What’s Really “Natural”?

A carton of eggs labeled “vegetarian” means that the chicken was fed a diet free of animal by-products. In addition, all USDA Certified Organic eggs must come from chickens fed a completely vegetarian diet consisting of certified organic grains (3).

That sounds fine and dandy until you realize that a chicken in its natural environment is NOT going to be vegetarian and that “vegetarian” eggs probably come from chickens that are not allowed to free-range. By default, the diet of a honest-to-goodness “free-range” chicken will most definitely include creepy-crawlies of all kinds.

So while it’s nice to know that commercially-raised chickens fed a vegetarian diet aren’t eating rendered dogs and cats for lunch, that label doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a whole lot better off than their other commercially-raised buddies. And I personally think that chickens need meat bits and insects in their diet if we are sticking with the “natural” way of doing things.