“I recently picked up a load of these chickens from a [factory farm] refuge and brought them home to join my free-range hens, so they can enjoy the rest of their lives. They were actually the first ones I’d ever seen and I was very shocked by the state they were in. The combs on top of their heads were pale pink, almost white, and flat. They should be red and sticking up. Their feet were in really bad shape, because they didn’t have a proper flat surface to stand on - imagine being forced to stand on wire bars for over a year. Instead of being short from scratching about, their claws were long. Their feathers were really dry and in an awful state and their beaks were clipped. In fact, the hens themselves looked almost comatose for the first day or so that I had them at home. This is not respecting an animal while it’s alive. This is not giving them a good and natural life. There’s absolutely no excuse for treating animals in this way. They may be forced to lay more eggs, to make more profit, but the final product is also affected and eggs are simply not as good as free-range or organic. A stressed animal, pumped full of antibiotics, gives a second rate product.”
—
Jamie Oliver, Jamie at Home
This certainly makes the extra dollar or two spent on farm fresh eggs from a local farm or organic eggs from the supermarket seem well worth it.
(This cookbook is excellent, btw.)
