> Free range is definitely not what a person would think of free range.
Yup, it's a scam. Deceptive marketing.
What people think of as free range they'll find if they buy "pastured eggs" (in Australia at least).
Yup, it's a scam. Deceptive marketing.
What people think of as free range they'll find if they buy "pastured eggs" (in Australia at least).
Australian regulations seem to be a joke though.
When people buy eggs in Sweden from "free-walking" hens, they expect them to be outdoors in the sun, but instead they are kept indoors with a maximum of 9 hens per square meter and up to 10.000 hens in a barn.
It's not easy to find an English description of this, so here are some Swedish articles:
Wikipedia:
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frig%C3%A5ende_djur
Swedish Egg, an organization from the egg industry:
https://www.svenskaagg.se/?p=19891&m=3959
Djurens Rätt, an animal rights group:
https://www.djurensratt.se/djur-i-livsmedelsindustrin/honor-...
In most of these languages, the term for barn eggs (hens indoors without cages) seems to refer to ground, soil, or scratching. Swedish seems to be an outlier in applying a word like 'free' to this grade.
In any case the pasture will not look flawless all around the year unless you have a lot of water. Chicken eat it, will scratch until reach rock and will make holes to take sunbaths. In summer the soil will have a lot of dry patches and in a harsh winter the hens will prefer to stay inside all day. They are very sociable animals but there will be always a few omega hens looking a little plucked.
Anyone thinking that "zero animal cruelty" is a realistic goal in a flock of chickens, is delusional. They have a different relationship with pain than us.