Thanks so much for this post—I’m going to adjust my buying habits from now on!
My impression is that e.g. Vital Farms is still substantially better than conventional egg brands, and if I need to buy eggs in a store that doesn’t offer these improved options it still probably cuts suffering per egg in half or more relative to a cheaper alternative. Does that seem right to you?
I do expect Vital Farms to be a lot better than an average cheap egg brand with no certifications. I’m not sure how they compare to the average brand that’s Certified Humane and USDA Certified Organic (a combination that requires outdoor access*, no debeaking, and no forced-molting), but my guess would be that they’re better than that too. Most of my uncertainty comes from lack of knowledge of chicken psychology (is being outdoors but in a large flock of 20k birds a lot less stressful than being indoors in a large dense flock, or about the same? Does beak trimming cause chronic pain or frustration as the hens can’t forage as well?)
One specific consideration with Vital Farms is that their practices vary by farm: they’re a collective of small farms nationwide, and it seems that they have different subgroups of farms that adhere to different standards. Here are the Cornucopia institute’s egg scorecards for both their standard and “regenerative organic” lines: standard, regenerative organic. Based on Cornucopia, I think both lines still look pretty good, even compared to other organic farms.
*asterisk on “outdoor access” since apparently USDA Organic counts caged-in porches as outdoor access, which seems bad to me
Thanks so much for this post—I’m going to adjust my buying habits from now on!
My impression is that e.g. Vital Farms is still substantially better than conventional egg brands, and if I need to buy eggs in a store that doesn’t offer these improved options it still probably cuts suffering per egg in half or more relative to a cheaper alternative. Does that seem right to you?
I do expect Vital Farms to be a lot better than an average cheap egg brand with no certifications. I’m not sure how they compare to the average brand that’s Certified Humane and USDA Certified Organic (a combination that requires outdoor access*, no debeaking, and no forced-molting), but my guess would be that they’re better than that too. Most of my uncertainty comes from lack of knowledge of chicken psychology (is being outdoors but in a large flock of 20k birds a lot less stressful than being indoors in a large dense flock, or about the same? Does beak trimming cause chronic pain or frustration as the hens can’t forage as well?)
One specific consideration with Vital Farms is that their practices vary by farm: they’re a collective of small farms nationwide, and it seems that they have different subgroups of farms that adhere to different standards. Here are the Cornucopia institute’s egg scorecards for both their standard and “regenerative organic” lines: standard, regenerative organic. Based on Cornucopia, I think both lines still look pretty good, even compared to other organic farms.
*asterisk on “outdoor access” since apparently USDA Organic counts caged-in porches as outdoor access, which seems bad to me