Where your eggs come from

Wegmans Egg Farm in Rochester, New York claims that "We are proud of our egg farm." That statement is both sickening and astounding, considering that Wegmans, like all factor farm egg producers in this country, uses battery cages for its hens. The conditions in which the hens live (I use the term very loosely) are obscene and horrific.

Adam Durand, the Compassionate Consumers advocate who blew the whistle on Wegmans, is now on his way to serve a six-month jail sentence for trespassing. The sentence came as a request from Wegmans; the county prosecutor asked for community service. The judge called Durand "arrogant" and "self-righteous" during the sentencing, as if extreme animal cruelty could be seen from another point of view.

You can help in two ways. You can write to the District Attorney and the presiding County Court Judge (the addresses are here.) And you can stop eating factory farm eggs. Factory farm eggs, like factory farm meat, are put on your plate by people who are not at all concerned with how much the animals suffer--and they suffer a whole lot, every moment of their lives.

But do not be misled by so-called "free range" chicken eggs you see in the grocery store. Many of them provide battery cages that are only slightly larger than the ones at Wegmans, and the U.S. government allows them to lie and say they have free range chickens. If you do not have a place where you can buy yard eggs, then call or email the farm that produces the "free range" chicken eggs and ask if the hens are caged. If the answer is "yes," then you will have to go to Plan B, which is to buy an egg substitute.