“Farm News”
June 10, 2009emily No Comments »It’s been awhile since I’ve enthralled you all with a green-living-related rant, so I thought I’d indulge you. Here goes! We didn’t get a chance to get to our normal local egg place the weekend before last, and had to settle for grocery store eggs. We knew we didn’t need that many, so we just got a half dozen in a little package marked “The Country Hen.” Cough, cough. Open the carton and you’ll find “Farm News” from the Country Hen. How quaint! This small chicken farmer in Massachusetts has included a little newsletter for me to read! Perhaps we can exchange Christmas cards! Being of a suspicious nature, though, I couldn’t help myself. I looked up the address for “The Country Hen” in Hubbardston, Massachusetts on Google Maps and clicked on the satellite image. Small country farm? No, no. It is to laugh. Here’s what I found:
It’s a CAFO! And it’s happy to see you! Based on the scale at the bottom of the map, you can figure that each of those enormous, ah, chicken houses is about 400 feet long. Go to the (cough) farm’s website, and you’ll see that they say that the chickens live in “sunlit spacious barns,” eat “certified organic feed,” allowing them to produce “simply healthy and delicious eggs!” It’s a chicken wonderland! It’s Club Med: Poultry Edition! They get massages and pedicures and see personal trainers three times a week! Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find this about their organic feed: “We do not reveal the source [of the organic feed] as it is one of our trade secrets.” Really? Trade secret? Because I was under the impression that chickens eat things like grass, bugs, and plants. You know, things found in “nature,” not something that’s a “trade secret.” The Country Hen they may be, but a small country farm they’re not. It’s greenwashing like this that makes it really tough to buy food with a conscience. Buyer beware, and don’t believe everything you read!
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