John des Rosiers, chef/owner of Inovasi in
Lake Bluff, Ill., just outside Chicago, takes
a different approach. The restaurant is
raising 250 hens with the help of a local
farmer, and they are tightly controlling feed
and the environment in which the birds
are raised. The flock provides 90 dozen
eggs to the restaurant each week, at
approximately $3.60 per dozen, double the
amount des Rosiers says he would have to
pay to a wholesaler.
“The biggest reason we raise them is for
taste. Flavor is first,” he says. “During the
winter, the hens have half a greenhouse
covering them so they don’t freeze, but in
the warmer months, they graze on pasture
in an open field of alfalfa and clover, eating
bugs, worms, everything.”
For des Rosiers, eggs are 2% of what he
spends on food, and he believes it’s a not
corner that needs cutting. “Even if eggs
are expensive, it’s not going to be a large
percent of your budget. You wouldn’t think
twice about spending an extra dollar or
two a pound for meat,” he says.
In November 2008, California’s Proposition
2 drew nationwide attention to the way farm
animals (including laying hens) were housed.
The pictures weren’t pretty. Web-based
videos of male baby chicks being ground
up alive and newly hatched birds being
debeaked by automated machinery began
to surface, as did images of dust-filled
barns and hens packed a dozen-plus to a
cage, making it difficult for nearly anyone to
separate emotion from the issues.
Proposition 2 passed with 63.5% of
the vote, which means that by 2015, all
farmed hens in the state must be able to
lie down, stand up and fully extend their
wings without touching another bird,
though what that will mean for exact space
requirements is still murky. Since then,
similar legislative action has been taken
in Michigan. In Ohio, which ranks second
behind Iowa in egg production, 64% of
voters were in favor of a constitutional
amendment that would create a new
state Livestock Care Standards Board
that would set standards for farm animal
welfare. Industry watchers expect to see
more legislative action in states such as
Iowa, Maine, Florida, Oregon, Colorado
and Arizona in the next few years.
At the heart of the issue is the amount of
space each hen is allowed. Most caged
hens are currently allotted 67-76 square
inches, an amount that animal welfare
activists say is smaller than a single
sheet of paper. Cage-free hens are given
144-216 inches per bird. Producers say
increasing the space per bird will not
increase productivity, but, rather, will lead
to higher prices for an important protein
Inovasi raises 250 hens with the help of
a local farmer. This egg and chanterelle-mushroom custard with Chinese cabbage
and a vanilla miso sauce benefits from the
90 dozen eggs the flock provides to the
restaurant each week.
Battle brewing
On the micro level, Jennings’ battle is one
of cost control, while des Rosiers’ decision
to take his egg production in-house is one
of quality control. But broaden that view
to a wider screen and you’ll notice that a
much bigger battle is brewing. Eggs, used
in everything from classic eggs Benedict to
tasty gin flips, have more recently become
a political lighting rod between producers
and animal activists, with impassioned
arguments supporting both sides.
