Organic vs. Humane vs. Organic and Humane

Which hens look healthier?

Is it any wonder that so many of us ~ and, unfortunately, a great majority of the under-30s ~ have become so cynical, so reluctant to believe anything and anyone? Here is an excerpt from a 2010 report by the Cornucopia Institute titled Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production From Authentic Organic Agriculture (http://www.cornucopia.org/egg-report/scrambledeggs.pdf): 

Whose eggs would you rather eat?                                   Cornucopia Institute

   Since egg producers have been able to easily convert cage-free henhouses to organic by simply feeding organic feed and building a small concrete porch attached to the henhouse, the organic egg industry has attracted highly-capitalized newcomers who are familiar with modern poultry production but have no understanding of organic principles and farming.
   Well-versed in modern production, such new entrants to the organic egg industry are familiar with raising tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of chickens in confinement, and have no experience with or knowledge of managing pasture or outdoor runs.
   Foodonics, a company that recently converted two sites with 55,000 laying hens to organic production, writes that “the subjection of a chicken to potentially deadly bacteria and diseases would be endless by allowing them to roam freely in a pasture.” [my note: Does no one at Foodonics know how to write grammatically? This sentence is completely illiterate!] 
   These industrial-scale producers admit to having entered the organic market for profitability
reasons, and complain that allowing chickens to go outside “would vastly outweigh organic profitability.”

   These producers sometimes acknowledge that the only difference between their conventional and organic laying hens is their diet—no differences exist in the birds’ ability to go outside and exhibit their natural behavior outdoors. For example, Petaluma Farms in California, which markets Judy’s Family Farm organic eggs and supplies other brands such as Organic Valley, writes on its website that “the only real difference in how the flocks are raised is what they eat.”

   The thought of letting chickens roam outside is incomprehensible to industrial-scale producers because it would be nearly impossible to manage so-called factory farms of their current scale if chickens were allowed outside. Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch’s new Green Meadow Organics facility, which houses 340,000 organic laying hens, would require, at a minimum, 22 acres if every animal were granted three square feet of outdoor space (note that some voluntary standards, such as Organic Valley’s, require five square feet). To protect the pasture and the animals, 340,000 hens would need to be rotated on pasture—likely requiring more than 22 acres. Herbruck’s has repeatedly complained to the National Organic Standards Board that granting 22 acres of outdoor space would be impossible—unwilling, apparently, to recognize that plenty of true organic farmers with much fewer birds grant much more than 22 acres of outdoor space to their chickens. In “real” organic farming, 22 acres of pasture is, of course, no big deal at all.

   These industrial-scale producers rely extensively on their organic certifiers—if the certifier approves their operation as meeting the organic standards, they are satisfied and benefit from the price premium that the organic label commands. Especially with livestock producers there are persistent rumors of “shopping for a certifier,” where operators will search for an accredited certifier that will bless their operation after inquiries with other reputable certifiers have resulted in guidance that their production model, without modification, would not meet the federal standards.

   Certifiers play an important role in the organic community and industry. While organic rules are determined and enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture, it is the role of USDA-accredited certifying agencies to inspect individual farms and processing facilities to ensure they are in compliance with the federal standards. The certifying agency’s interpretation of the organic standards is therefore very important. Unfortunately, some certifying agents have given a green light to huge, industrial-scale henhouses with small, bare concrete porches, and some have even granted permanent exemptions from outdoor access.
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