I am far from being the world’s biggest sucker when it comes to advertising gimmicks, but I find myself succumbing to the legend “cage free” on packages of eggs. These eggs cost at least a buck more per dozen than regular eggs. I tell myself that cage-free chickens are probably no better off than their sisters kept in cages (probably they’re just packed tighter into larger pens), but part of my brain says, “for a buck, you can always hope.” It’s really not the extra money that bothers me; it’s the nagging suspicion that I’m falling victim to some marketing wonk’s master plan. Help me, Cecil. Are cage-free chickens happier chickens? –Jean Tillson, Franklin, Massachusetts
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A trip to the grocery store used to be a trip to the grocery store. Now it’s a minefield of moral dilemmas. In re chickens, a blogger named Joseph Haines has framed the question thusly: All chickens, including laying hens, eventually get the ax. Which of the following do you want on your plate?
You see the problem. Even in the case of egg-producing chickens, in the final analysis we’re talking about eating the flesh of our fellow creatures–and before we kill them we like to breakfast on their potential progeny. We don’t really get off the hook, ethically speaking, by being nice to our victims.
That brings me to my main point. Whatever else may be said for the organic farming movement, it has saved a lot of small producers who otherwise would’ve been forced to the wall by big commercial operations and their economies of scale. The more technologically savvy mom-and-pop outfits have Web sites complete with photos of happy chickens frolicking in the sunshine. Sure, nothing prevents these folks from lying. Nothing prevents your mom from lying either. The fact is that the Internet enables consumers to have a more direct relationship with the producers of their morning eggs than they’ve had at any time since grandpa left the farm. If you’re all that concerned about chicken welfare–and if you want more than the assurances on the egg carton to go on–you might as well take advantage.
