All you ever wanted to know about eggs, and then some

Chickens are arguably the most abused animals in the agricultural business. Currently the Humane Society of the United States is trying to ban the use of battery wire cages, which give hens less space than a single sheet of letter-size paper. Confined their whole lives in these cages, the hens can't spread their wings, dust clean themselves, nest, forage or perch, all of which are the natural behaviors of these birds. California passed Prop 2 (the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act) with an overwhelming 63% in 2008, which outlaws the use of battery cages for chickens, gestation crates for pigs, and veal crates for calves.

If you grocery shop for yourself or your family then you know what I'm talking about when I refer to the four frillion different labels on egg cartons. Organic, Cage-free, Free-Range, Hormone & Antibiotic-Free, on and on and on. But what do those labels really mean? And why is it important to know the difference?

Let me start by answering the latter question. It is important to know the difference, for instance, between Cage-Free and Free-Range; a significant distinction is that Cage-Free hens are kept in barns or warehouses without access to the outdoors, while Free-Range hens are also kept in barns or warehouses, but have some access to the outdoors. However, neither has third-party auditing to make sure guidelines are being followed. The smallest word variation can mean quite a difference in the lives of the hens who supply your eggs.

From the perspective of animal welfare, none of the labels, save one, is 100% hen-friendly. Animal Welfare Approved eggs ensure that chickens are not kept in cages at all, are allowed unfettered access to the outdoors, and forced molting (by starvation) as well as beak cutting is prohibited. Unfortunately, as of yet there are no producers who sell Animal Welfare Approved eggs to grocery stores.

A complete list of what those confusing labels actually mean can be found here. You might be surprised at what you discover about the origins of your favorite breakfast food.

Now the United Egg Producers (UEP), our nations largest trade organization for eggs, has put out cartoons depicting chickens wishing they'd never been taken out of their cages to try and make kids think that a caged lifestyle is preferable to a free one. And since I can't get my computer to cooperate, you can see the cartoons here. Please go look. They will infuriate you.

It seems the battle to end animal cruelty is constant and always uphill. But we carry on because otherwise millions of animals each year continue to live, suffer, and die in horrible conditions. And honestly? They deserve better than that.