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May 19, 2012

Free Range? Pastured? Factory Raised?

Farming terms are being used by corporations to market their produce.  For example, 'ayam kampung'.  Ayam Kampung implies a chicken that's roaming around freely.  But the modern day ayam kampung that you purchase is most probably raised in a factory and have never seen the sun or eaten a single blade of grass.  

And how about 'Antibiotic Free'?  That has been cleverly marketed to mean 'organic'. Thus a factory raised broiler which may be selling for RM7.50 to RM8.00 per bird is being sold for RM20.00 just by positioning it as antibiotic-free.  It is super profit from consumer ignorance and clever marketing.

Here's a video talking about the lexicon of sustainability hijacked by companies:

http://grist.org/sustainable-farming/the-story-of-an-egg-...

Here's a video by PEMANDU / ETP with a segment on our farm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&...

We are the ONLY pastured poultry farm in Malaysia and we have been doing so since 2001!

 

Eggs - What's That Wiggly Thingy?

organic eggs, free range eggs, blastoderm, chalazae,

A store is no longer stocking our grassfed, free range eggs because a couple of their customers complaint about that 'wiggly thingy' found in our eggs, and that obvious round disc on the egg yolk.

Well, if we were the store owner, this is what we would say to the customer:

1. We try to give our hens as natural a life as possible.  This includes plenty of space to roam, grass to eat, and surprise, surprise, a 'husband'.  So, as is normal when wives and husbands get together, eggs get fertilised and babies are born.  So that disc on the yolk is a fertilised germinal disc, or blastoderm.  Unfertilised eggs will have just a speck.  Fertilised eggs will have a disc.  And we promise you, eating fertilised eggs will not make you more manly and sprout whiskers, nor will it make you pregnant, nor will it make your unborn baby develop 'chicken brainism', a brain disease of unknown origins.

2. And that wiggly thingy is the chalazae, made of the same material as the white of the egg and intended to hold the yolk in place.  Chalazae is prominent in the freshest of eggs.  It dissolves and disappears as the egg ages.  So, dear customer, the eggs with absolutely no chalazae that you have been eating are clearly not fresh inspite of the words printed in bold on the label, Farm Fresh.  'Chicken Brainism' is a disease  common amongst modern consumers and we have no idea where the disease comes from but we can assure you it does not come from eating fresh eggs from hens that are allowed to lead as natural a life as possible.