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Living Maxwell

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All Organic Eggs are NOT the Same – Here’s How to Buy the Best

If you walk into the supermarket and are confused about which organic eggs to buy, it is important to understand a few things.

First, not all organic eggs are the same. In fact, there are massive differences in organic eggs, particularly in regards to how the birds were raised.

Second, don’t select a carton of organic eggs simply because it has the nicest, most attractive packaging. That doesn’t tell the whole story.

Lastly and most importantly, the Cornucopia Institute, one of the organic industry’s most important non-profits, has just put out an updated version of its Organic Egg Scorecard, and this should be a must-use reference guide when shopping for organic eggs.

The Organic Egg Scorecard is part of Cornucopia’s incredibly important report called Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production from Authentic Organic Agriculture.

In this report, Cornucopia highlights the disturbing conditions under which industrial organic egg producers are operating. While substituting conventional for organic feed and not using synthetic inputs, such as pesticides or antibiotics, some of these large-scale operators provide incredibly cramped, double-story conditions, limited access points to the outdoors, and covered concrete porches instead of adequate space on grass fields.

(Cornucopia’s aerial investigation of industrial-scale organic producers, such as Herbruck’s Poultry, pictured above, revealed that many confine their laying hens rather than provide outdoor access, as required by organic regulations. This operation, likely the largest “organic” egg farm in the country, is located near Saranac, Michigan.)

On the other hand, many small organic family farms go well beyond what the USDA requires and provides ample indoor space and outdoor pasture, allowing the birds to exhibit their natural behaviors, such as foraging, scratching, and flapping their wings.

The Organic Egg Scorecard classifies each brand into one of five categories:

“5-Egg” Rating: “Exemplary” – Beyond organic

“4-Egg” Rating: “Excellent” – Organic promoting outdoor access

“3-Egg” Rating: “Good to Very Good” – Organic, complying with minimum USDA standards

“2-Egg” Rating: “Fair” – Some questions remain concerning compliance with organic standards

“1-Egg” Rating: “Industrial Organics – No meaningful outdoor access and/or non-transparent”

Fortunately, concerned organic consumers are lucky enough to have amazing organizations such as Cornucopia, which has done extensive homework as to the farming practices of each organic egg brand.

Due to Cornucopia’s exhaustive research, shoppers can now make more educated egg purchases in the supermarket. This not only provides our families with healthier organic eggs, but it also allows us to support organic egg farmers who are doing things the right way.

Organic Egg Scorecard

Photo Gallery: Industrial-Scale Egg Production—Masquerading As Organic?

A message from Tradin Organic

How Tradin Organic is Helping Coconut Farmers in The Philippines

For more than a decade, Tradin Organic has been working with local partners in The Philippines to bring a diversified range of organic products to the market, such as coconut oil, tropical fruits and even cocoa.

The company is helping to support local farmers by assisting them with technical support and organic certification, in addition to paying Fairtrade premium on top of the organic premium.

Learn more.

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Living Maxwell

Must-Read

Another Reason to Eat Organic – Arsenic, Caffeine, Antidepressants and Banned Antibiotics are Fed to Chicken

Last year, I put up a post about how arsenic was temporarily banned for use in conventional chickens.

Whether conventional chicken growers actually paid attention to the ban is anyone’s guess, but a column I read yesterday in the New York Times just made me shake my head even further.

In his column, Nicholas Kristof talked about recently released studies that suggest that poultry on factory farms are routinely fed caffeine, active ingredients of Tylenol and Benadryl, banned antibiotics and arsenic.

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A message from Tradin Organic

Why Tradin Organic is Prioritizing Regenerative Organic Farming

At Tradin Organic, we believe that regenerative organic farming is key to growing healthy and nutritious food ingredients — for now and for future generations.

And in Sierra Leone, we have grown the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified cacao.

Learn more.

Living Maxwell

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Another Reason to Buy Organic – The Link Between Genetically-Modified Foods and Fertility Problems

For people who are new to organic, the first question they generally have is “Why should I be eating this food?”

The easy response is “because organic food does not contain synthetic and toxic chemicals”.

Organic food also forbids the use of genetically-engineered ingredients, often known as GMOs (genetically-modified organisms).

Since GMOs are a little bit more complicated and a little less tangible, this point either gets overlooked or is not fully understood.

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Living Maxwell

Must-Read

The Health Risks of Eating Conventional Potatoes

Whenever I think about a lot of the food that I ate growing up, it isn’t overly pleasant. It was the standard American diet with all of the processed, fast food that most of the country still consumes today.

Fortunately, my childhood took place before the emergence of GMOs (mid-90s) and growth hormone milk (late 80s), so I escaped some of the really bad things when my body was in its crucial stage of development.

One food that I fondly remember eating, and loving, at family dinners was potatoes. And it wasn’t just the insides of the potatoes. I particularly loved eating the skins. Yet, little did I or my parents know just how toxic they were.

When many people think of the most important foods to be eating organic, potatoes do not immediately come to mind as quickly as apples, grapes, or spinach do. But they should and here’s why.

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livingmaxwell: a guide to organic food & drink