Let's talk eggs..

TravellingAbuela

An addition to my previous post (number 9) in this thread. This week, whilst at the caravan for a few days with the DGD's, we called for our usual "egg fix" at the farm. This week he was also selling pullett eggs at £1.20 a dozen. The girls loved the "baby hen's" eggs poached for breakfast and I have to say they were as golden and tasty as the bigger eggs. So if you see proper free range pullett eggs try them!

Haffiana

Well, I always buy the Duchy Originals organic eggs, and I am not particularly impressed by them. Reading this thread makes me wonder just how bad all the other eggs are, if they win the taste test!

Apart from the eggs I get from a friend with a smallholding in Wales (now those are GOOD eggs!), the best shop bought eggs I ever tasted were the Martin Pitt eggs. I used to detour specially to Lidgates in Notting Hill to buy them. They seem to have disappeared now, unfortunately.

Edwardia

I looked it up and Martin Pitt Freedom Eggs was bought by Farmhouse Freedom Eggs in 1999 when he retired.

yazzine

Do organic eggs get the red spots / streaks in them also? my boys refuse eggs if they have these in them. So on a very tight budget I would consider organic eggs if only to have them eat eggs - they love them but the amount that gets put aside for me to eat is too much.

Edwardia

I haven't noticed red spots or streaks in any of the free range/organic eggs I've bought in years actually but I don't think anyone could guarantee their absence.

terra_ferma

I've not bought non-organic eggs for a long time, but I can compare supermarket organic, and riverford organic (what I call 'proper' organic, as opposed to just doing the minimum, ticking boxes to get the label).
They are often of a lovely deep yellow colour, and the taste is fantastic, nothing like supermarket organic eggs.
They cost £2.09 for 6 eggs.

Personally I stopped buying organic from supermarket when it started to become more and more like the ordinary stuff, for example apples look too perfect, possibly waxed.
Fruit and veg are grown for appearance, convenience (storage by supermarkets, not our convenience) etc.
Years ago I remember reading that the organic standards were being watered down in EU (the soil association had -and still has- higher standards), so I'm not surprised of the results.

I think the question is what is 'organic'? To me supermarket organic is just an empty label. I'm all for 'proper' organic, but that's not what people are getting in supermarkets. Just a marketing label, premium price, for slightly better animal welfare.

These links give an idea of what can 'pass' as organic
http://www.organic-market.info/web/News_in_brief/Products/treaty/176/192/0/12457.html
http://www.soilassociation.org/whatisorganic/organicstandards/oursymbolandstandards

Here's some interesting info on food labelling:
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/your_food/know_your_labels/default.aspx
http://www.ciwf.org.uk/what_we_do/labelling/default.aspx

Edwardia

Thanks terra_firma, interesting reading.

I must admit, that although a former vegetarian (I married a meat eater), my raison d'etre for eating organic food is the avoidance of chemicals and genetically modified food.

I agree with CWF on food labelling, as it's permissible to have 0.9% GM ingredients in non organic food without labelling.

Animals and poultry fed on GM crops/feed don't have to be labelled for the non organic food chain. Feeding them with GM crops/feed isn't allowed for organic.

If you haven't been eating organic since 2003 then you have been eating animals, poultry fed on GM stuff and their products.

Most supermarkets allow farmers to feed GM feed/crops. From my research, Waitrose is the only one which doesn't across ALL ranges. Sainsbury's allows GM feed/crops in some non organic ranges. Morrisons and ASDA allow it in all non organic ranges. Lidl allows in all non organic ranges except Bally Manor.

Currently it looks like no UK supermarket allows actual GM crops in anything.

The USDA thing is worrying because of labelling standards, US producers will put pressure on the EU to relax standards now.

anniemf2508

i bought Tesco Free range organic eggs this week and really not impressed, will go back to duchy ones next week.
We used to get our eggs from a local farm, a tray of free range (30 eggs) for £3.50 but we moved house awhile back and haven't found anywhere close to our house that sells their eggs.

NewKittenHelp

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Let's not forget that some people may not be able to afford free range organic eggs. At just £1.25 for 15 or 8.33p each, cage eggs are an inexpensive source of protein, minerals and vitamins. Never look down on anyone, unless you're helping them up.

Alleged inability to pay does not remove one's responsibility for cruelty.

Edwardia

I'd have to say that kids dying of treatable diarrhoea in Africa is more important to me than whether chickens which will end up as food anyway, have their beaks cut. I admit that I went organic because of my concerns about pesticides and GM.

Having said that, as I am buying organic,the animals and poultry which I eat have enjoyed higher welfare standards during their short lives so I'm not directly contributing to mutilated chickens etc.

Because there's only OH and moi and because we live in a town that seemingly doesn't have much organic food, we're spending less on food than we used to. Finding organic food is a big problem for us.

Very often on MSE I get slated for buying food in Waitrose or Sainsbury's but if I had to rely on Lidl or ASDA for organic food, we'd both have died of starvation.

Bear with me.. I am getting to the point It does seem to me that people have different priorities, which is fine.

I feel offended though when I read snidey comments about me buying organic by people who choose to feed themselves and their families on yellow-stickered processed food so they can go on holiday. My choice is as valid as their choice, especially since I haven't been on holiday since 1997.

So yes, some people genuinely are struggling, some people think they are struggling but if they can afford Internet, cars, holidays etc (even on benefits) maybe they aren't.

It comes down to choice in the end though and I don't think it's any more fair to guilt people for eating only what they can afford than it is for people to sneer at me for going organic.