02/23/2026
Let's get back to healthy living and healthy choices. Sharing this from The Funny Farm 207. Well written my friend, well written.
This. This is the reality.
The majority of grocery store eggs come from places exactly like the photo below. These are known as CAFOs (confined animal farming operation) or factory farms. Many are scaled to industrial proportions.
Buildings like these hold THOUSANDS of birds. Each chicken is allotted the space of what roughly equals a single piece of printer paper, which means that they are grossly overcrowded. Places like this have no windows - only industrial fans fit into the side of the structure to vent out excess heat and the overwhelming smell of ammonia and other toxic fumes. Chickens are sight-based creatures and do not have night vision and therefore these buildings are dimly lit in an effort to prevent them from picking on each other. Many setups leave the chicken sitting on a tilted wire floor to let droppings fall through and let their egg roll away to be collected later. This is how they spend their entire existence. They are completely deprived of natural light, solid ground, and fresh air. Being so overcrowded causes feather picking - a stress response. This stress behavior is often seen in other domestic birds like parrots, love birds, parakeets, etc. In many cases, chickens are often bullied by the bird next to them and due to their small cage, they have no way to escape their bully. It is not unusual for birds to perish from being pecked to point of death or the slow and painful path of untreated and infected wounds. Overcrowding like this also can mean the rapid spread of upper respiratory issues. To combat this, many companies will give feed laced with antibiotics. Of course, this is all labeled as "safe for the consumption of humans."
The average life span of a CAFO chicken is usually no longer than 18 months. Why? Because we have selectively bred chickens to be as productive as possible in the early part of their lives - laying an egg almost every single day. After this age, their egg production slows and their shell quality and feed efficiency declines. CAFOs are strictly for profit so that means that these birds are shipped off to the slaughterhouse to make a variety of products. They are replaced by younger ready-to-lay hens (pullets) and the cycle continues.
"Cage Free" is no better. The set up is still the same - just minus the cages. Birds are still grossly overcrowded and living in the same type of conditions as their caged counterparts. Not once do these creatures ever see the type of life depicted on the cover of the egg carton - you know, the picturesque stock photo of the hen all by herself in the green grass with blue sky on a sunny day. Companies will do whatever they feel is necessary to make their packaging more appealing to consumers.
Other fun facts about factory farming include egg shipment. The "farm" has 30 days to collect and ship their eggs from the "farm" to the processing plant. At the plant eggs are washed in detergents (often chlorine based). The processing plant is also given 30 days to ship eggs to their next destination - a distributor. The eggs are then packaged into brand specific cartons before being shipped to stores and again, they are given 30 days to complete this process. By the time these eggs reach a grocery store near you they can be up to 90 days old. Hardly the "farm fresh" that's advertised.
CAFO chicken operations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to industrial farming and all practice horrific animal husbandry. Unfortunately, practices like this are completely legal. Why? I'm not sure. Probably under the technicality of being sheltered and having access to food and water - the absolute lowest a bar could be set to.
So, as enticing as those "cheap" grocery store eggs can be, I beg of you... choose to support local. It doesn't even have to be our farm. It could be your neighbor with a "fresh eggs" sign out by the road. I promise you that local places like ours hardly make any profit from egg sales and I know for a fact that we all care for our birds far better than any factory farm.
