The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming cookbook, a fundraiser for the micro-abattoir here at Jonai Farms. Grab a copy to support the revolution here!
Up until the 1990s, Australia produced its own layer chicken genetics. However, because of the genetic advances for increased productivity achieved internationally, the commercial industry in Australia today imports fertile eggs for its layers from a few multinationals overseas. SBA imports the ISA Brown and Lohmann Brown from Hendrix Genetics in Europe, and the Hy-line Brown from Hy-line International in the US. Even pastured egg producers are nearly all reliant on this very narrow supply of ‘genetically-improved’ birds, who have been bred to be prolific layers at the expense of instinctive behaviours. They are renowned amongst pastured growers for poor foraging habits, making them more reliant on expensive grain feed; a lack of protective instincts in the face of aerial or ground predators; and often aggressive and even cannibalistic behaviours in the flock.
As well as breeding layers for productivity rather than health and welfare, the companies producing commercial layers destroy the 50% of chicks born male by dumping them into giant macerators – wheels of spinning blades like a blender – considered the most ‘humane’ way to dispose of the unwanted males and deformed females. While carbon dioxide gassing is also used in some factories, it is also a cruel practice that makes animals feel like they are suffocating before death.
For the hens that survive this origin story, life is not that great, though for many, it is better than it was up until the 1990s, as nearly all eggs available until then came from chickens who spent their whole lives in battery cages. Day old chicks or pullets (chickens reaching point-of-lay) are sold by the breeders to farms to commence their lives as commercial layers. By the early 2000s, the industry was changing rapidly in Australia, and ‘free-range’ eggs now constitute over half the eggs on the shelves. However, with minimal government regulation to improve animal welfare standards, the shift has come from changes in market demand and pressure from animal welfare organisations, meaning most standards are voluntary and developed by industry themselves. In 2022, compulsory guidelines were introduced to phase out battery cages by 2036. Compare this woefully unambitious target with Europe, where battery cages have been banned since 2012. Today, just two ‘farms’ (companies) produce nearly 70% of eggs sold in Australia – Sunny Queen and Pace Farm – which run caged, barn, free range and organic egg farms. Sunny Queen recently sold 50% of its shares to PSP, a Canadian pension fund, while Pace was acquired in 2023 by Roc Partners, a private equity firm.
Since changes in 2018, the voluntary national standard for free range certification has allowed up to 10,000 chickens per hectare, which is about one chook per square metre. In fact, most are not outdoors at all – they merely have to have ‘regular and meaningful access’ to outdoors, which typically means they spend their days in a shed with small doors through which they can, in theory, exit to the barren dirt outside. Research is divided on whether caging the birds would actually be more humane, because being kept in flocks of 10,000 is stressful for chooks, who can’t establish a pecking order – their social hierarchy – so fight a lot more than a small flock with an established order. These limited options are both pretty terrible for the chooks, who I forgot to mention are debeaked as chicks for these reasons.
While you can see that intensive systems don’t have much to recommend them except cheap eggs, it gets worse. The pathogen load in intensive animal production is exponentially higher than in their pastured counterparts, including poultry, which have the highest pathogen loads amongst all meat and dairy options. Salmonella is the leading cause of food-borne illness in Australia, mostly from contaminated eggs. Although Australian standards leave it up to producers to determine whether to clean eggs through a wet (chlorine) or dry wash, I often think that if you are eating industrial eggs, you probably want them to be sprayed with chlorine.
While this may leave you unsure about buying eggs from even a local pastured egg farm, I don’t recommend boycotting all eggs. Similar to the dilemma small-scale pastured livestock farmers face in taking our animals to industrial abattoirs, we have no good choices until we recreate them, and that takes time. As with other good whole foods, eggs from genuine pasture-raised chickens will come from farms with names and farmers with faces, raising healthy animals on healthy soils, and they will typically be nearby with short or direct distribution, such as farmers’ markets, farm gate sales, and CSA. Help them radically transform the system from the ground (and DNA) up!
Hierarchy of decisions
GROW: If you have a backyard, get some chickens! They are a delight to watch and kids love them, they eat your scraps and in return, give you an egg nearly every day!
BARTER: It is pretty hard to find someone in the city with so many eggs they will be willing to barter, but for those in rural areas, if you can’t keep chooks for some reason, ask your neighbours whether they can barter some.
BUY: As is usually the answer to the vexed question of, ‘so which brand of eggs can I trust?’ – avoid industrial brands entirely if you are able. If you can purchase from a farmer directly, best. From an independent retailer is the next best – your local greengrocer or butcher often sell local eggs. Finally, if you have to shop at the duopoly, look for eggs grown closer to you, and try to find a brand certified by Humane Choice or Pastured PROOF.
Sustainable Table has an excellent online resource to help you thoroughly decode the certifications and labels. https://www.sustainabletable.org.au/journal/the-chicken-and-the-egg
Choice has a good guide to interpreting the standards: https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/meat-fish-and-eggs/eggs/articles/what-free-range-eggs-meet-the-model-code
