How To: Buy Truly Humane Eggs (And More Ethical Food)

We all know by now to avoid the commercially-grown eggs, as their production is inhumane not only to the chickens, but also the environment. Aside from getting your own coop, how can you be sure you're supporting humane egg laying? Here's a tool that will help you find not just ethical eggs, but also show which brands your grocery store carries that are the most humane.

According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), try to only buy eggs, meat, and dairy that sport these labels:

• Certified Humane
• American Humane Certified
• Animal Welfare Approved

The fun doesn't stop there; the WSPA site is full of tools for humane food buying. For instance, to find out what are the most humane brands your local grocer carries, check out this great tool from the WSPA. You can choose your grocer (two of my closest stores were on the list), and it will give you a list of brand-names those chains carry that are humane.

There's also a restaurant tool, as well as tips for reducing the meat in your diet.

For more, check out Meatless Monday: Cracking the Egg Label Code over at Huffington Post, and Planet Green's How to Buy Humane Eggs.

Overall, this is a great wealth of resources to eat more ethically. Tell us what you think!

(Image: Stock Xchg member straymuse, royalty free and used under guidelines.)

Comments (3)

Consumers Union (the organization behind Consumer Reports magazine) has a very useful site called eco-labels that compares different product labels of a more or less "green" bent, and explains how the use of each label is monitored, what the statements on the label truly mean, and so on. It's quite handy.

Spiffy - Thanks for the link RubyJane :)

Additionally, avoid the grocery store altogether. If you live in a metropolitan area, or even not these days, more than likely you've got a farmers market or a creamery somewhere in town. Even in the dead of winter, here in Seattle, we've still got 2 to 3 farmers markets going on (with dozens in the warmer months). I buy all my eggs from a local producer and know from talking to them these eggs are 1 to 3 days old. We've also got a creamery in Pike's Place Market that has dozens of varieties of eggs (quail, duck, goose, chicken, etc. etc) and they are all local and treated well.

I can't even remember the last time I actually had to fuss over the packaging and labels of eggs at a grocery store. It's farmers market for me.