Free Range
Wide open fields with happy, healthy chickens. Plenty of space for a free range lifestyle. It only seems a fair trade for the eggs we take from them.
I was out shopping with my housemate when we came to the egg aisle. He pulled out his phone with excitement and showed me CluckAR (Cluck Augmented Reality). We excitedly played with it for 5 minutes scanning every carton we could find.
This phone app scans egg cartons and checks them against CHOICE's database. CHOICE is a major Australian consumer advocacy group. They designed the app to give consumers an easy way to test claims made by the companies they trust. How many meters of free range space is each chicken allowed?
Natural Living Eggs. Proudly free range, but the app results tell a different story.
One square meter per chicken, and that's only if they are perfectly spaced apart. This meter is where they live, shit and eat. And it makes me furious. I have purchased this brand before. I thought I was doing my part to promote ethical farming.
Luckily I found my alternative, thank you Sunny Queen Farms.
7 square meters of free range space per chicken and the difference in price between the two was only 60 cents. Even if you don't value animal welfare highly, an extra 60 cents can make a huge difference to thousands of chickens lives.
Check the photos again. After a closer look you might notice these two brands do specify how much space their chickens get... But this isn't always the case. Stay observant and download CluckAR to make the best choice!
Find out more at the iTunes App Store or Google Play.
Find out more and support animal welfare at AnimalsAustralia!
