What does "free range" mean to you?

Willow · Post by **Willow** » 20 Oct 2007, 13:37

Tania wrote:I prefer to describe them to friends as "Happy Hens"

Tony and I had decided that the labels should read "Laid by Happy Chooks!" because we didnt know whether the wording 'free range' would realy apply... Great minds eh )t'

:mrgreen:

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 20 Oct 2007, 21:39

Hi TassieDev

Do you have the 'Soil Association' logo over there? Here it is the best of the bunch. I have known 'barn eggs' to be from hens in cages in a barn. 'Free range' hens can have very little space as you have pointed out. 'Organic' could be confined hens fed organic feed.

I think it is made complicated to confuse the consumer and as we know the marketing boys are always up to tricks to make more money for the companies.

Post by Mo » 20 Oct 2007, 22:43

Same if you buy a roasting chicken
There's cheap and nasty (sorry, Farm Fresh)
Corn Fed (i.e battery hens again)
Free range
Free range corn fed
Free range with trees (or summat)

Soil association would be good if you could get it. Maybe there's some out there somewhere, but I shop where I'm passing to reduce petrol consumption.

TassieDev · Post by **TassieDev** » 21 Oct 2007, 09:31

Hi Anna
No we don't have that here in Aus.
From what I've seen in the shops, the only type of eggs with accreditation from a third party are the RSPCA accredited barn laid ones. There are many eggs labelled 'free range' but as far as I know we only have the producer's say so on that (and on what it means).
Organic food (including eggs) is quite a different story. There are several accreditation bodies for that, and the requirements are very strict from what I've seen. So if the logo for one of those organisations is on food, you have assurance of what it is.

AnnaB wrote:Hi TassieDev

Do you have the 'Soil Association' logo over there? Here it is the best of the bunch. I have known 'barn eggs' to be from hens in cages in a barn. 'Free range' hens can have very little space as you have pointed out. 'Organic' could be confined hens fed organic feed.

I think it is made complicated to confuse the consumer and as we know the marketing boys are always up to tricks to make more money for the companies.

Post by Mo » 21 Oct 2007, 10:50

As well as the logos from soil association, RSPCA etc. we have laws about food labelling, e.g. those that melons quoted for free range eggs.
Snag is people may not keep to them and the Trading Standards Officers can't be everywhere. Also people don't always know what they are buying e.g. there is a difference between calling something "fruit juice", "fruit drink" and "fruit squash" but who knows what exactly? And how many read the label to see if the cakes are covered in "chocolate" or "chocolate flavoured coating"?

AnnaB · Post by **AnnaB** » 21 Oct 2007, 16:12

The chicken I usually buy to eat is from a farm shop with a 40 mile round trip, I stock up when I go there and he is not cheap but his hens are very well cared for. I visited Waitrose (c)

for the first time recently and found a soil association chicken there. I would rather support the small farmer over supermarkets.

TassieDev · Post by **TassieDev** » 22 Oct 2007, 07:11

We do have food labelling laws here, but I'm not an expert on what they say. I have an inkling that laws about things like what is IN the food - eg 'low fat' '100% juice' are there, but laws about how the animal was housed either don't exist or are not as strict (that's just my impression - a web search on laws relating to 'free range' labelling in Aus didn't turn up anything concrete!!)

In any case I think we are in a similar position to you as in that there's only so many resources to police compliance with the law!!

I too only feel really comfortable with buying things from the person who farmed them! THat's the only way to be sure (if you have seen the farm). Hopefully I'll have more opportunities to do that when we more to our farm (and also keep our own animals of course).

Jodi · Post by **Jodi** » 22 Oct 2007, 07:18

Our RSPCA don't seem to be as aggressive in this dept. re: housing of chickens. Not long after one of their battery cage campaigns, they came out with their endorsement of a particular brands barn laid eggs. I was quite shi**y over that!

I have no idea what constitutes free range, my girls have 17.6m sq each and I don't consider that to be free range - but as close as I can get while I still have my two old dogs who don't like anything feathered!

Really interesting question - I'm sure we have a site somewhere that describes the conditions for accreditation, both for free range and organic eggs.

We have a brand of eggs now that advertise happy eggs - they've even got a smiley face printed on each egg - how sick is that )gr:

They'll be hearing from me )de:

(NB: Great sticker Tania :-D

)

Jodi