Quote:
Originally Posted by lil fu fu girl 
I have seen how inhumanely factory-laying-hens are caged and treated and consequently, I only buy organic cage-free or free-range chicken eggs. It costs only a little more, but it gives me peace of mind when it comes to how they are treated , feed, and how nutritious the eggs are.
edited for: Thank goodness that you are feeling better, as it can be very dangerous.
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I second this. Chickens have the worst quality of life of all farm animals. Unfortunately, "cage-free" or "free-range" chicken doesn't necessarily mean that the chickens are treated well. Here is what I've read about Clover, a big organic brand:
Clover does not use anti-biotics. This means that the chickens are extremely vulnerable to disease, and because they still live in extremely close quarters, one sick chicken could easily wipe out the whole flock.
Clover therefore can't afford to let the chickens go outside, where they could pick up a bug. But the chickens need to be "free range". To solve this problem, Clover keeps the chickens inside a close facility for X number of weeks. At that point, they open a small door to the outside. However, since the chickens have been raised in totally closed facilities, they no longer want to go outside. Hence, these "free range" chickens actually spend their lifetimes indoors.
There are also big problems with inbreeding chickens to produce eggs that are totally uniform in color and size. In one line, roosters were actually raping and killing hens - their hardwired courtship behavior had accidentally been bred out of them.
Anyway, if you are able to, I really encourage everyone to buy eggs as locally as possible, either from a farmers market, or from a store that will stock local eggs. The ones I buy are all different colors, even green!
I've also heard that eggs actually stay fresh longer if they are not cleaned. I'm still looking for a place that will sell dirty-looking eggs.