Understanding the Egg

Today your eggs can be cage free, free range, pasture-raised, vegetarian, fortified with omega-3, organic, certified humane, or animal welfare approved. Which one is best?

The answer…none of the above

Your best choices would be to get your eggs from a local farmer you trust or get a few hens yourself.

If you still want to pick up your eggs when you do the rest of your grocery shopping buy the Animal Welfare Approved eggs (if you can find them) or buy organic eggs as a second choice.

Here is a quick breakdown of what all these terms mean:

How They Are Raised
Cage Free - chickens were kept out of cages and had continuous access to food and water, but did not necessarily have access to the outdoors.
Free Range - in addition to meeting the cage-free standards, free-range birds must have continuous access to the outdoors, unless there’s a health risk present. There are no standards, though, for what that outdoor area must be like. (A concrete lot could do.)
Pasture-Raised - implies hens got at least part of their food from foraging on greens and bugs, which adherents say can improve flavor. Some studies have found that pasture-raised eggs have more nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin E and beta carotene, and less saturated fat and cholesterol.
Certified Humane – has requirements for, among other things, ventilation, density and the number of perches and nesting boxes that must be provided. It requires that each hen have at least 1.5 square feet of space (324 square inches).
Animal Welfare Approved - available in limited markets, it is a new label by the Animal Welfare Institute that is given only to independent family farmers. Flocks can have no more than 500 birds, and chickens over 4 weeks old must be able to spend all their time outside on pesticide-free pasture with a variety of vegetation. They must have access to dust baths and cannot have their beaks trimmed (a practice on crowded egg farms) or be fed animal byproducts.

What They Are Fed
Vegetarian-Fed - means the eggs came from hens raised on all-vegetarian feed. Hens are not naturally vegetarian, though; they enjoy eating grubs, bugs and worms. While there’s not a substantial nutritional difference between these eggs and conventional eggs, vegetarian eggs appeal to consumers who are turned off by some of the animal byproducts that can be included in conventional chicken feed, like feather meal, chicken litter, pork and cattle byproducts and “spent hen meal” (ground up dead hens).
Fortified with Omega-3 – chickens are usually fed a supplement of flax seed to boost the amount of omega-3 in the egg yolks.
Organic - chickens must be kept cage free with outdoor access (though the time and the type of access are not defined), they cannot be given antibiotics (even if ill) and their food must be free from animal byproducts and made from crops grown without chemical pesticides, fertilizers, irradiation, genetic engineering or sewage sludge.

Check out the Vickery Green Market, My Dad & Me Family Farm, Stokes Farm, and Circle B Ranch to find local sources of eggs.