Educated Eater: Free Range

Chickens running free, roaming pasture, pecking here and there and living the good life. It's this image that fuels the current food phenom of free-range, cage-free and free-roaming eggs. And, it's a great idea. Food that is treated well, tastes better, right? Then surely, these happy hen eggs are worth the premium price we're asked to shell out.

Well, apparently they'e not. According to Andrew Gunther, program director of Animal Welfare Approved (AVA), "commonly used food claims and terms like 'all natural' or 'free-range' – and even 'organic' – can actually mean very little."

In fact, the United States Department of Agriculture has no definition for what constitutes a cage-free farm. And their free-range requirements fall pretty flat, saying only, "producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside."

First of all, being allowed access to the outside doesn't exactly mean chickens live outdoors, or even make it outside on a daily basis. There are no USDA requirements on how long chickens must be outdoors or when, and no mention whatsoever of what constitutes outdoors. Patches of pasture count just as much as access to dirt, gravel or pavement.

These labels are hiding some horrific scenes, says Gunther, who writes on his blog of industrial farms where tens of thousands of "free-range" birds are kept indoors in a single house, where their outdoor access consists of nothing more than a tiny concrete area or an enclosed wooden porch.

Basically, these labels are little more than marketing magic. We as consumers are waking up to the fact that animal farmers - particularly chicken farmers - are getting by with inhumane practices. In response, snazzy new labels are being slapped on egg cartons willy-nilly to make us believe the change we want to see is happening. Well folks, it's not.

Beyond the impact on the animals, the unscrupulous claims by farmers are doing real damage to the true organic movement. Their labels allow them to supply huge numbers of eggs under the guise of free-range, effectively out-producing the little guys, who go to great lengths to produce a quality product.

Don't be force-fed meaningless marketing. Get educated and learn what labels mean. But more importantly, care enough about what you put in your body to go that extra mile.