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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

"ORGANIC" EGGS-PRECEPTS VS PRACTICES

Organic foods are much sought after lately because of deeply entrenched fear about the credibility of the food industry in providing safe foods beyond a shade of doubt. Consumers are forced to pay a premium price for these foods because of the belief that the producer has to go extra length to maintain the viability of his operations through increased investment and recurring expenditure. They are supposed to be raised in farms with non-contaminated water for irrigation, avoiding chemical fertilizers and pesticides and following humane practices. Unfortunately there appears to be flaws in the system of quality monitoring and safety certification system prevalent to day raising some serious doubts regarding the veracity of claims regarding organic foods.

    "Eighty percent of organic eggs on the market are produced by only a handful of farms, most of them industrial-scale factory farms. Though the operations claim to employ organic practices, they look strikingly similar to farms like Wright County Egg, one of the factory farms fingered for the country's recent salmonella outbreak. These "organic farms" house hundreds of thousands of chickens that literally sit on top of each other in crowded cages. While chickens are supposed to spend time outdoors in order for eggs to be labeled as "organic," Cornucopia Institute found that industrial-scale producers often cheat the system. "Many of these operators are gaming the system by providing minute enclosed porches, with roofs and concrete or wood flooring, and calling these structures 'the outdoors,' Charlotte Vallaeys, a farm policy analyst and the lead author of the report, said in a press release. "Many of the porches represent just three-to-five percent of the square footage of the main building housing the birds. That means 95 percent or more of the birds have absolutely no access whatsoever." While keeping birds in cages is undoubtedly cruel, more and more studies show that eggs from cage-free birds are actually safer and healthier, too. Cage-free eggs are less likely to contain salmonella than eggs that came from birds kept in battery cages (as Wright County Egg and Hillendale Farms can attest). Some research also suggests that cage-free eggs have about one-third less cholesterol and one-quarter less saturated fat than regular eggs, and boast higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin E, and beta carotene".
    Whether the above findings are really supported by actual visits and studying of the operations in detail, cannot be certain as many animal activists target poultry farms for criticisms some of which lack credibility. Though some of the violations cited may be minor technical aberrations, condoning such practices can be harmful in the long run to the consumers. Cornucopia Institute which is a non-profit organization dedicated to protect the interests of small scale farms may have inherent reservations against mega farms which aggressively market their products affecting the economic interests of its constituency and therefore can be expected to exploit any opportunity that can bring down the image of large producers.. But the poultry industry in the US has enormous clout on the government agencies and with inadequate enforcement personnel with USDA, the watchdog agency and serious doubts regarding the reliability of third party technical auditing system, there can be many farms which can get away by flouting the regulations governing production of organic eggs.
V.H.POTTY

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