Fowl Play

The egg industry

There are no wild chickens. Before the twentieth century this bird did not exist. Chickens were only ever domesticated for one reason: to exploit them. All chickens used for meat and eggs are the result of centuries of violent domination and decades of invasive genetic manipulation that dooms even those lucky enough to be rescued to a lifetime of unnatural frailty and disease.

Crackdown

Eggs traditionally play an important role in baking, from cakes and cookies to meringues and pastry cream. They create structure and stability within a batter, they help thicken, add moisture to baked goods, and can even act as glue or glaze. Crack an egg open and you’ll see the large, transparent egg white with the round, yellow yolk in the middle. The white is made almost entirely of proteins and water; the yolk, on the other hand, is packed full of nutrients, vitamins, and fats. Look closely and you’ll also see a thin white strand floating somewhere in the mix. This is called the chalazae and it anchors the yolk to the white and to the inside of the shell, keeping the yolk suspended.

Between the yolks, the white, and the whole egg, the functions of an egg can overlap and vary widely from recipe to recipe. Recipes that use just the yolk of an egg typically do so for the yolk’s fat content and emulsifying abilities. The fat gives baked goods extra-rich flavour and a velvety texture. The yolk also has the unique ability to bind liquids and fats together, creating an emulsion that prevents them from separating. This emulsion process helps create a more homogeneous mix of ingredients, aiding in an even distribution of liquid and fats throughout a recipe for smooth batters, satiny custards, and creamy curds. When egg whites are used alone, they perform an entirely different role from the yolks, especially when whipped. Whipping and using egg whites in a recipe does not have to be as intimidating as you may think, and we’ll be talking much more about this in a few days. For now, just know that whipping egg whites means incorporating millions of little air bubbles within the white. This creates a fairly stable foam that we can use to make everything from a soufflé to meringue. To help stabilize egg whites even further, we can add acidic elements, like cream of tartar and lemon juice.

Trace amounts of salmonella can sometimes be found in raw eggs, this is the bacteria responsible for many incidents of food poisoning. Although it’s rare for someone to actually get sick from consuming raw or undercooked eggs, it’s best to be careful, especially when serving egg dishes and desserts to people with compromised immune systems, the elderly, the young, and pregnant women.

The egg comes first

Exploration of chickens

In the UK today, we consume 13.1 billion eggs a year, that’s 36 million a day. This astonishing number is only going to increase as the years go on. This means farmers all around the world must double their yields by the year 2050 to meet the growing needs of the world. Chickens astonishing growth has been propelled and satisfied by a business that creates lives and harvests them at such an unimaginable speed and high volume.

If you have ever consumed an egg, it likely came from a chicken that was raised in a confined shed with artificial lighting and hardly any room to move, this is not usually a problem as the chickens themselves grow at such a rate their legs can’t support their body. Strictly speaking many people who raise chickens for slaughter, aren’t farmers, they are growers. This is due to the fact that the animals themselves belong to the farming company and are raised for one purpose, human consumption. Eggs are a hen by-product, which means the hen isn’t initially used for its meat production. Hens ovulate for the same reason female humans do: to reproduce. In chickens, the ovary is a cluster of developing ova, or yolks. Female human ovaries also contain developing eggs. In women, a mature egg is released from the ovary once a month. If the egg becomes fertilized, it attaches to the wall of the uterus and begins to form an embryo. If the egg is not fertilized, it is eliminated. This happens roughly two weeks before menstruation (the shedding of the uterine lining), a process which exacts a heavy toll on the female body. Although chickens do not menstruate, the cycle of creating and passing much larger eggs relative to their body size and weight is arguably even more physically taxing, especially in modern hens who have been bred to produce such unnaturally high rates of eggs.

Fast and furious

Most hens spend their lives in battery cages, stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. Millions of day-old male chicks are killed every year because they are worthless to the egg industry. The wire mesh of the cages rubs off their feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled. In comparison to hens, male chicks are financially worthless to the egg industry, so every year, millions of them are exterminated in horrific ways. On a daily basis unimaginable numbers get unceremoniously tossed into high-speed grinders, while they are still alive, or they are gassed by carbon dioxide, or suffocated.

A mother hen bonds with her chicks while they’re still inside their shells. Chickens have well-developed language skills that include dozens of types of vocalizations, and mothers start teaching them to their young even before they hatch. Hens cluck softly while sitting on the eggs, and the babies soon start responding. The hens raised for eggs spend their lives in battery cages, stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. The wire mesh of the cages rubs off their feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled. Broken bones are also common among these production birds, who end up suffering significant osteoporosis. Although chickens can live for more than a decade, hens raised for their eggs are exhausted, and their egg production begins to wane when they are about 2 years old. When this happens, they are slaughtered. More than 100 million spent hens are killed in slaughterhouses every year. The chickens raised for meat and eggs end up on the same gruelling trip to the slaughterhouse. Before the terrifying journey, chickens are caught by workers grabbing them by their feet and placed into crates. Once at the slaughterhouse, the birds are dumped from their crates and hung upside down in shackles, further injuring their legs, which are already tender and often broken. Their throats are cut open by machines, and they are immersed in scalding-hot water for feather removal. They are often conscious throughout the entire process. Hens’ bones are so brittle from egg production that the electric current would cause them to shatter, hens often are not even stunned before their throats are cut.

Factory farms simply cannot raise billions of animals per year without using drugs that allow the animals to survive cramped, filthy, and stressful conditions that would otherwise kill them.

Chickens can be crammed into tiny cages

Tricking the consumer into buying free range eggs is incredibly deceitful

The myth of free range

Of all the animal industry cons, the “free range” egg is perhaps the most audacious. It is inconceivable to believe the UK can produce more than 10 billion eggs each year without inconveniencing any chickens. But by slapping on the free range label, and perhaps a nice pastoral scene with a few chickens roaming free, most consumers never realise how the eggs came to be in the box. Few shoppers realise what the term free range means and what routine horrors are allowed under its reassuring banner. The more than 300 million chickens used each year for their eggs endure a nightmare that lasts for two years. Beak trimming is commonplace in the UK. Hens in egg factories have a large portion of their beaks cut off with a burning-hot blade within hours or days of birth, this is done without anaesthetic. This practice is done to stop them pecking at the other hens in their cramped, traumatised flocks.

There is a common misconception that free range eggs involve hens roaming outside, happy and free. Yet the reality is that free range hens are actually kept in vast sheds with potentially thousands of other birds, few of which ever see daylight. Free range sheds can contain up to nine birds per square metre – that’s like 14 adults living in a one-room flat. The birds are crammed so closely together that although normally clean animals, they are forced to urinate and defecate on one another. The stench of ammonia and faeces hangs heavy in the air, and disease runs rampant in the filthy, cramped sheds. Some multi-tier sheds, which are still registered as free range, contain 16,000 hens. So while these poor birds can theoretically go outdoors, they can also be too crammed in and too traumatised to find the few exit holes.. Many birds die, and survivors are often forced to live with their dead and dying cagemates, who are sometimes left to rot.

The light in the sheds is constantly manipulated to maximize egg production. For two weeks at a time, the hens are fed only reduced-calorie feed. This process induces an extra laying cycle. After about two years in these conditions, the hens’ bodies are exhausted, and their egg production drops. These spent hens are shipped to slaughterhouses, where their fragile legs are forced into shackles and their throats are cut. By the time they are sent to slaughter, roughly 30 percent of them are suffering from broken bones resulting from neglect, osteoporosis, and rough treatment. Their emaciated bodies are so damaged that their flesh can only be used for companion-animal food.

Testing for an unhappy yolk

Learning the truth of a yolk

Even if you buy free range eggs, that doesn’t necessarily mean the hen is healthy. By checking the colour of the yolk you can tell if the product you have bought is being truthful with its labelling. To truly be able to know whether the egg is of the right origin, it to look at the yolk. If an egg yolk is pale or more yellow it will be from an unhappy hen. The healthy yolk is much darker and orange in colour.

How to replace egg

Recipes and ideas of alternatives to egg

There are many reasons why one would replace eggs in their diet, from allergies, preference or ethical reasons. Luckily, plenty of foods that can replace eggs in baking, though not all of them act the same way. Some egg alternatives are better for heavy, dense products, while others are great for light and fluffy baked goods. You may wish to try experimenting with the various egg alternatives to get the texture and flavour you desire in your recipes.

Banana and avocado purée

You can replace each egg with 65 grams of purée.

This substitution works best in cakes, muffins, brownies and quick breads.

Soy Lecithin

Soy lecithin is a byproduct of soybean oil and has binding properties similar to that of eggs.

Adding 14 grams of soy lecithin powder to your recipe can replace one egg. Ground flaxseeds or chia seeds To replace one egg, whisk together 7 grams of ground chia or flaxseeds with 45 grams of water until fully absorbed and thickened. Doing so may cause baked goods to become heavy and dense so best in pancakes, waffles, muffins, breads and cookies.

Nut butter

To replace one egg, use 60 grams of smooth nut butter.

This may give a nutty flavour, and it’s best used in brownies,

pancakes and cookies.