It all started with a simple egg—quite honestly unlike any other I had ever experienced. Delivered inside its light brown shell was a deep orange yolk, creamy, full of vitality and flavor. Who knew an egg could be this good?
The egg that changed my understanding of what eggs can be arrived as a one-time surprise in the delivery of fresh produce from the local farm that supplies my neighborhood CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group. The memory of the perfect egg lingered and my desire grew. Ordinary organic eggs shipped from who-knows-where no longer satisfied; I would have to take action. Surely Georgia, the number one producer of broiler chickens and fourth-largest producer of table eggs would yield a source of artisan poultry and egg products, right?

THE WELL-CRAFTED EGG
Unsurprisingly, the language we see on egg containers does little to indicate the process used to husband the layer chickens. While “organic” is now a process defined by law with specific regulations, no similar standards define what is meant by “free-range,” “natural,” or “cage-free.”

The egg that compelled me to search for more was laid by a pasture-raised hen. Pasturing simulates ideal conditions that allow the chicken to behave like a chicken. Birds live on the ground in a pasture. They have access to shelter for nesting and to evade harsh weather. On the pasture, they remain free to scratch and forage for protein-filled bugs and worms. The sun provides all the natural vitamin D they need. The grass they eat supplies beta-carotene that gives yolks their bright orange color. All this foraging is supplemented with a grain mixture that completes the birds’ nourishment.

Bill Keener, who farms just north of the state line near Chattanooga, finds pasturing “takes more effort, but it’s worth it.” The eggs raised this way are packed with more vitamins, more omega-3 fatty acids, and have a lower cholesterol level. Balancing the hens’ diets requires education, planning, observation, and adjustment. Keener describes what he does as “crafting the egg, producing with a lot of care.”

The certified organic eggs available in my market are packaged by a large distributor who “provides its cage-free hens with the freedom to roam, so that they may enjoy fresh air in their living quarters and have access to the outdoors.” But having access to the outdoors doesn’t mean that a hen will take advantage of it. Disconcertingly, houses filled with tens of thousands of birds can be called “free-range” if they have a single door leading to a dirt lot adjoining the house. Most birds never leave the building.

Pasture raising doesn’t lend itself to high volume. “We pasture our birds outdoors and provide them with access to shelter, as opposed to keeping the birds in a house and providing them with access to the outdoors,” says Donald Caraway of Higher Path Farms in Blairsville. “Otherwise, there’s nothing to motivate them to go outside.”

Given the stretching of marketing terms such as free-range to cover situations outside the consumer’s assumed understanding, there is no substitute for meeting the farmer and talking about how they raise their eggs. There aren’t a lot of farmers in Georgia using sustainable small-scale egg production methods. A handful sell direct to consumers from the farm, through co-ops, or at local farmers’ markets. None are certified organic, though many follow organic procedures.

THE VIEW FROM THE FARM
The dearth of organic feed in the Southeast is a factor that heavily impacts organic egg production. This year, most farmers using organic feed imported it from Pennsylvania or Virginia. The feed itself is expensive and shipping charges add significantly to the bill.

One farm, Riverview Farms, stands poised to fill Georgia’s organic feed vacuum. Owners Wes and Charlotte Swancy have 45 acres of feed corn in production. Milling will happen on the farm, circumventing past difficulties that farmers have experienced trying to find local mills to process organic feed.

Georgia mills have consistently turned away free-range, organic, or sustainable farmers, citing the fear of putting contracts with the big poultry companies at risk, reportedly because the alternatives are viewed as a threat. Conventional growers have their feed mills and large-scale processing plants; there are no equivalent facilities in the state for farmers outside the corporate model.

The number of eggs produced in the state is astounding. As you read this, there are twenty-one million hens laying eggs in Georgia, producing nine percent of the eggs in this country. A little over half of these hens produce hatching eggs (future chickens) and the remainder lay table eggs for human consumption. Georgia’s laying hens produce some three billion table eggs a year. Laid end-to-end, they would circle the Earth 5.7 times.

Virtually all of these hens are managed with cost efficiency as the primary motivation; birds are maintained within cages inside of large-scale houses. Georgia has zero farms certified as organic egg or poultry producers, according to Vernon Mullins, Organic Program Manager at the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

While the lack of an alternative infrastructure impedes the growth of the organic egg industry in Georgia, and to a far greater extent the organic poultry industry, farmers can pursue sustainable growing methods on a small scale without the organic label. In pasture raising, quality begins to suffer with higher volume operations; this and the labor-intensive demands of direct marketing make small operations the only economically feasible alternative.

Outside the organic umbrella, and provided they comply with state licensing requirements, farmers have complete control over the methods used to raise their eggs and how they communicate their standards to their customers.

CHICKENS CAN’T FLY, BUT GOOD EGGS DO
Georgia’s farmers who are selling pasture-raised eggs can’t produce enough of them. “We’re experiencing more and more demand for the kind of fresh eggs we have,” says Nicolas Donck, of Crystal Organic Farm.

Andy Byrd, of Whippoorwill Hollow Organic Farm, who also uses direct retail to sell his eggs, notes that consumers like what they’re getting. It may cost a little more but, as Bill Keener points out, if eggs held the same value relative to other goods of the 1930s, we would be paying twelve dollars a dozen today.

In south Georgia, Shirley Daughtry, who owns Heritage Organic Farm, says, “We have more market than we have eggs.” As a test, they stocked their eggs at local Piggly Wiggly and Publix grocery stores with signage describing them as “natural free-range.” Both stores found that consumers bought the “delicious eggs from happy hens” at a brisk pace. Ultimately, the farm was unable to supply enough eggs to meet the grocers’ demand.

Their eggs are heralded for their taste, Daughtry says, but consumers respond to the better quality of life they provide for their hens, too.
Nationwide, organic egg sales are increasing at a steep pace. According to Horizon Organics, a large national dairy and egg company, sales of organic eggs in natural foods stores such as Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and independents, are up thirty percent compared to last year. Organic isn’t limited to the granola set anymore; conventional groceries report that organic egg sales are up nineteen percent for the same period.

Certainly Georgia has had tremendous success in supporting chicken and egg farmers. At this point, however, the fast-growing nationwide market segment motivated by higher quality and healthier food isn’t on the state’s radar screen. As other states up their organic and pastured production to serve this market, Georgia’s grocers import eggs to satisfy the at-home demand. Unless consumers seek out local farmers, their egg-buying dollar flows out of the state rather than supporting Georgia’s economy.

This had been the case with me: I was buying a factory-farmed yet organic egg, born on an anonymous farm, packed at Plant #1475. For as little as an extra dollar a dozen, I switched to a local small-scale farmer and dramatically improved the quality of the eggs that I eat and feed my family. I also support a local farm (instead of a corporation based in another state), and reduce my reliance on long-haul shipping, with its attendant fossil fuel demands. In addition to supporting cleaner air, my dollar also promotes cleaner watersheds by not contributing to the toxic concentration of animal wastes that accumulate in large-scale poultry houses. One dollar. So much!

To find farmers, markets, and other sources of local, sustainably-grown food near you, visit www.localharvest.org.

“The Good Egg” is published in partnership with Georgia Organics, a member-based non-profit organization. Georgia Organics envisions a future when everyone in our state has access to fresh, healthy, and secure foods grown by local farmers. Most of our food is now imported from other states and countries, traveling thousands of miles, or is grown here in Georgia with the use of chemicals that threaten our health and environment. Together with consumers and growers, Georgia Organics is building a locally-based food system that benefits the health of families, the protection of our natural resources, and the livelihood of sustainable family farms. To join and for more information, visit www.georgiaorganics.org or call 770-993-5534.

Health Benefits of Pasture-Raised Eggs
• Pasture-raised eggs have 10% less fat, 34% less cholesterol, 40% more vitamin A, and 400% more omega-3 fatty acids. (USDA Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education Program)
• An egg from a pastured hen has thirty percent more vitamin E than the kind you buy in the supermarket. (Animal Feed Science and Technology, 1998)
• Pasture-raised eggs produce positive HDL or good cholesterol and lower “bad” triglycerides. (Nutrition, 1993)
• The human body cannot produce omega-3 fatty acids on its own; they must be obtained through diet. The following are some health benefits of increased omega-3 intake. (From the website www.eatwild.com and Jo Robinson’s book Why Grassfed is Best!)
• People with ample amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in their diet are less likely to have high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat. They are also less likely to have a heart attack.
• In animal studies, omega-3s have slowed the growth of a wide array of cancers and kept them from spreading.
• Omega-3 fatty acids reduce bronchial hypersensitivity in
asthma patients.

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