Eggs produced in a cage-free environment are hugely different not only in terms of flavor, but also in terms of nutritional value, environmental impact, and ethical living conditions for animals.
You see, the life of a typical factory farmed egg-producing chicken is not a good one. According to Farm Sanctuary, 95 percent of egg-laying hens spend their lives in “battery cages” that hold five to 10 birds each. That means each chicken has the floor space equivalent to less than a sheet of letter-sized paper. The fact that they’re constantly standing on and rubbing against wire cages leads to severe feather loss, and their bodies often become covered with scratches and bruises.
These hens are selectively bred and artificially stimulated to yield high egg production, which means more than 250 eggs a year. Once their egg production declines—which is only 1 to 2 years (as compared to the average production chicken’s lifespan of 5 to 8 years), they’re considered “spent” and sent to slaughter.
There’s a whole lot more to say about factory farmed chickens and the abuses they suffer, and you can find all the gory details online if you wish. But the point we’re really trying to make is that paying up for cage-free eggs is always worth the extra cost.
For one, cage-free chickens have a much better and healthier life than factory farmed hens. Instead of being crammed into battery cages, cage-free hens lay their daily eggs in secluded nest boxes, as they prefer to do. Once they have laid their eggs, they are let free to roam in aviaries with perches that allow them to express their natural behaviors.
In order to qualify for USDA organic certification, hens’ diets must be produced on land that has been free from the use of toxic and persistent chemical pesticides and fertilizers for at least three years. They are not allowed to eat genetically engineered crops, and hens must be maintained without hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs.
We buy our eggs from Abbotsford Farms, a certified humane organic and cage-free producer. As the only national supplier of organic and cage-free liquid eggs to the food service industry, Abbotsford Farms has created a network of more than 150 nature-conscious farms. Many of these farms are small family operations, and all of them are devoted to producing quality organic and cage-free eggs. As an egg producer certified by American Humane, Abbotsford’s farms always follow strict guidelines in the care and wellbeing of their hens.
You won’t find battery cages or forced day and night rhythms, featherless and beakless hens, or any other horrors at Abbotsford’s network of egg farms. Not only do these eggs taste better and have more vitamin E and a better “fatty acid” profile, we—and you—can rest easy knowing that they’ve been ethically sourced.