What’s Wrong With Eggs?
From an ethical point of view, an egg isn’t as innocent a choice as it might seem at first glance.
Have you ever wondered what is the problem with eggs?
A few months ago, I read Anna’s informative article on eggs.
She doesn’t consume eggs herself, but she discussed all the health benefits (and some problems) of consuming eggs in her article.
But what got my attention was this paragraph of her story:
“I do understand the point about meat and dairy, but what’s wrong with eggs? Vegans cannot answer this question!” This is what I’ve heard several times from my friends.
It’s no secret that I’m vegan. And although health and environmental reasons are important, my primary motivation for being vegan is ethical.
That question had me thinking… because I obviously have an answer. And I bet most other vegans do too. However, it can be quite triggering to learn all the facts about eggs… and I’ve learned over the years that sometimes people ask questions but don’t want answers.
So if someone directly asked me that question, I would first tell them that I don’t consume eggs for ethical reasons. And then, I would ask them if they really wanted to know the reasons.
Usually, people say they rather not.
So if you continue, it’s at your own peril.
First, a disclaimer
I’m not here to judge you.
This is about my choices and what I think, and it’s not a judgment on you. Regardless of your age, financial situation, or where you live.
We’re part of a society, a system. And we grow up with eggs, meat, dairy as part of our diets.
Telling my children that meat is a dead animal is frowned upon. In fact, keeping them from eating animals is frowned upon.
So it’s not your fault that you eat animals and animal products. Less than a decade ago, I was eating animals myself.
Also, I’m not saying I’m against people keeping chickens for their subsistence. Especially when talking about poor people that depend on those eggs as a source of protein.
I still think most of us can do without eating eggs, and it’s a kinder life when you don’t exploit animals. But my text is directed at commercial chicken eggs, the ones we buy in the supermarket/grocery shop.
So what’s wrong with eggs?
Well, it’s pretty simple to answer from an ethical point of view what’s wrong with eggs.
They belong to the chicken… and if you’re buying eggs, you’re perpetuating the pain and suffering of those animals.
It begins from birth.
After years of specialised breeding, broiler chickens (the ones that are grown to become meat) and egg-laying chickens are different birds.
An egg-laying chicken isn’t profitable to grow for meat. That means all male chickens are disposed of as soon as the eggs hatch.
Yeah, they’re just commodities, and they’re discarded — in very cruel ways. This is called chick culling. Sometimes, their meat and bones may be used to make animal feed, but quite often, they just become garbage or fertiliser.
I must admit that one thing that pushed me to become vegan was learning about what happens to male chicks. I never gave it a thought before. And once I learned about this cruel practice, I could never forget it again.
There are some exciting developments in banning this practice, though, especially in Europe.
Currently, industry regulations rely primarily on scientific advancements that allow breeders to discover the sex of the embryos while still in the egg, making it possible to destroy the eggs before they hatch. This technology allows the eggs to be destroyed early on in the process, hopefully before the chicks can feel any pain.
But chick culling is still not entirely a thing of the past. The practice is common and legal in many countries, including the United States.
That idea of a hen on a field? Not likely!
Over 70% of chickens are confined to battery cages in the US. And although, technically, the EU has banned battery cages, the so-called enriched cages are not a huge step up for the birds.
Even if you’re talking about organic, free-range, or what have you. Of course, there are regulations to be followed if a producer wants to use those labels, but contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t mean the hens are living their best life outside.
Eggs are cheap. So the process needs to be cheap for the farmer to have profits. The only way that can happen is if you have many chickens and not necessarily in a large space.
A hen will only produce enough eggs to be profitable for a few years. In some cases, they don’t even last that long.
Have you ever heard of a hen retirement home? Yep, they don’t exist. So those hens are killed as well. Usually, these chickens become meat, either for animal feed or cheap meat products.
And in between killing the chicks and the young hens (let’s be honest, even for birds, they’re still fairly young when they are slaughtered), many chickens die agonising deaths in the process.
The space is so tiny, some hens will peck the others (sometimes farmers cut their beaks as prevention) or get into fights. Diseases are also common and rampant.
If it sounds like a horrible life, it’s because it is.
That image of happy hens wondering about a huge farm are mostly a thing of the past and advertisements. And not a reality in commercial egg production. It’s not profitable.
So, you see, the egg industry is the meat industry. But with added suffering and torture. All the animals involved in producing eggs will die young, much before the ten years they could live otherwise.
If you’re concerned about animal welfare or the ethical implications of what you put on your plate, it’s tough to justify eating eggs.
What about the planet?
Although the animal agriculture sector accounts for high volumes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, chickens aren’t the primary source of these emissions.
However, it’s important to point out that animal rearing, especially in factory farms that rely on crops as feed, isn’t an efficient use of calories and proteins. For chickens, it may take up to 5 times the amount of calories and proteins from grains to produce chicken meat.
That means you could feed five people instead of one chicken with the same amount of food. Resulting, of course, in less GHG emissions too.
These numbers refer to chicken meat. I couldn’t find the same numbers for eggs, but they’re certainly higher.
So there is an argument for giving up the rearing of chickens to reduce GHG emissions.
Aren’t eggs healthy, though?
This article isn’t about “Are eggs healthy for you?”.
You can read Anna’s article on the health benefits of eating eggs. You can also read this article about the health benefits of eggs, one that’s on the fence about how healthy they are, or one that’s against eggs altogether. Science seems to be a bit all over the place about eggs, although, in moderation, it appears that they won’t kill you.
However, health implications stem from the egg industry even if you don’t eat eggs.
What am I talking about?
Factory farming is responsible for zoonoses jumping inter-species. That means diseases that only afflict animals spread to humans. The main reason is the overcrowded conditions of such farms — the perfect breeding grounds for viruses to disseminate and mutate.
But that’s not all.
There’s also antibiotic resistance. Again, farming isn’t the only reason why bacteria become resistant. However, the indiscriminate use of antibiotics by agricultural industries is a significant factor in creating superbugs.
Animals in factory farms are fed antibiotics to prevent diseases from getting to an uncontrollable (and unprofitable) level. The medication is also used to make them grow bigger quicker. But that has a very dangerous side-effect — it can speed up the creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And these so-called superbugs are very dangerous to human health.
So, yeah… As a vegan, I see a lot of problems with eggs
I’m not a scientist… so I don’t know what to think about the health benefits of eggs… I’ve read studies that say they’re great, and others claiming they’re not.
But that’s not the problem with eggs… The reason I don’t include eggs in my diet is because it’s morally wrong.
We force chickens to lay eggs much faster than in the wild. And then we take them away from them.
And even worse, when we buy eggs from a supermarket, we’re most likely perpetuating a system of tremendous harm and suffering.
We had chickens growing up. Not on a farm, just in our backyard.
The chickens were happy (or so they seemed), but they all died early to be made into food. I’m not sure how my dad chose which chicken to kill… did he know which chicken wasn’t laying eggs anymore? Or did he choose the plumpest one? I don’t know.
It was hard to say goodbye to a chicken you had named and loved… I always refused to eat them, and I’d be cross at my dad whenever he killed one.
I never connected the dots to the supermarket chicken, though. I’d refuse our own, because they were pets. But I was okay with eating the ones we bought in the supermarket.
But now I know better… And I refuse to eat chickens or their eggs.
For more information on all these subjects, I recommend the book “This is Vegan Propaganda” by Ed Winters:
