The modern egg industry uses about 300 million laying chickens to produce over 300 eggs per hen every year. Here are some numbers on the modern egg industry in America in 2016*:
- Shell egg production in June 2016: 10 billion.
- Table egg flock size on July 1st: 299 million laying chickens.
- The rate of lay per day on July 1st: approximately 5 eggs per 100 chickens.
- Number of egg producing companies:
- 67 with 1 million-plus hens.
- 17 companies with more than 5 million hens.
- 192 companies with 75,000 hens or more.
- Organic and cage-free shell egg production: 10% of 30.1 million hens of which:
- 5% organic eggs (13.5 million hens.).
- 5% cage-free eggs (16.6 million hens).
*Information from the American Egg Board.
Egg facts in the modern egg business
Although the egg industry doesn’t keep it a secret, it definitely doesn’t want people to know:
- That it disposes of male chicks born to egg-laying hens through suffocating or grounding up chicks alive in macerators. Number of male chicks killed every year by the egg industry: 6 billion.
- That it manipulates genes and breeding to force egg production.
- Average number of eggs per laying hen in 1947: 150.
- Number of eggs per laying hen in 2016: over 300.
- That overproduction of eggs results in various disorders in chickens such as osteoporosis, bone fractures, and skeletal paralysis.
- That once chickens stop producing eggs, they become worthless to the egg industry and are sent to the slaughterhouse.
- The average lifespan of a chicken in a natural environment: 10 to 15 years.
- The average lifespan of a chicken used for eggs: 18 months to 2 years.
- That millions of chickens die during transportation to the slaughterhouse due to being crammed into crates.
- That chickens that reach the slaughterhouse are boiled alive due to faulty processing. Birds are killed through the “kill cone” method that assumes stuffing live chickens down cones to have their necks slit. Some birds are still alive when they are dropped into scalding water to have their feathers removed.
What you can do
Become familiar with raising backyard chickens: in this case, it is relevant not to buy hens from people associated in any way with the egg industry. A much better option is adopting hens from a farm sanctuary.
Source eggs from ethical farms that raise chickens in a natural environment: so many egg producers nowadays label their products as “free-range” or “cage-free,” which is deceptive marketing. Most of the hens are still deprived of their natural behaviors and of outdoor space.
Substitute eggs with plant-based versions: contrary to common belief, there are many healthier options to eggs that provide the same amount of fat and protein. Egg-free sources of omegas and fatty acids are avocados, chia seeds, chickpea flour, flax seed, and applesauce for baking, silken tofu, and nut butter.