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RE: "Certified USDA Organic" eggs are not all they're cracked up to be
You definitely make some very good point for why one should beware of what and from whom they buy their food from.
Perhaps this might clarify though:
"Free Range" and "Organic" are not generally consider to be one in the same.
You can have non-organic free range chicken eggs for example.
Organic has mostly to do with the food they are fed and the absence of hormone injections/exposures to toxins (among other things obviously)
Free Range is only about whether or not they are able to roam... "freely" in a larger area instead of caged all the time.
Hope this helps. Totally not defending this company in any way. I just believe that this is probably why they are able to call them "Organic."
Its just hard for me to believe any animals raised in complete confinement can be labeled organic. Here's a paragraph from article.
"Under USDA requirements, organic livestock are supposed to have access to the “outdoors,” get “direct sunlight” and “fresh air.” The rules prohibit “continuous total confinement of any animal indoors.” Organic livestock are supposed to be able to engage in their “natural behavior,” and for chickens, that means foraging on the ground for food, dust-bathing and even short flights."
How can they be organic if they are not free range? Well, because the government says so, I guess.
Well according to that paragraph I don't see how...
I was always under the impression that they were not considered to be one in the same. perhaps rules have changed.. I donno.
Makes sense tho!
The labels for chickens and eggs have gotten complicated. Free range, to me, means they can wander around outside wherever. Cage free, means they aren't kept in cages their whole life, but they are still kept within fences outside like most homesteaders do with the portable electric fencing. Joel Salatin uses the term pasture raised chickens, because they are raised in cages on a pasture and moved every day.
But I think you're right that at the very least, "organic" chickens and eggs should mean their food is organic and they aren't pumped full of drugs and stuff. And then cage-free or free-range is a different label describing their living conditions. I don't know either, man, I just want to raise some of my own or know where they are coming from.
I guess that's why (if you care) you need to be very careful about reading food labels. Furthermore going the extra mile to do some added research goes along way since labels are all to often intentionally misleading.
Take the word "lite" for example. Means less fat, however, way more sugar and also what is the process for removing the fat... all the consumer hears is better for you.
Same with alternatives to refined sugar. Apparently sweeteners aren't any better or in some case worse.
I read that aspartame is trying (or there was talk about them trying) to rebrand as "Aminosweet." lol
It was wrong of me to say this, "How can they be organic if they are not free-range?"
Free range wasn't the right term for me to use. I do think chickens and eggs can be organic without being free-range. Its actually very hard to free-range chickens, you've got to have fences somewhere.
I'm now thinking my definition of organic chicken and eggs would be that they are raised outside on grass/plants, and are fed organic feed without drugs and stuff.