EGGS: THE ETHICAL DILEMMA

I’m in the egg department at King Kullen, and I’m facing an ethical dilemma. Do I buy the cheap eggs and never mind how those chickens are spending their lives? And then there's the package. The cheap eggs come in compostable paperboard boxes, but almost all the supposedly humane eggs now come in plastic foam. I reject the plastic.  Of course, I could solve my dilemma by not eating eggs any more. But I love how they taste, they're nutritious and low calorie and a relatively cheap source of protein; I'm not going to give them up. So I'm looking at all the labels and the boxes and trying to see my way to an ethical choice.

 

THE LIFE OF A LAYING HEN

The labels on eggs do tell you how they are getting treated if you know their meaning. If the box says nothing except Grade A and the size, and the eggs cost under $3 for a dozen, you can be sure the chickens who laid them are spending about 2 years crammed into battery cages  with 1 to 1.5 sq. feet of space, so little that they can’t even spread their wings. They eat and sleep in the same space, along with their feces and dust. The only reason they don’t peck each other to death is their beaks have been blunted--the tip cut off. Ouch. So I’m looking for a label that says at least "Cage Free,” or for more certainty, "Certified Humane." This means the birds aren't kept in cages, can perch somewhere and dust bathe, but they're living indoors, a multitude of birds inside some kind of barn. Don’t imagine it means they’re clucking around in anything like a nice outdoor yard somewhere, but presumably they have some freedom of movement. 

On a tiny length of shelf space among all the other brands King Kullen offers,  I spy McMahon's Certified Humane, Cage Free eggs, and they're in a paperboard package. Price: $4.99 a dozen.

That's about 42 cents an egg, compared to 25 cents for the cheap eggs. I can afford it. I buy McMahon's. 

To find eggs from hens that have lived mainly outside, I had to go to another store--Southdown Market--to find Vital Farms, pasture raised eggs, in a paper box. The price for 18 large eggs? $10 or about 55 cents an egg. I buy those too, to see what they are like, and when I break them the yolks are a lovely orange yellow. That's the sign of a fresh egg. Each box of Vital Farm eggs is stamped with the name of the farm they came from, and you can look at video of the farm. Mine says Loblolly Pine Farm and yes, there in the video are chickens wandering outside in a natural area. 

WHAT THE HECK IS AN ORDINARY EGG?

When I do research, I can't help following my trail of curiosity, so I decided to check out claims by Eggland, a major TV egg advertiser. The company claims its eggs are more nutritious, better tasting than--"ordinary eggs." Well, easy for them to say since there's no such category of eggs. No such designation by the USDA or anybody else. It's just advertising puffery. Another label that you shouldn't pay extra for says "Vegetarian Fed." Guess what? Hens are not vegetarians by nature. They eat worms and bugs and grubs if they can get at them. A label that says "organic," however, is supposed to mean no cages and a diet free from animal byproducts, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, and most pesticides.  Yuck. So if you care about what the hens are eating, look for the organic label.

THE BOTTOM LINE 

If your budget is tight, cheap eggs in a paper carton are a realistic choice. If you can afford it, the ethical choice at minimum are eggs labeled cage free and Certified Humane. It means you not only care about the hens but also are supporting farmers taking good care of the them.  The good news is that consumers' concerns about hens' living conditions is transforming egg production, and the industry is in the midst of a shift to cage-free. 

Investing in new barns, etc. costs money, and the prediction is that truly cheap eggs are a thing of the past. But whether the additional expenses do justify 42 cents an egg, like McMahons, or 55 cents like Vital's, remains to be seen. When cage-free becomes the rule, it's possible competition will make prices more reasonable. ##

 

 

 

 

 

But my ethical dilemma doesn’t end there: consider the packaging. Eggs used to all come in paperboard boxes that easily compost. Now almost all of them come in a foam-type plastic box, including many of the ones with cage free language on them. It’s worth mentioning, by the way, that Eggland’s advertising claims are just puffed up like a souffle. The ads claim they have better nutrition, better taste than…”ordinary eggs” according to the tiny footnote on the bottom of the screen. Of course there is no such thing as an “ordinary” egg, according to the USDA. The only thing that does matter is whether the egg box carries a shield that says “USDA” and the grade double AA or just A https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/ShellEggAAGradeBW.png

The double AA is the freshest and best quality.

So what to buy? I spy a tiny section of shell space with eggs in a paperboard box that also claims cage free status. It’s more than twice the price of the King Kullen eggs. I go for them. There’s a price for being an ethical consumer.

Republican Suffolk County Legislaors Shrug Off Need to Act Now

 

What’s the Hurry?

I was there. And I'm angry and frustrated.

No rush necessary. That was the attitude of the Republican members of the Suffolk County Legislature on July 25 as they voted not to approve the resolution that would have started a historic effort to purify the drinking water and the bays that surround our beautiful Long Island.

In a world where the desires of the public in a democracy should have won the day, our representatives chose to ignore the 40 people who testified that they should approve the resolution without delay. Forty people who turned out and sat through not just the testimony but the grandstanding of the legislators who tried to put some kind of rationale on their refusal to listen to both the experts and the people living with results of on-going water pollution.

It didn’t matter when Christopher J. Gobler of Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences startled the audience with the news that the nitrogen in our drinking water might very well be contributing to cancer among Suffolk residents. The levels considered safe by the EPA and the Suffolk County Water Authority might not be safe after all, according to new information.

It didn’t matter that the two new advanced septic systems approved for commercial use in Suffolk County remove at least 80% of the nitrogen that is contaminating our waters.

The opposition legislators listened but chose to delay indefinitely despite testimony that the nitrogen in the Great South Bay has been the death of the once-thriving clam industry there. Or that the luscious little scallops that used to be harvested in great numbers in the Peconic Bay can no longer survive there. No rush necessary to deal with those problems.

It didn’t matter when representatives of labor and the business community testified that the jobs created by replacing hundreds of thousands of polluting septic systems, and installing sewers in places with low groundwater, would create an economic boom in Suffolk County. The septic replacements would support an industry of small businesses, the kinds of businesses that are the heart of a local economy.

It didn’t matter that funding from New York State and the federal government would immediately flow to Suffolk County had the legislature put the proposal on the ballot and had voters approved it. Plenty of time, they said, in the face of being told that the money is being doled out now to other counties, and that enabling legislation passed by the state to allow the referendum might be impossible to get again.

In the face of repeated testimony that all the best science said the mix of improved septics and sewers was the best way to clean our waters, the Republican legislators just shrugged it off.

Instead, the Republicans, including Presiding Officer Kevin McCarthy, kept pushing for support for more sewers, more sewers, prodding speakers to say whether they supported sewers or improved septic systems. Wisely, the speakers declined to take the bait of a false choice. The Republican legislators insisted that the mix of funding from the sales tax increase of 1/8 of one cent--75% for septics and 25% for sewers—should be changed to favor sewers.  This despite the fact that about an equal $2 billion would have gone for each when funding from another source was included.

In the end, no hurry at all won the day in a party-line vote to deny Suffolk residents the chance to decide the issue themselves.

Why? That is the question. Supporters speculated that it was fear of Democrats turning out in big numbers in November to support clean water, resulting perhaps in losses to the Republicans running for re-election. Could it have been ignorance about the necessity of acting? Hard to believe because the experts were there to answer all their questions.

I was a reporter at Newsday in the era of the scandal-plagued Southwest Sewer District. Big public works projects are susceptible to bribery and corruption. Could it be that some individuals are licking their lips at the prospect of all those hundreds of millions of dollars in public contracts? Much harder, if not impossible, to profit off work of the many small businesses installing new septic systems in people’s homes.

And remember, this is the same Legislature that has refused to create an independent Inspector General to try to stop the corruption that has been endemic to Suffolk County for decades. Note that both Republicans and Democrats have opposed that safeguard.

July 25 was a sad day for democracy, and a sad day for the people of Suffolk County. We deserve a legislature that truly represents us. ##