Green Options » cage-free

Confused Over All the New “Eco-Labels?” Here’s Help

Beth Bader — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:11:53 +0000

Antibiotic free, cage free, biodynamic, grass fed, pastured, fertilized, free range, free roaming, free roaming, free running, irradiated, natural, no hormones, no chemicals administered, pasteurized, vegetarian fed, high-Omega 3, whole grain fed. All of these labels have been used just to market eggs.

In fact, eggs are the product with the most “eco labels” of all reviewed by Consumer Reports. How do you navigate the sea of label terms and find out what they really mean?

Consumer Reports offers an Eco-labels Center that has tools like a virtual kitchen that shows users common foods and the labels associated with them, some of which were new to me. Did you know wine can include a “salmon-safe” label, for example?

The site also offers three different ways to search for label definitions; by “label” including label term, logo, label index and label category; by product category including food, household cleaners, personal hygiene, and wood/paper; and by certifiers, the organization or program that validates the label claim.

The Environment is What You Eat: Misleading Ecolabels like Natural, Free Range and Cruelty Free

Janel Sterbentz — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:42:27 +0000

Entering a grocery store for a socially and environmentally minded person can be quite a stressful and trying experience. Should you buy that organic, free-range, cage-free, grass-fed, non-GMO, natural, fair-trade beef? How do you know if those chickens really are free to roam in bucolic pastures? How often are the organic farms audited? How do you know if the apple from New Zealand produced less fossil fuels compared to the local one? When the seemingly more ethical products cost up to twice as much as conventional ones, we end up staring at the shelves in a daze with recycle symbols and cheery looking Peruvian coffee growers circling our heads.

What to Consider When Buying Eggs

Beth Bader — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:11:58 +0000

Beautiful green and brown eggs are dwarfed by the huge goose eggs. Some farms also offer duck eggs for interested buyers.

Want some of the most beautifully colored eggs this Easter, but don’t have time to dye them? No problem, you can get eggs in all colors from soft, warm brown to light sage, blue-green and olive or even pink. The best part? The chickens do all the work.

Different breeds of chickens produce different egg colors. This shell color is a result of pigments that are secreted by the hen and deposited on the eggshell’s outer layers during formation in the chicken’s oviduct. Brown eggs are from the pigment protoporphyrin, a breakdown product of hemoglobin. Blue and green hues are caused by the pigment oocyanin, a by-product of bile formation.

I was a bit skeptical of some of the information I found from the Egg Nutrition Center. The Center reported that the color of the eggs a chicken lays is related to the species of the chicken and the color of the chicken’s earlobes. Chickens have earlobes? (Tips on buying eggs and what the labels mean after the jump).