Trader Joe's Eggs NOT Humane

I decided to look online for some information regarding the "Organic Free Range Eggs" that Trader Joe's, my favorite store, sells.

Here is what their web site says.

6. A Note About Eggs

At Trader Joe's we listen to what our customers tell us about the choices we give them. Thanks to their valued feedback, in 2005 we made an important change in our egg selection. As of this time, all Trader Joe's brand eggs come only from cage-free hens. Now customers looking for cage-free eggs need to look no further than the Trader Joe's label. Any conventional eggs sold in our stores are in a brand name carton, not under the Trader Joe's label.

But are they really free-range eggs? I looked online and all I could find was this article on The Vegetarian Site. Here's what they say about Trader Joe's eggs (definitely does not sound humane to me.)

Trader Joe's, a national specialty grocer, offers a large range of vegan and soy products. They also offer "Cage Free" eggs. None of the employees at my local store could offer any information concerning the welfare of the hens. However, I did get a response from corporate headquarters: "The hens live in barns with some access to the outdoors. They are debeaked because that is necessary to keep them from injuring each other." If, in fact, Trader Joe's deems debeaking as necessary, then this immediately reveals the high density of birds. Under a true free range setting, hens can establish a "pecking order" and none is in danger so long as she can move easily to a different area. Under a high-stress, high-density environment, a natural pecking order cannot be established and the sharp beaks of hens can result in injury (and death) to large numbers of birds.

The Conflicted Consumer

I came across this article a couple of days ago. It's about the "conflicted consumer."

There are those consumers who don't care about company ethics or where products come from. They just want stuff. Then there are those who will buy "green" no matter what. Then there are those in the middle who are actually concerned about incorporating ethics into their consumer choices, although they may not always be able to do so. This is the "conflicted consumer" and this is the group that could have impacts on businesses who choose to ignore ethics in their company practices. According to the author,

...some good data from the marketing agency BBMG gave us some more guidance on what this conflict is really about. In their survey of U.S. consumers, they discovered something really interesting about what attributes of products are "very important" to people when they shop. Ranking the attributes, quality and price were #1 and #2. No surprise there. But convenience and other sure-thing attributes had dropped from 3, 4, and 5, to be replaced by three aspects:

- Where was the product made?
- How energy efficient is it?
- What are the health benefits?

These three attributes explain a great deal about the rapid rise of some products, such as organic food.

While the article focuses on "green issues," animal rights should definitely benefit from these trends. We just need to keep the issue in the consumer's mind.