What An Egg License Gets You

I was recently reported to the “authorities” for “selling “ my eggs without a license. The only problem is I don’t sell eggs, I sell Egg Shares. In other words, I sell interest in my flock to others. Since they are vested in the flock, egg share owners are only getting what is theirs, eggs from their flock. I am not selling, trading or trafficking eggs and therefore am not in need of a egg license.

But, shouldn’t consumers be worried that I’m not inspected by some “official”? Well, I invite egg share holders to visit their flock. I trust they can tell a healthy bird from an obviously unhealthy one and can judge if they are cared for.

As it turns out, the farmer who reported me has an egg license and sells at the same market as I do. I had volunteered on this guy’s farm in the past. I’ll never forget the first time I went to collect eggs from his coop. In the dim light I could make out the bodies of at least 3 dead birds, right by the nest boxes. And these birds hadn’t died any time recently but were well on their way to “melting” into the shit covered floor. Like the live chickens, I had to step over them to get to the nest boxes. The eggs I collected were pretty fragile and when asked about their diet I was told they were on pheasant feed and, no, no oyster shell was being fed.

This farmer sells his eggs as “free-range”, another term hijacked by the factory food industry and their protectors. When I hear the term “free-range’ I imagine healthy birds foraging on green pasture with bugs and seeds as part of their natural buffet. At least, that’s how my free range birds are. When I worked there, this farmer had only a small fenced in dirt yard. If there were ever plants and bugs in there they were long ago decimated by the poor birds who could not forage outside the fence. These birds have no way to correct any deficiencies in their diet, no “free range” of goodies to choose from. Further there was no shade in this yard so during the heat they crammed together in the dim shed, just like in a factory situation.

That is what an egg license gets you. That is what state inspection gets you. It’s important to remember that factory farms are inspected and APPROVED by those who are supposed to protect the food supply. If an inspector had gone out and found this farmer’s chicken coop the way I did, do you think he would be shut down and the deplorable conditions published? Not likely. It was clear from the gross neglect in this case that the farmer was not even concerned about an inspection. Do you think he would have allowed his customers out to see his flock? If they did see it they would buy no more of his eggs.


Questions for your egg supplier, if he or she hasn't already told you :

What do you feed your layers?

If they are “free range” do they actually have access to pasture?

Can customers come to your farm and see your birds? If not, why?

When was the last time you were inspected?


NOTE: Obviously there are egg producers who have paid for permission to sell eggs who do raise their birds well.