Which Egg Do You Want To Eat?

Left: Store brand “free range” and Right: Vital Farms organic pasture raised

The eggs I typically buy are Vital Farms brand, organic and pasture raised. If the store has regeneratively raised then I’ll go for those, but right now most stores don’t carry them. My sense is that for that extra $1 - $2 per carton, people aren’t buying them. There is more education to do on the benefits of regenerative farming.

But with the egg shortage recently due to the bird flu, Vital Farms eggs have not been on the shelves. In some grocery stores, they haven’t had eggs at all. So when I saw eggs on a recent food shopping trip, I decided to grab a dozen.

The best and most expensive eggs available were store brand “free range” eggs for $4.99 per dozen. Vital Farms organic pasture raised by comparison can be $10, regenerative eggs are even more.

So I didn’t have any grand expectations for the eggs I bought. I know how most chickens are raised in this country. I know that cage free, free range, non-GMO, no antibiotics, is really all horse shit when compared to a chicken that is actually raised on pasture. But I was shocked when I cracked these two eggs next to each other.

I was preparing to make chicken cutlets and I had one Vital Farm egg left, so I used it along with the new dozen I bought. The difference in color almost made me throw the egg away. I couldn’t believe how dead the egg on the left looked in comparison to the egg on the right.

The egg on the right looks like it’s full of life and nutrients. Thick and creamy. While the egg on the left looks like it came from a chicken who struggled to survive.

Most food we eat doesn’t have such a contrast when put side by side. Meats, vegetables, and fruits, have a better appearance when raised regeneratively or organically, when compared to conventionally raised. They have a better taste too. But out of the box (out of the shell), I don’t think the juxtaposition is nearly as drastic this.

When I see the difference in these yolks it is no wonder to me that bird flu spreads so quickly and easily through the factory chicken farms that house hundreds of thousands of birds all crammed on top of each other, living in their own filth and excrements. These birds are clearly very unhealthy and their immune systems are therefore incapable of fighting off a virus. The same way that many people with co-morbidities were unable to fight off COVID in this country.

And it’s not wonder. If most people are eating eggs that look like the one on the left, or worse, then how could we expect to be healthy. If what were putting into our bodies is dead, then how could we expect to live.

The first key to turning around our health is putting healthy food in front of us. And that happens when we force the food system to change, and start growing food that serves us and not the corporations that own the system.

Expectations vs. Reality of Food Prices

As Americans we expect everything to be cheap. Including our food. But very few people understand how it actually works.

Over the last few weeks I’ve heard from so many people complaining about the rising cost of eggs, which is being driven by a fresh outbreak of avian bird flu. Avian bird flu largely impacts factory farmed chickens where it’s common for hundreds of thousands of egg laying hens to occupy the same living quarters. Very often with little to no room to move. These birds live, eat, breathe, sleep, and defecate all in one place.

Hundreds of thousands of birds living on top of each other. So when there is a flu outbreak, it’s typical for a whole flock, a whole warehouse of birds that is, to be culled at once. It doesn’t matter how many birds are actually infected or not. It only takes one positive test from one bird for all of the birds to meet their maker. It’s just assumed that given the close proximity of the birds that if one is infected they all are or will be soon. And in that case it’s much “easier” to just kill them all.

Every time there’s an outbreak of avian flu millions of egg laying hens are culled. The supply of eggs goes down. Consumer demand remains the same. So prices go up. Simple economics. One interesting but little discussed aspect of this system that I’ll leave for a different post, is that the farmers who cull large numbers of birds, are forced to do so by the federal government, who then reimburses them for the loss. Funded by tax payer money. Perhaps we could save some money and birds by raising them correctly. But I digress.

But part of the question is, how much should eggs really cost anyway? That is, if egg laying hens were raised in humane conditions and allowed to roam on open pasture feeding on grass and bugs, pecking and scratching, things they enjoy, instead of being crammed wing to wing in a factory and fed conventionally grown grains that are full of pesticides. What would a dozen eggs cost?

I’m not sure what the math on eggs is, but looking online it appears that organic pasture raised eggs are 3 - 4x more than factory farmed eggs. Which is about the same as chicken meat. Chicken purchased in the grocery store can be $2 - $3 per lb, while chicken I buy from my local farm is upwards of $10 per lb. It’s a significant difference. But the way I look at it is the price I’m paying today is an investment in my health and my community. But what would the down stream savings be if all the animals we ate were raised correctly.

How much would our health improve from eating quality nutrient filled meat that’s devoid of pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics, and instead is raised in sunshine, fresh air, and free to express their natural instincts, on a diet of grass and bugs? How much would we save in healthcare costs as a nation? How much more would a healthier workforce generate? Innovate?

If factory farms ceased to exist, and the number of family farms increased, how many jobs would return to rural America? What would the return of fulfilling work and community do to the health and economy of these neighborhoods? What would be the impact of giving the majority of the profits to local farms, farmers, and workers, instead of corporate owned factory farms?

What would be the impact on our environment by eliminating factory farms and instead allowing animals to roam freely out on pasture, rehabbing the land as they graze? Re-wilding the soil. How would this positive environmental impact help to reduce the ferocity and frequency of natural disasters? What would be the reduction in costs to rebuild? How many billions would be saved that could be used proactively instead reactively?

What would be the impact on the water if there was no pesticide runoff, no dirt erosion, no manure piles seeping into the ground?

We’ve been led to believe that food should cost an artificially low amount. But it’s never explained that we end up paying for it in the end. It’s never explained what the cost of cheap food is to our health, our communities, and our environment. Wasted water, polluted water, land degradation, deforestation, a collapsing middle class, degradation of our health, are all topics that are given little air time. 

The next time you find yourself questioning the cost of food, ask yourself why it costs that much or that little, and ask yourself what it should cost and why. Ask yourself if you know where that food came from. How it was grown or raised. And if it’s an option for you, find a local farmer who can tell you, and buy your food from them. 

We don’t pay enough for food. Instead we’re paying for it with deteriorating health and destruction of our environment. It’s no coincidence that both are failing at once.

The Cost of Food

My neighbor just told me the supermarket is selling pork shoulders for $.99 per pound. He was, understandably, excited about this. 

I checked the prices for pork shoulder at some of the regenerative and pastured farms I could recall off the top of my head.

Sisu Farms - $11.00 per lb (where I order most of my meat and chicken from)

White Oak Pastures - $10.00 per lb (the farm of Will Harris)

Acabaonc Farms - >$10.00 per lb (a local farm on Long Island, NY where I’ve ordered meat for my family)

That’s what we’re up against. The cost to raise pigs the right way, is at least 10x more expensive than raising pigs conventionally (based on selling price). 

The reason regeneratively raised animals are more expensive isn’t just because they are receiving higher quality food, and have access to land to roam, while conventionally raised animals are stuck in small pens, cages, or overcrowded chicken coops, where they are fed a low quality diet of grains and corn.

It’s because, on top of that difference in the way they are raised, the grain and corn they are fed is highly subsidized by the U.S. government with your tax dollars. 

So, it’s not that pastured animals and regenerative farms are more expensive. Their price, is the right price. The problem is that conventionally raised animals, most of what you see on sale in the grocery store, has been made artificially cheap. At least, that’s how it appears.

Coincidentally, or not, the owner of Sisu Farms (mentioned above) sent out a newsletter this week talking about just that and more. She said that during a long drive to Kansa (700 miles) to have her turkeys processed at the closest USDA approved processing center, she listened to the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (I haven’t read it but it’s on my list now).

Here are some of the stats she rattled off from the book:

• Direct Farm Bill subsidies for corn and wheat - $3 billion

• Tax funded agriculture fuel - $22 billion

• Treatment of food related illnesses - $10 billion

• Collateral cost of pesticide use  - $8 billion

• Cost of nutrients lost to erosion $20 billion

Even though we know that feeding pigs, chickens, and cows, grains and corn isn’t what’s best for the animals or the humans that eat those animals, that’s what the government continues to subsidize. They subsidize it on the front end, and we all pay for it on the back end with all of the expenses listed above, and a $3 trillion healthcare spend.

In her email she also provided a link to reserve one of her turkeys for the holidays, which prompted me to look and compare the cost across three farming practices.

Sisu Farms Pasture Raised Turkeys - $11 - $13 per lb

Bowman Landes Free Range Turkeys - $4.59 per lb

Kroger Conventional Turkey - $1.89 per lb

I was at an Advancing Food is Medicine conference two weeks ago. The goal of the food is medicine movement is to promote regenerative agriculture and increase the availability and accessibility of food to treat diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, fatty liver disease, and more. 

A number of regenerative farmers and ranchers who used to farm conventionally spoke. They said one of the biggest obstacle they face is financial support. Both in the ability to secure loans that grant them the capital they need to transition from conventional to regenerative practices. And crop insurance, protection against lost of crops due to disease, weather, etc., which requires that they practice conventionally (i.e. using pesticides, herbicides, using feedlots, grain, corn) to maintain coverage. 

Financial support and investment seems like the easiest and lowest hanging fruit we could solve for. Shift the dollars that are subsidizing grain and corn, and use it to support the transition away from conventional agriculture. Give farmers a 3 - 5 year runway to make the move. Then take the savings realized from reducing fuel costs, food related illnesses, pesticide use, nutrient erosion, and healthcare costs (every 1% reducing in a diabetic patients A1C results in annual savings of $1,000) and invest it back into the food system.

Now that I’ve been in the room with these farmers and ranchers I can tell you my suspicions about the work ethic and character of these individuals has been confirmed. 

Give them a fighting chance, and they won’t disappoint. Right now they are receiving very minimal support, and they are still making enormous progress. Imagine the possibilities if we invested in them, which would be an investment in our food, an investment in our planet, and an investment in our health.

One of the speakers at the conference, a representative of the Savory Institute said it best, “Personal health is planetary health.”

Five Articles Worth Reading This Week

Click here: OneSource Health, March 10, 2024

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion it has taken place.”

George Bernard Shaw

Five Articles to Consider This Week

I think the single biggest struggle we face when trying to do something to better ourselves like exercise and clean up our diet is the idea that in doing so, we’re giving something up. When we choose to exercise, we’re giving up time to decompress after a long day of work. When we choose to clean up our diet we’re missing out on that tasty cheeseburger and fries. When we choose to get adequate amounts of sleep, we experience FOMO thinking about all the fun that everyone else is having.

But we never give enough credit to how much we are gaining from those actions. This is in part because we live in a society based on consumption. It is the job of major corporations to make us feel like we’re missing out if we’re not participating because that’s what keeps their pockets fat and happy. But as the articles below make abundantly clear, there is plenty to gain from avoiding what corporate has to offer.

Parkinson’s and Exercise

Add Parkinson’s to the list of diseases that exercise has been shown to improve. Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that effects dopamine producing neurons in the brain which impacts both motor and non-motor skills, and mood. Historically treatments for Parkinson’s have focused on dopamine supplementation which only masks the symptoms and is not a sustainable solution long term. Exercise, by contrast, has been shown to not only slow the deterioration of the dopamine neurons but even to reverse it in some cases. The type of exercise required is moderate-high intensity aerobic exercise, like HIIT, performed 3 or more times per week. Weight training may also have benefits, but it has not been studied.

Why it matters: Exercise is the one supplement that has been shown to improve nearly every disease across the board. Adding a degenerative and debilitating disease such as Parkinson’s to the list is further evidence of just how powerful exercise can be. If it can help treat Parkinson’s, what can it do for a healthy brain and body?

Read here: Aerobic exercise for Parkinson’s disease

Read here: Yale study shows HIIT can reverse nerve damage caused by Parkinson’s

9 charts that show US factory farming is even bigger than you realize

Factory farms, not farming, is contaminating the water we drink, polluting the air we breathe and causing an increased rate of climate change, as well as causing the inhumane treatment of billions of animals each year. Like so many other industries in recent years (i.e. healthcare, retail, housing, banking), large scale factory farms have benefited from consolidation, absorbing there would be competitors into their business, and concentrating too much of where our food comes from into the hands of a few. A few key takeaways:

• ¾ of chickens raised for meat live on farms that house 500,000 or more chickens.

• Egg producers are sometimes housed with millions of other hens in one place, increasing the likelihood of disease and making the transmission of bird flu even more likely.

• 2/3 of dairy cows live on farms with 100,000 or more cows.

• 1/3 of U.S. River miles have been contaminated by farm run off consisting of waste from high concentrations of animal manure.

• 40 percent of corn grown in the U.S. is used for ethanol (it takes 100 acres of corn to produce the same amount of energy as 1 acre of solar).

Why it matters: Relying on a shrinking number of growing farms to supply our food means, in addition to the harm to the planet and animals it causes, our food system is losing it’s resilience. During times of disaster (i.e. COVID) or disease (i.e. bird flu) the potential for our food supply to be disrupted is greatly increased. Small local farmers by contrast offer sustainability across communities.

Read here: 9 charts that show US factory farming is even bigger than you realize

The Science Behind Ozempic Was Wrong

It turns out that they don’t know how the new class of weight-loss drugs that millions of people are taking actually works. They just know that they do. Initially they thought the drug reduced appetite by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone produced naturally in your gut. It’s now believed that the high concentrations and extended half-life (how long it takes for the hormone to be absorbed by your body) of the manufactured GLP-1 drug allows it to cross the blood brain barrier and penetrate deep into the brain.

Here’ a direct quote from the article that should make you feel better: “The latest drugs succeeded not because we fully understood the hormone, they’re based on but because we got lucky. And drug development, for all the careful research required, does sometimes come down to luck.”

Why it matters: It’s just the latest example of pharmaceutical companies chasing profits over safe treatments. The expected utilization of Ozempic and Wegovy has been enough to make Novo Nordisk, the company that manufactures both drugs, more valuable than the country, Denmark, it’s based out of. It makes you wonder what all those clinical trials are for.

Read here: The Science Behind Ozempic Was Wrong

CEO of Kellogg’s Say Eat Cereal For Dinner

The CEO of Kellogg’s took to TV this past week to tell Americans, particularly those struggling to put food on their tables, that they should eat cereal for dinner. The backlash was quick as many people pointed out that it’s very unlikely that the CEO making close to $5 mln per year is feeding his children cereal for dinner. He of course also missed the fact that cereal (as the next article points out) is not food.

Why it matters: This is the second time I’ve read about the CEO of a major food corporation telling people to eat processed foods. It continues to amaze me how people in positions of power are allowed to lie and omit facts on TV or in print without any real repercussions. The idea that while 44 million Americans face food insecurity, and millions more face nutrition insecurity, the CEO of Kellogg would make a statement such as this one tells you where we are in society.

Read here: Kellogg CEO under fire for suggesting cereal as a money-saving dinner

Read here: Let them eat Flakes: Kellogg’s CEO says poor families should consider ‘cereal for dinner’

Ultra-Processed Foods Linked to 32 Health Problems

An umbrella review of 45 distinct pooled meta-analysis that included 10 million people concluded that consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) increases the risk of death and disease. The studies included the impact of increased exposure to UPFs such as cereal, ready to eat meals, protein bars, and soda. Heart disease, cancer, metabolic disease, respiratory illness, obesity, and diabetes were among the diseases with increased prevalence. Rates of anxiety and depression also increased dramatically. The researchers concluded “It is now time for UN agencies, with member states, to develop and implement a framework convention on ultra-processed foods analogous to the framework on tobacco.”

Why it matters: We’ve been told for too long that ‘calories in and calories’ out is all that matters. This review proves that the type of calorie is key. Ultra-processed foods are stripped of their nutrients and fiber and contain toxic ingredients that are banned in other countries. Up until now this has mostly been ignored by the “experts.” Perhaps now they will take it seriously and work to introduce legislation to make the food we eat be more like food.

Read here: Ultra-processed food linked to 32 harmful effects to health, review finds

Cheers to your practice.

James.