Fu&*ing Organic Eggs!

[OtterDisgrace]

I've been purchasing organic eggs for years. Recently discovered that all egg farms, including all UK organic egg farms slaughter 40-70,000 male chicks alive each year. Some are gassed. They're simply surplus to requirements, such is mass production.
I would check if you buy from selective farms, too. Unfortunately I saw an image of little yellow male chicks being shunted along a conveyor belt into a grinder. Thankfully they didn't show you their fall.

I suppose I simply trusted the word organic. Personally I can't deal with that so I've quit egg products, although I am still a carnivore. It's worth being aware, just in case it matters to you.
My DP doesn't like it but still purchases free range. We can't expect other people to share our interests but I wish I had known much earlier on.

So organic chickens might have a fairly decent life and diet compared to free range, but the egg industry is taking the piss with its marketing.

What on earth did you think happened???

They are killed using carbon dioxide I believe. So suffocated by lack of oxygen. It is apparently very very quick - I do not think this is particularly for welfare reasons but simply for efficiency. They have 100s of thousands to do.

"Organic" has absolutely nothing to do with animal welfare. I think you may be on your own with that confusion sorry OP.

the hens that lay the eggs are killed at about 18 months. Why not rescue some ex caged hens ( there are plenty of schemes if you Google) and give them a good life. They will give you lots of eggs, even organic if you feed them organic food. You don’t need a massive space. 3 hens will happily live in a small pen.

Are you confusing organic with free range (which also doesn't currently exist in the UK thanks to bird flu)?

If you're still eating meat and fish it's neither here nor there if you eat eggs really. All farming is awful. In the UK a billion chickens are slaughtered each year. That's only the meat chickens. A BILLION of the poor fuckers. It's really quite disgusting.

Can you recommend what I can use as a good/similar substitute? For coffee & cereal? That doesn’t involves this?

Fucking hell.

That is all. Clearly too much internet for me today.

They are a perfect food for cats as they are as close to their 'natural' diet as possible. They cannot only eat chicks though because a/ there is sometiimes too much vit A because of their yolk sacs and b/ day old chicks can lack taurene.

You can also get frozen mice but my cats prefer chicks. In fact only one will eat mice. Sometimes they have baby quail.

What are you talking about?
Nobody is blaming you for your lack of education / common sense for linking organic and male chick treatment together?

Organic has plenty to do with animal welfare. Meat, eggs and diary produce sold as organic will have been subject to significantly better welfare standards than free-range, red tractor assured or similar. Things like more space, better access to fresh air and water. It's not at all about just the diet the animals are fed, although that's part of it. This is a common misconception but very easily corrected with basic Google...

www.soilassociation.org/take-action/organic-living/why-organic/better-for-animals/

Would you like to buy a bridge, @OtterDisgrace ?

I use oatly oat milk, found it to be the best substitute.
I also eat either violife or cathedral city vegan cheese.

Which is not to say of course that surplus to requirements male animals won't be slaughtered at organic farms as well as free range ones, sadly. But certainly buying organic is a common way to try and guarantee better standards so it's not THAT surprising that OP imagined that maybe the male chicks were humanely raised for meat or similar

Thank you, I will give the oat milk & vegan cheese a try. I eat too much cheese. Even if I don’t like the oat
milk, I’ll put up with it.

Bless you, good luck. I don't miss it at all.

Do you drink milk? What do you think happens to the boy cows? Nothing to do with organic

People just wrote you off as a bit thick at first op, so was explaining it to you nicely. You’ve just proved yourself as thick, ignorant and nasty. So good luck.

Well that went sideways. Not sure what your point is any more.

I think some of the replies are rather harsh to the OP. No, as has been repeatedly stated, organic does not necessarily equate with high animal welfare standards but I do not think she is alone in interpreting it as meaning "natural" and therefore cruelty free. (Or at least low cruelty). I think a lot of people believe this and the industry doesn't exactly go out of it's way to disabuse people of this notion.
They also don't go out of their way to explain what constitutes free range. I think many, if not most people assume this means that the hens are outside wandering freely around lush grassy pasture, whereas the reality is that they only have to have access to the outdoors and you can have up to 9 birds in one square metre of space. Rescue chickens, even those from farms which meet the free range regulations, tend not to look like the magnificent healthy specimens pictured on the egg boxes.
Obviously there is no completely cruelty free way of producing food, especiallyin bulk.As a PP said, even arable farming impacts on wildlife. But there are less bad ways of doing things and I think the food industry should be more explicit about exactly what all these terms mean so that people know what they are buying.
OP, I know Cumbria is not all rural, but unless you are right in the middle of Carlisle I would think there are probably people within a reasonable distance of you with backyard chickens (many of which will be rescues) and lots will sell or even give away their surplus eggs. It's likely that those birds are living in conditions closer to what you think they should be, so maybe look out for that kind of egg?

So you'll happily eat all other animals but are mad at male chicks being killed?

I don't get it. Unless you're a strict vegan?

The chicks will be used for something, they won't be wasted.

Every second across the world 95,000 chickens are slaughtered for food consumption. Add in those that do not get that far, like the male chicks and farming mortality rates, then we are probably up to 200,000 chickens. Every second. It is the 95,000 that go full yield that we need to be worried about. The discharge of chicken waste into our waters is killing nature and turning our waterways sterile.

Regardless of where people shop, they mostly have a mobile device so can educate themselves on food production. But Instagram, Minecraft and Marriage At First Sight are mostly more important. We all have choices, everyday.

If you mean Iceland the retailer, you could do some research and then you might regard them differently to the average UK retailer. Then you might do some research into UK animal welfare and realise we are streets ahead of most countries in the world.

You come across as naive, condescending and righteous in your posts OP. This is where MN has its advantages in being an anonymous forum.

That is 3,800,000 chickens in the time it takes to read my post above ^

love how many people wish to abuse me because i trusted organic eggs.
i am so sorry, i shall offer myself to a whipping!

Organic means no pesticides or chemicals used. Not that nothing gets killed.

You can get organic chicken breasts. Do you think they're still alive?

Everyone saying organic has nothing to do with welfare is wrong. In this country to be registered with the soil association you have to have a yearly inspection and meet far higher welfare standards. I buy organic eggs for this reason. Obviously doesn't solve the issue op raises about male chicks- that's the current reality of farming, but wrong to say being organic just relates to pesticide use.