In the story below, you can see just how bad conditions can be and still have the product labelled ‘organic’. These corporate farms cut all sorts of costs by housing birds in this unhealthy fashion, making it hard to compete for family farms.
“Katherine Paul of the Organic Consumers Association said the Herbruck’s operation betrays consumer expectations.
“This is not at all what consumers expect of an organic farm,” she said, when told about Herbruck’s. “It’s damaging to the image of the entire industry. People will wonder, ‘Why the hell am I paying more for this?’ “
In addition, Paul said, allowing the large egg operations to confine their hens to the barn creates an unfair advantage when hundreds of smaller family organic operations let the hens out and sustain higher costs.
The USDA allows Herbruck’s and other large operations to sell their eggs as organic because officials have interpreted the word “outdoors” in such a way that farms that confine their hens to barns but add “porches” are deemed eligible for the valuable “USDA Organic” label. The porches are typically walled-in areas with a roof, hard floors and screening on one side.”
Full Story Can Be Found HERE
What do you think? Still want to shell out big bucks for grocery store ORGANIC?
