- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- recipes today articles
- recipes today q&a
- community & groups
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
From Our Sponsors
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Organic Chicks and Eggs
Heralding the Arrival of Spring Organically
By Jacqueline M. Duda
While your kids are busy searching for eggs and hidden chocolate treasures this Easter, you won't have to look far to find organic eggs and poultry. These natural beauties are popping up all over grocery store shelves nationwide, and several small farmers and national growers are eager to provide a basic poultry primer to lead you toward some extraordinary organic springtime cuisine.
Remember, all eggs are not created equal. Perhaps nature's most wholesome food, an incredibly edible meal boasting rich omega-3 fatty acids and protein, these little hard-shelled wonders come in many varieties, cage-free, free-range and organic. So what's the difference?
Plenty, says Rick Hood, owner of Summer Creek Farm, a small family-run grain, vegetable and poultry farm in Thurmont, Md. According to Hood, buying organic assures you a third party monitored the farm and its methods to certify a recognized set of standards were followed. "If you purchase free-range or cage-free, buy from a farm you know," Hood says. "Being tied closely to your farmer or food supplier keeps you informed and not so far removed from your food supply chain as a traditional grocery store shopper may be."
Sarah Bratnober, communications director for Organic Valley Farms in La Farge, Wis., agrees free-range and organic are not interchangeable terms. "Free-range chicken producers are not required to follow the regulations associated with production methods," she says. They are free to use antibiotics, hormones and non-organic feeds, while certified organic egg producers cannot.
"Cage-free and free-range are descriptors of what happens on the farm," says Holly Givens, communications director for the Organic Trade Association. "The product's packaging should explain how the chickens were raised." Anything "organic" must be regulated.