Free as a Bird

I consider myself to be relatively food conscious, but it was still a very rude awakening to watch Jamie Oliver's Fowl Dinners -- a brutally honest examination of the poultry industry. I mean, I try to do my part by buying only free-range or free-run eggs if available, or at least organic eggs. Likewise with chicken meat. I know there are cynical counter-arguments that "free range" isn't what it's cracked up to be, but my choice is driven less by concerns about my own nutrition and more by the quality of life we owe to these creatures who nourish and sustain us.

But Jamie's show rattled me when I learned that egg farmers routinely euthanize large batches of male chicks after selecting female chicks most suitable for egg-laying. (Why the male chicks can't be sold or given to poultry farmers is beyond me.) A container full of fuzzy, adorable male chicks were gassed live on the show as audience members looked on in horror.

Less emotional but equally unsettling was the realization that we consume many third party commercial products that are made from eggs, almost none of which are organic, never mind free range. Cookies, cakes, ice cream and salad dressings are some of the less obvious examples. Sure, it's obvious when you think about how these things are made, but are you thinking about the quality or origin of the egg when you pick up a bag of chocolate chip cookies?

Hellmann's mayonnaise is my Achilles' heel. Their half-fat mayo is especially killer -- for someone like me who is perpetually watching her weight, it's a blessing to have something that tastes so creamy and rich at half the fat. Yet I had to give it up after seeing Fowl Dinners. {sniff}

For a while, I've been making do by making my own version of mayonnaise with half the effort: I posted a recipe last summer which I call Almost Mayo Sauce. By using soft/hard-boiled eggs instead of raw ones, it skips the hassle of ensuring that the emulsion stays stabilized. (You can all too easily screw up home-made mayo by over-whisking past the point of emulsion and causing it to separate itself again. It's salvageable by adding more egg yolk, but it's still annoying.)



Well, now some great news! Hellmann's has announced that they are using only locally sourced "100% Canadian free-run eggs". I'm usually very leery of big corporations that make these kinds of feel-good claims but this change makes me ecstatic. It shows me that there is enough push and demand out there among my peers for what Hellmann's calls "real food". By shaping the market, we make it possible for local farmers to succeed and create financial incentive for ethical farming practices. Maybe we're not doomed... it's nice to have hope.