by DAVID MERCER
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When the doors to the hen house open, the 14,000 chickens on Edwin Blosser’s organic egg farm make a mad dash for the pasture outside, where they can scratch and peck in the dirt.
“It’s just like an ocean of birds going out the doors – zoom!” Blosser said.
Greg Herbruck says his organic laying hens also love the outdoors – but they spend their time in the fresh air on concrete patios and in other enclosures.
The two farmers – both organic, both concerned about the well-being of their birds – exemplify a debate raging among organic devotees about how livestock should be raised. Some insist that organic means small farms, open space and fresh air. They want the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create new rules defining the conditions in which organic hens should be kept.
Others say such standards result in food that’s out of reach for most Americans and using enclosures and other cost-saving techniques makes organics affordable.
“There are some groups that want every egg to be cage free,” said Charlie Lanktree, chief executive of Eggland’s Best, a Pennsylvania company that is one of the biggest organic brands in the nation and a buyer of Herbruck’s eggs. “The economics of that whole thing would be that you might very well increase your cost for a dozen organic eggs from $4 a dozen to seven or eight a dozen.”
The USDA’s current organic rules require all livestock to spend time outdoors so the animals can engage in what the agency calls “natural behavior.” The rules don’t specify how much space the animals should have or whether that space should be in a pasture, on a porch or in an enclosure.
On many large organic egg farms, hens spend their outdoor time on concrete patios or other areas in which there’s no access to dirt or grass.
Critics say those birds might be eating organic feed, but they’re being raised in conditions much like the ones on conventional farms. They say that’s not what consumers envision when they buy organic eggs, which often come in misleading packages.
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