Vegetarian Eggs

During my workshops, I receive a lot of questions concerning vegetarian eggs and the reason they are called "vegetarian" when they are produced by chickens. I thought this would be a great topic explaining why, so that you can make your own decision as to eat veggie chickens or not!

First, I want you to imagine a farm with a large cage, filled with 20 chickens. Now, to the side of this cage, there is a smaller cage with 10 chickens. Can you visualize this? Good!  Ok so, the 20 chickens in the larger cage are typically fed scraps from the farm - which may include other chicken parts, pigs and cows. In addition to their diet, they could also be injected with hormones and antibiotics.

On the other hand, the 10 chicks in the smaller cage are fed a strictly vegetarian diet. Their feed has no hormones, antibiotics or other animal by-products. However, they do eat foods rich in omega-3, which means you get an added dose of essential fatty acids by eating them! Sometimes, if a farmer is raising chicks, he/she may opt out of raising the other 20 and allow for these 10 to roam free (minus the cage) on the farm.

Call me a not-so optimist when it comes to grocery stores and "organic" labels, but I always tell people that the best way to truly tell that your food is what it claims to be, is to grow/produce it yourself! If you are not able to, find a local farmer and build a solid relationship with them. I have met several people who own a farm for their personal use and/or they sell to consumers. Also, the farmer's market is a safe gamble.
*I do want to add, I am not a vegetarian or vegan. The diet that I identify with is the "flexitarian" diet (Google it!). I typically purchase regular Grade A eggs*