This week, I attempted to trace my
store bought eggs to their origin. I purchase my eggs and other
groceries from Smith's, a division of Kroger. I like to pay the
higher price for free range eggs out of concern for my own health and
the humane conditions of the chickens producing the eggs, but when
money is tight I simply get the cheap, generic factory eggs. This
month, I bought a package of 18 Smith's brand large grade AA eggs.
After earning some extra cash, I returned to the store mid-month and
bought a dozen Simple Truth natural, cage free, grain fed grade AA
eggs. Furthermore, I purchased some Oakdell large brown grade AA all
natural, hormone and antibiotic free, vegetarian feed eggs. I then
set off to research each of the products and see what I could find
out about where and what they came from.
Of the three varying egg brands I
purchased, the generic Smith's eggs were by far the hardest to track
down. After scouring the minimally marked package and much searching,
I couldn't find any product details for the large AA eggs I had. All
I could find was a product list on Kroger's website for purchasing
purposes, but the eggs I bought weren't even on there. The package
said the eggs were produced by Inter-American Products, which did
have some locations of their dairy and grocery facilities. The
nearest of which is located in Layton, Utah but eggs were not listed
as one of the commodities there or at any of the other locations
nationwide. No location or feed information was available on either
Inter-American or Kroger's website. Although rather disconcerting, I
had already assumed that when I bought the generic eggs I was
probably buying eggs from chickens caged on industrial farms in poor
conditions being fed hormones and non-vegetarian feed. Were I more
financially comfortable and not a penny pinching college student I
would never support such mainstream, presumably centralized business
ventures with the high energy costs of transport to nationwide
markets made up for with shortcuts in quality and humaneness.
Next, I researched the Simple Truth
eggs I bought from Smith's. Upon close examination of the packaging,
while many qualities such as cage free and grain fed were listed, all
it said regarding a source was that it was distributed by the Kroger
Co. of Cincinatti, Ohio. Simple Truth did have a website that I was
able to find the exact product I purchased on, but the only
description it offered was “100
mg omega-2 fatty acids per egg/Excellent source of vitamin E” and a
four out of five star average from ten ratings. On the website, no
farm locations were listed.
Lastly,
I investigated my Oakdell organic cage free eggs. The information on
the packaging was almost identical to the Simple Truth eggs, except
that unlike the Simple Truth eggs, the Oakdell eggs I purchased were
officially certified organic, which is an intensive process.
Oakdell's website also yielded more satisfactory information. Unlike
the other two egg brands, Oakdell actually listed the locations of
each of the stores they distribute to. Although they do not list
locations of farms, they list locations where their eggs are sold in
California, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Listed are 22 locations in Utah alone. Reading their history section,
I learned that they originated in 1905 in Franklin, Idaho, which is
less than 20 miles away from my current location of Logan, Utah. It
is currently a North Salt Lake-based mountain west egg producing
company. They do mention that all of their eggs sold are locally
produced. Assuming my eggs came from the nearest local Oakdell
facility is comforting to me.
After
digging into the various brands of eggs I usually purchase, I have
found Oakdell eggs to be the most desirable and transparent, while
Simple Truth's website was only mildly helpful and I learned
virtually nothing about Smith's eggs. I am rather disconcerted about
the latter two brands, because I don't really know where the eggs are
coming from or how much fuel is spent shipping them from possibly far
off farms to a store near me. Due to the vague websites I was not
able to find any concerning information about these products, but the
very fact that I was not able to find much information about them at
all is in itself concerning. I'm going to stick with Oakdell eggs
from now on for their local and organic farming practices.
