The massive Salmonella-caused egg recall by Wright County Egg, of Galt, Iowa, has now been upped to 380 million eggs, the New York Times reports. (We know you probably don’t have those eggs in your fridge, but in case someone you love might, here’s a handy guide to the affected brands and states.)
Jack DeCoster, the owner of Wright County Egg, is well-known to federal regulators, the Times reports: “In 1997, one of his companies agreed to pay a $2 million fine by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for violations in the workplace and worker housing. Officials said workers were forced to handle manure and dead chickens with their bare hands and to live in trailers infested with rats. The labor secretary … called Mr. DeCoster’s operation ‘an agricultural sweatshop.’”
I asked Alexis what she thought of the recall. Here’s what she wrote:
I read the news and thought immediately of the crowded conditions and awful cages used to house those chickens. Millions of chickens living locked up, forced to lay eggs. Like a sex shop or a sweat shop. Just abuse and horror, and if those chickens even think, probably wishing they could die …
Then I thought about the people who own those companies and work in those factories. Is it really possible to treat animals that way without a conscience? Is it really possible to not feel just a little uncomfortable about what is happening inside their poultry business? I think the answer is yes. Otherwise why would they keep the public from viewing them?
And then I thought what a shocking society we have evolved into that we tolerate this kind of factory farming. That we (the collective we) have bought into the idea that we need this “cheap” food, that this is the only way it can be done to feed large segments of our society. That it is efficient or cost-effective. Or that the factory system is too large to dismantle. When did so many of us become so callous and indifferent to animals, food, and ourselves?
Because we are part of the system of factory farming every time we buy this food, or don’t speak out against the insanity of it, or just quietly keep supporting shops that sell this type of food.
I thought of the eggs last. They are little drops of poison and always were, even before they were recalled.
I’ll leave you with a bit more food for thought. Check out the image below first:
Google Earth image of the recalled egg producer's headquarters and 3 of the 4 nearby chicken-shed complexes
Wright County Egg Company has five facilities and produces 2.3 million dozen eggs a week, reported USA Today.
That’s almost 4 million eggs per day, and at an egg per day per hen, the same number of miserable chickens — 800,000 packed into each facility. I used Google Earth to look up the address of Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa, and grabbed this screen shot above, which shows three of the four visible complexes of chicken sheds and their nearby “manure lagoon.” Each shed in the complex measures about 200 meters long. You can imagine the horrors inside — the graphic at top, which uses images from FarmSanctuary.org, is probably not that far off.
In contrast, the 1,200 free-ranging feathered ladies of Soul Food Farm lay around 530 eggs every day, says Alexis, explaining that “chickens in a natural environment don’t always lay every day…. they roam and hide eggs. And some of our hens are ready to be retired and are done laying.” These hens have a little more than 7 acres to stretch their legs.
All of a sudden, $8 for eggs really doesn’t seem that bad, does it? And they’re only $6.50 if you join the CSA!
