CHENNAI----- A parched city of 8m makes plans to refill the taps
Between December and June the largest reservoir supplying Chennai, India's sixth-biggest city, shrivelled and then vanished. From the window of a plane, darker patches suggest Puzhal Lake still holds some water. Close up, the “water” turns out to be just a different shade of mud.
Puzhal is indeed "bone dry", says T. Prabhushankar, the head of Chennai's water board, and so are three more lakes that are the other main sources of water for the city's 8m people. In his air-conditioned office a computer screen indicates that the city's reservoirs, which have a total capacity of ubn cubic feet, contain a minuscule 25m cubic feet. "There is nothing to hide about it," he shrugs. "There has been no rain for 190 days, so there is no water." Yet Mr Prabhushankar is not worried. Not only does he expect to get through the current dry spell—Chennai's worst since 2004—he also insists that, for the city, water scarcity will soon be a thing of the past.
As with India as a whole, the growing city's demand for water has placed huge stress on traditional sources such as groundwater, rivers and lakes. And, like all of India's i.3bn people, Chennai's thirsty inhabitants may very well face long-term dangers from climate change, one effect of which is more erratic rainfall. But while it is easy to blame both the city's-and India's water woes on nature, a closer look reveals
a legacy of poor management, lax laws and underinvestment. Most of the time, the two annual monsoons suffice to top up lakes and groundwater. The trouble comes when leaks spring in the system.
To allay Chennai's acute scarcity, which is likely to last until the winter monsoon in November (for India's east coast this is heavier than summer rains), the water board has contracted an impressive 1,000 GPS-tagged water tankers, each making up to a dozen daily runs. Free deliveries of drinking water reach every street in the city once every two days. Local volunteers ensure it is rationed fairly—typically 30 litres a day for each household.
As neighbours in the middle-class Mylapore district line up brightly coloured pots for the scheduled tanker to fill, there is more good humour than annoyance. It was worse in the 2004 drought, recalls the tanker driver: there were so many fights he needed police protection. Kamala Kanan, a local businessman, says it is a bore having to wait for and haul water, and it is barely enough for the 13 people in his house. But the distribution is reliable, free and fair. And luckily his family has access to groundwater. This has grown saltier but they use it for washing and sanitation. Residents of two different slum districts say they get piped water for a few minutes a day. It is also enough, but sometimes stinks of sewage, so for drinking they buy 20-litre drums for about $0.50 each.
Mr Prabhushankar explains that the city has been able to sustain about two-thirds of normal supply because it planned ahead. Two recently built desalination plants, new borewells, expanded facilities to recycle sewage and a new 220km pipeline from a distant reservoir all add to supply. Both desalination and recycling capacity are set to triple within five years. Faced with complaints of dwindling groundwater, the government promises to enforce long-standing laws mandating that all buildings should be equipped to harvest rainwater. It has also pledged to maintain not only its big reservoirs, but hundreds of smaller bodies of water that could help insure against drought.
The promise is welcome, but not convincing to Sekhar Raghavan of the Rain Centre, an NGO that lobbies for better water management. Its research shows that, despite 99% compliance on paper, only 40% of buildings actually do trap rainwater and store it or inject it into aquifers. The severity of floods that hit the city in 2015 was largely owing to the government's failure to clean and desilt canals and lakes or to build an adequate sewer system, Mr Raghavan says: "They are jokers. They would rather spend huge money on big new projects and giant storm drains than on fixing what is broken, which is our natural water-storage capacity."
Still, Mr Raghavan is optimistic. When he started out decades ago, his was a lonely voice. Now, he says, ordinary citizens are demanding action, or acting themselves. He has another new ally, too. Spooked by rapidly depleting groundwater, the central government plans a vast nationwide campaign to revamp local reservoirs. Perhaps if the government also stopped promoting greedy crops such as rice and sugarcane, did more to curb rampant pollution, and considered installing meters and applying realistic prices to regulate water consumption, India really would not have to worry about going thirsty. As Mr Raghavan says, "You cannot complain about nature. It's we that have to adapt to nature." ■
What might cause the country to collapse—and what would the consequences be if it did?
“If Egypt collapsed, millions of Islamic State members would storm the world.” This prediction came from Egypt's strongman president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, in 2015. He has cynical reasons to sound apocalyptic. His formula for staying in power has two main parts: repression at home, and constantly warning foreign leaders that unless they support him, Egypt will fall into chaos.
It works surprisingly well. Gulf states bankroll him for fear that the alternative is a regime led by the Muslim Brotherhood. This is not an unreasonable fear. The Brothers won elections in 2011 and 2012 and ruled Egypt incompetently until Mr Sisi overthrew them in a coup in 2013. America backs Mr Sisi for the same reason: some in President Donald Trump's administration consider the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation (and Mr Sisi is adept at flattering Mr Trump himself). Europe turns a blind eye to the awful things that go on in Mr Sisi's police cells because it fears the millions of refugees who might surge across the Mediterranean, were Egypt to fail. So Mr Sisi's warning is self-serving. But is it wrong?
Egypt's collapse is far from impossible. Granted, the country is not Lebanon or Iraq, riven by sectarian feuds. Nor is it like Libya or Yemen, where regional and tribal divides fuel civil wars. Egyptians have a strong sense of nationhood. But they are under great stress, bossed around by a military regime that is both brutal and brittle. Discontent is everywhere. The Islamists who won the only moderately fair elections Egypt has ever held still justifiably seethe at having been ousted from office at gunpoint. Despite an uptick in economic growth, youth unemployment remains worryingly high. In April 2019 Mr Sisi won a grossly unfair referendum to allow himself to remain in power until 2030. A despot with a messianic streak who aims to rule for ever is not a recipe for long-term stability.
The most likely cause of social breakdown is water, or rather the lack of it. Egypt is mostly desert. Its people are nearly all crammed into a narrow fertile strip on either side of the Nile. Successive governments have encouraged them to waste water by charging almost nothing for it. Meanwhile, the countries upstream of Egypt plan to draw more water from the Nile. Ethiopia is building a huge dam to generate electricity and help its people lift themselves out of poverty. Sudan wants to divert water into irrigation projects, hoping to become the regional breadbasket. Many Egyptians, accustomed to taking the pharoah's share of the Nile's waters, view all this as an existential threat.
The potential for conflict may increase as climate change parches the region and Egypt's population increases: from 100m today to an estimated 130m by 2030. Some Egyptian military officers have suggested that Egypt will go to war to protect its rights to the Nile's waters. At the same time, Egypt also has a sizeable jihadist threat in the Sinai region, where an offshoot of Islamic State massacres Christians and Sufis (a minority Muslim sect). It has unstable neighbours, too: war-torn Libya to the west, revolutionary Sudan to the south. With so many potential sources of instability, it would be rash not to think through the possible consequences if Egypt collapsed into the kind of chaos seen in Syria or Libya.
For one thing, the refugee flows would dwarf those from Syria (which, pre-war, was only a fifth as populous as Egypt). A few of the displaced might head for the open, unguarded spaces of Libya. But most would cram into boats and cross the Mediterranean, or try their luck in the Gulf. Italian and Greek ships would try to turn them back. Many would drown. Turkey and Jordan would be slightly more welcoming. Though only a small proportion of the refugees would make it to Europe, anti-migrant parties would wax hysterical about the "Egyptian invasion". Populists would win elections, starting in France. President Marion Marechal-Le Pen would close the border with Italy—and then ban halal butchers.
Domino effect
If the Egyptian government lost control, foreign powers would intervene to keep the Suez canal open to global shipping. The United States, which uses the canal to move naval forces from the Mediterranean to the Gulf and farther east, would swiftly take charge, with a token coalition of Saudis and Emiratis at its side. But given the humiliation they suffered in the Suez crisis of 1956, Britain and France would be understandably reluctant to participate.
Some of Egypt's vast ungoverned territory would provide a safe haven for killers. Rebels from Libya would use the borderlands as a rear base. Jihadists would set up a new caliphate on Egyptian turf. Israel would find this intolerable—Egypt would have transformed from a partner in peace to a mortal threat. Israeli jets would bomb Islamic State targets in Egypt as ferociously as they bombed Iranian missile units in Syria. Even then, having lost its main mediator with Hamas in Gaza, Israel would be desperately vulnerable.
As the chaos in Syria and Libya shows, putting Egypt back together would be excruciatingly hard, and might take decades. Far better to stop it collapsing in the first place—but it is far from obvious that Mr Sisi is the right man for that job. ■
Germany is in shock after a politician who championed refugees is murdered
For the first time since the days of the Weimar Republic a German politician has been murdered by a xenophobic extremist. In June 1922 a group of anti-Semitic right-wingers appalled the German establishment by assassinating Walther Rathenau, the foreign minister, in his car on the streets of Berlin. This year, on June 2nd, Stephan Ernst, a neo-Nazi from Kassel with a history of violence against immigrants, allegedly shot Walter Lubcke, the Kassel district president, in the head outside his house in Wolfhagen, in central Germany. Mr Ernst confessed in detail at the end of June. On July 2nd he is said to have retracted his confession.
The crime has shocked Germany more than any of the 195 murders by right-wing extremists since reunification because the victim was a representative of the state. "Never in our republic's 70 years has democracy been challenged from the right as it is nowadays," said Armin Laschet, the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, who, like Mr Lubcke, is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and supports her refugee policies. On Thursday June 27th more than 10,000 people took to the streets of Kassel to march against right-wing violence.
Seventy-four years after Hitler's death, many Germans are haunted by the spectre of resurgent neo-Nazi violence and wonder whether enough is being done to fight it. Thomas Haldenwang, head of the federal office for the protection of the constitution, responsible for Germany's domestic security, admitted that his agency has yet to expunge the threat of right-wing extremism. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president, said it was shameful that Germany could not protect Mr Lubcke.
Not enough is done to try to deradical-ise neo-Nazis, says Dierk Bostel of Dortmund University, an expert on the extreme right. The police, the federal prosecutor's office and Mr Haldenwang's agency are being urged to work more closely together. More, it is said, must be done to monitor neo-Nazi networks and hate speech on the web. Mr Ernst, an aficionado of online Nazi propaganda, should have been closely watched ever since he nearly killed an immigrant in a train-station toilet in 1992.
Far-right extremism surged during the refugee crisis in 2015 and has not come down. One manifestation is the rising popularity of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which started as a Eurosceptic protest party in 2013 but has turned into a hard-right outfit akin to Austria's Freedom Party. "The AfD are enablers of right-wing terror," says Hajo Funke, a specialist in xenophobic extremism at the Free University of Berlin. The party's radical wing has got the upper hand. Even though the AfD talks about expelling extremists such as Bjorn Hocke or Andreas Kalbitz, its ultranationalist leaders in Thuringia and Brandenburg, it has never actually kicked anyone out.
The AfD’s reaction to the Lubcke tragedy seemed to confirm the party's reputation. In Bavaria's parliament, an AfD politicianrefused to stand for a minute's silence in Mr Liibcke's honour. Wolfgang Gedeon, an AfD deputy in Baden-Wurttemberg's state parliament, belittled far-right terrorism as "birdshit" compared with the threat posed by the far left and radical Islamists.
This was too much for Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU party leader, who said any politician hoping that her party might join a coalition government with the AfD in the future "should close their eyes and think of Walter Lubcke". Her resolve will be tested in the autumn, when Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia vote in state elections. Polls show the AfD tied for first place in the first two and being supported by around 20% in Thuringia. ■
I AM NOW SERMONIZING ON YOU TUBE------ I HAVE ABOUT 20 VIDEOS DONE SO FAR! WILL BE DOING MORE ON A REGULAR BASIS! ALL FOR NOW WILL BE VARIOUS PARTS OF BIBLE PROPHECY. SO GO TO YOUTUBE----- TYPE IN---- Keith Malcolm Hunt Click on my name---- Click on videos---- They should all come up! ..........
Its ice sheet is shedding 3bn tonnes of water a day
Greenland's misleading name is the result of a marketing campaign by Erik the Red, a tenth-century Norse explorer who wished to attract settlers to its icy landscape. Little did he know that the island had been covered by lush forests many millennia before he was born. Nor could he have fathomed that, a millennium after his death, the vast ice sheet that gave the lie to his inviting description would be in rapid retreat.
That sheet holds enough water to raise the world's sea level by more than seven metres, should it all melt and run off into the oceans. For this reason, climate scientists monitor the sheet's seasonal trends closely. In particular, they study the spring melt that leads up to the late summer ice minimum, after which the sheet starts to grow again.
The latest data show that the area of melting ice is unusually high this year. On June 12th 712,000 square kilometres of the sheet (more than 40% of it) were melting. That is well outside the normal range for the past 40 years.
Several things are to blame. First, a natural cycle known as the North Atlantic Oscillation is encouraging ice-melt. Then there is long-term warming driven by rising greenhouse-gas emissions. Third, climate change has also weakened the jet stream, permitting a warm and humid weather system to settle over north-eastern Greenland. As a result of all this, the seasonal ice-melt began two weeks early. And according to data published on the Polar Portal, a Danish climate-research website, Greenland is currently losing 3bn tonnes of ice a day. That is roughly three times the average for mid-June in the period from 1981 to 2010.
The three previously recorded losses at this scale, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, each portended a record shrinkage of the sheet's volume at the end of the summer. This year's is likely to do the same. As Thomas Mote of America's National Snow and Ice Data Centre observes, although a switch in the weather could still turn things around, the early melt will result in darker snow and ice, which absorb more sunlight and hasten the melting process.
Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland reckons that if this year is anything like 2012 (which set the current record for ice melt), melting ice from Greenland will raise the sea level by a millimetre. That is on top of the 2.smm-a-year rise brought about by other causes, such as thermal expansion of the oceans in response to global warming. Greenland may not be green yet, but it is far less icy than in Erik's time. ■
FIVE YEARS, 150 PUBLICATIONS AND LOTS OF MILK BEHIND DATABASE OF MORE THAN 2,000 COMPOUNDS
By Hamad Issawi - STARMETRO EDMONTON
WHILE THE CONTENT OF A CARTON OF MILK ISN’T ALWAYS CLEAR, NEW WORK OUT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA LOOKS TO QUENCH THAT WITH A TALL GLASS OF FACTS.
AFTER FIVE YEARS OF RESEARCH…. IMMUNOLOGIST BURIM AMETAJ AND BIOLOGIST DAVID WISHART HAVE CHURNED OUT THE MILK COMPOSITION DATABASE, A COMPREHENSIVE WEBSITE LISTING AND DETAILING MORE THAN 2,000 COMPOUNDS FOUND IN COW’S MILK, INCLUDING 168 THAT HAVE NEVER BEFORE BEEN REPORTED.
“THERE ARE 2, 355 DIFFERENT COMPOUNDS,” AMETAJ EXPLAINED. “WE HAVE SEARCHED A LOT TO PUT TOGETHER ALL THIS TREMENDOUS INFORMATION, WHICH HAS BEEN SCATTERED IN DIFFERENT PAPERS IN DIFFERENT ARTICLES—— AND NOW YOU HAVE AN ‘ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MILK.’”
SCIENTISTS, NUTRITIONISTS, AND EVEN THE AVERAGE MILK LOVER, CAN PORE OVER THE RESOURCE TO FIND A WEALTH OF DETAIL ON INDIVIDUAL COMPOUNDS—— SUGARS, VITAMINS, MINERALS, AND FATS—— IN DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF MILK, FROM SLIM TO 3.25 PER CENT.
AMETAJ ADDED. “IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH CHOLESTEROL IS IN MILK, YOU WILL FIND IT. OR IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH VITAMIN A IS IN MILK, YOU WILL FIND IT.”
“THERE ARE CONSUMERS THAT DON’T LIKE TO EAT FAT” AMETAJ SAID. “BUT IN SKIM MILK, THE FAT HAS BEEN REMOVED, AND WHEN YOU REMOVE FAT, YOU ALSO REMOVE THESE FAT-SOLUBLE VITAMINS—— VITAMIN A. E, D AND K—— AND TO OUR SURPRISE, VITAMIN C IS A WATER-SOLUBLE VITAMIN, NOT A FAT-SOLUBLE VITAMIN.”
VERA BARAZ, A CERTIFIED DIETITIAN WORKING IN THE EDMONTON AREA WHO TESTED THE WEBSITE, SAID THAT WHILKE SHE KNOWS MILK HAS A LOT OF NUTRIENTS, SEEING THE VOLUME OF INFORMATION IN THE DATABASE WAS A WELCOME SURPRISE.
AMETAJ SAID THE PROJECT WAS SUPPORTED BY BOTH THE FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS, “THIS IS A BENEFIT NOT JUST FOR US, BUT FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD.”
………………..
YES RAW ORGANIC MILK STRAIGHT FROM A COW RAISED ORGANICALLY, IS THE GREATEST SUPER FOOD OF ALL SUPER FOODS!!!
SOME MONTHS BACK [FROM JULY, AS I ENTER THIS, 2019] WAS AN ADD ON THE TV, THE GUY SAID, “RAW WHOLE MILK IS THE ONLY SUBSTANCE ON EARTH, THAT YOU CAN LIVE ON FROM BEING AN ADULT, LIVE ONLY ON, AND NEVER DIE FROM MALNUTRITION.”
THE OLD “HEALTH AND STRENGTH” STRONG MAN, CHARLES ATLAS, WAS A TEACHER THAT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED YOU DRINK LOTS OF RAW WHOLE ORGANIC MILK. HE SAID, ALONG WITH OTHER HEALTHY FOODS, IT WOULD GIVE YOU A BABY’S COMPLEXION.
AND AS A TEENAGER FIRST STARTING TO DO HIS COURSE, I DID INDEED HAVE A SKIN COMPLEXION GIRLS WOULD ENVY.
IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND SCHOOL SYSTEM I WAS RAISED IN [FROM 7 TO 17] WE HAD FREE WHOLE MILK [CREAM CAME TO THE TOP]. I DRANK A PINT EACH DAY IN SCHOOL, AND MILK ON THE WEEK-END AT HOME.
TRULY GOOD RAW WHOLE ORGANIC MILK IS THE GREATEST SUPER FOOD OF ALL SUPER FOODS [CHIA SEEDS AND BLUEBERRIES TWO OTHER “SUPER” FOODS].
Eggs are among the healthiest foods out there, but not all eggs are created equal, and sorting through the egg labels to identify the highest quality eggs can be a confusing affair.
Health conscious consumers know to look for designations like "organic," "free-range," "pastured" and "cage-free,"1 but while you may think many of these are interchangeable, they're actually not. In some ways, these labels are little more than creative advertising.
The featured video, "Egg Crackdown," a CBC Marketplace report by investigative reporter Asha Tomlinson, investigates the marketing of supermarket eggs and visits egg producers to get a firsthand look at what the company's label actually means.
There is a confusing array of egg labels
Unfortunately, while the Humane Farm Animal Care, a nonprofit certification agency, has set standards for free-range and pastured poultry for products bearing its Certified Humane label,2there's no legal definition of these terms in the U.S.
The "free-range" definition established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture applies to chickens only,3 not their eggs. As a result, the commercial egg industry is able to run industrial farm egg laying operations while still calling them "free-range" eggs, despite the fact that the birds' foraging conditions are far from natural.
Confusing matters further, while organic poultry and eggs are guaranteed to be free-range, as required by organic standards, free-range poultry are not required to be organic.4 Importantly, the organic label is also the only way to ensure you're getting eggs from chickens that have not been fed antibiotics for growth purposes, as this is not allowed under the organic standards.
For chickens, the USDA's definition of free-range does not specify the amount of time the hens must spend outdoors or the amount of outdoor space each hen must have access to. Nor do they indicate that the hen must have access to a pasture diet.
True free-range eggs, now typically referred to as "pasture raised" as a way to differentiate them, come from hens that roam freely outdoors on a pasture where they can forage for their natural diet, which includes seeds, green plants, insects and worms.
Large commercial egg facilities typically house tens of thousands of hens and can even go up to hundreds of thousands of hens. Obviously, they cannot allow all of them to forage freely. However, they can still be called "cage-free" or "free-range" as long as they're not confined to an individual cage.
Overall, the cage-free and free-range labels say little to nothing about the conditions in which the chickens are raised, and more often than not, they're still deplorable. So, for the best quality eggs, from the most humanely-raised hens, the label you're looking for is "pastured."
Putting eggs to the test
In the featured video, CBC Marketplace also conducts a taste test to see how the different farming methods translate into flavor. Included in the taste test are conventional battery caged eggs, free-range, organic and pastured eggs. The two conventional brands tested were Burnbrae and Gray Ridge.
In terms of flavor, the conventional eggs were deemed "bland," and some of the testers expressed concerns about animal welfare being one of the reasons they avoid conventional eggs. Tomlinson visits a CAFO in Ontario to investigate the conditions in which these egg-layers are raised.
The facility houses 20,000 chickens, and operations are automated. Each cage houses six chickens, the space being just tall and wide enough for the chickens to fit with minimal space to move. The eggs drop through an opening onto a conveyer belt.
Next up in the taste test were Small Flock's Delight's brown eggs "from hens on grass," a Canadian free-range brand, the label of which states: "Back to the old way, small flocks of happy hens picking and scratching through soil and green plants." Some taste testers said these eggs had a much more robust flavor and aroma, while others guessed they were conventional.
Enriched colony, nest laid eggs are CAFO
Next, Tomlinson visits a CAFO with "enriched housing" facilities. Eggs such as these cost about 50 cents Canadian more than conventional eggs and are marketed as being more ethical. But are they? The hens raised in enriched housing facilities get double the square inch of space given conventional chickens, and each cage has a scratch pad and perch rail.
They also have a darkened "privacy quarter" in which they can lay their eggs, as scientists claim hens prefer to lay eggs in a dark, private area. Other than that, the facilities and methods are identical to those of a regular CAFO. Eggs such as these are typically labeled as "enriched colony," "enriched coup" or "nest laid."
Pastured eggs — A superior choice in terms of flavor and nutrition
As noted in the featured video, while "free run," "free-range" and "pastured" may sound like interchangeable terms, they're not. And the reality behind these terms isn't necessarily what you might expect:
• "Free run" eggs are from chickens that are not confined to battery cages, but they're still cooped up indoors, in a giant factory-style building, without access to the outside.
• "Free-range," is basically the same, but with access to the outdoors — at least in theory: Pictures from some free-range farms have a conspicuous absence of chickens in their outdoor areas.
• Then there's pastured. CBC visits Organic Meadows, a farmer-owned cooperative that raises "pastured" chickens and eggs. Each day, the barn is opened up and the birds migrate outdoors.
"Fresh air and sunshine, that does a lot of good to an animal," the farmer says. The hens are fed organic feed, and the eggs are hand-gathered. Thus, they command a markedly higher retail price.
While everyone might not be able to afford pastured eggs, "the consumer can feel confident they're getting their money's worth," the farmer says. As for taste, "creamy" and "delicious" were some of the comments given after tasting Organic Meadow's pastured eggs.
As noted in the video, the diet of the chicken can impact not only the taste of the egg, but also its nutritional value. CBC Marketplace had the different types of eggs tested for their nutritional content, and the differences were significant.
Organic Meadow's pastured eggs received the highest nutritional rating, having three to five times more vitamin E, twice as much omega-3 fat and significantly higher amounts of vitamins A and D than the other eggs.
When it came to taste, Burnbrae's conventional eggs came in last place, with none of the taste testers selecting it as their favorite. The free run eggs came in fifth place, followed by the free-range brand (Small Flock's Delight) and Burnbrae's Organic. Interestingly, the win was a tie between Gray Ridge's conventional and Organic Meadow's pastured eggs.
Pastured eggs less likely to carry pathogenic contamination
While not discussed in this CBC Marketplace report, pastured eggs are also far less likely to be contaminated with disease-causing pathogens. CAFOs are known to be hotbeds for Salmonella infection.5
Eggs can become contaminated while they are being formed if the Salmonella bacteria exist inside a chicken's ovaries. As noted in the report,6,7 "Food Safety and Cage Egg Production" by the Humane Society, published in 2011:
"All 16 scientific studies published in the last five years comparing Salmonella contamination between caged and cage-free operations found that those confining hens in cages had higher rates of Salmonella, the leading cause of food poisoning-related death in the United States."
Today, we also have antibiotic-resistant strains of salmonella to contend with, which makes potential contamination even more worrisome. While there's no way to guarantee 100% safety at all times, the benefits of free-range poultry are becoming more well-recognized, and reduced disease risk is definitely part of that benefits package.
Eggs are an important part of a healthy diet
As mentioned, eggs are one of the healthiest foods around, loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals, including selenium, vitamins B2 (riboflavin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B7 (biotin) and B12, high-quality protein, iodine, vitamin D, zinc, omega-3 fats and more.8
Eggs are also an important source of lutein and zeaxanthin, two antioxidants known to play a role in healthy vision and the prevention of cataracts and macular degeneration, and are one of the best sources of choline available, providing 430 milligrams of choline per 100 grams.9
Choline helps keep your cell membranes functioning properly, plays a role in nerve communications and prevents the buildup of homocysteine in your blood, which is good because elevated levels are linked to heart disease.
Choline also helps reduce chronic inflammation and has been shown to lower your risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, in part due to its role in phosphatidyl choline and transporting fats out of your liver,10 and part due to the fact that it's an important part of the mitochondrial membrane, and mitochondrial dysfunction is a central mechanism in the pathogenesis of NAFLD.11
Choline deficiency is thought to play a major role in NAFLD because it disturbs mitochondrial bioenergetics12 and fatty acid oxidation.13 Choline also enables your body to make the brain chemical acetylcholine, which is involved in storing memories. In pregnant women, choline helps prevent birth defects such as spina bifida, while also playing a role in your baby's brain development.
According to a study14 published in the journal Nutrients, only 8.03 to 0.56% of U.S. adults are getting enough choline — including only 8.51 to 2.89% of pregnant women. Among egg consumers, however, 57.3% meet the adequate intake levels for choline.
Based on the outcomes, the study authors concluded that "it is extremely difficult to achieve the adequate intake for choline without consuming eggs or taking a dietary supplement."15
Some of the symptoms associated with low choline levels include lethargy, memory problems and persistent brain fog. Because your body can only synthesize small amounts of this nutrient, you must get it from your diet on a regular basis.
Where and how to find organic pastured eggs
So to summarize, what you're really looking for is eggs that are both certified organic and true pasture-raised. Barring organic certification, which is cost-prohibitive for many small farmers, you could just make sure the farmer raises his chickens according to organic, free-range standards, allowing his flock to forage freely for their natural diet, and doesn't feed them antibiotics, corn or soy.
If you live in an urban area, visiting a local health food store is typically the quickest route to finding high-quality local egg sources. Your local farmers market is another source for fresh organic pasture-raised eggs, and is a great way to meet the people who produce your food.
With face-to-face contact, you can get your questions answered and know exactly what you're buying. Better yet, visit the farm and ask for a tour. Your egg farmer should be paying attention to proper nutrition, clean water, adequate housing space and good ventilation to reduce stress on the hens and support their immunity.
To get an idea of what you're looking for in a superior egg producer, take a look at Joel Salatin's Polyface farm operation below. He's truly one of the pioneers in sustainable agriculture, and you can take a virtual tour through his chicken farm operation in the following video.
As a general rule, you can tell the eggs are pastured by the color of the egg yolk. Foraged hens produce eggs with bright orange yolks. Dull, pale yellow yolks are a sure sign you're getting eggs from caged hens that are not allowed to forage for their natural diet.
For store-bought eggs, be sure to check out Cornucopia's organic egg scorecard that rates 136 egg producers based on 28 organic criteria. According to Cornucopia, their report "showcases ethical family farms and their brands, and exposes factory farm producers and brands in grocery store coolers that threaten to take over organic livestock agriculture."
Another alternative: Raise your own backyard chickens
This is the choice I have actually taken. I had a chicken coop built for 20 chickens and I now have 14 chickens and will likely get more soon. Eggs are my primary protein source as I eat about six eggs every day. Seemed to be the best strategy to get the highest quality eggs.
As noted in the featured Marketplace report, backyard chickens are making a comeback, as more homeowners are adding free-roaming chickens to their gardens. If you are so inclined, it's by far your best egg sourcing option.
As you can see in the Polyfarm video above, raising chickens is not very difficult. If you are interested in the possibility of raising a few chickens yourself, a good place to begin is by asking yourself a few questions (see below). You can also visit Joel's Polyface Farm Web site for more details on raising chickens.
Can I dedicate some time each day? — You can expect to devote about 10 minutes a day, an hour per month and a few hours twice a year to the care and maintenance of your brood.
Do I have enough space? — They will need a minimum of 10 square feet per bird to roam, preferably more. The more foraging they can do, the healthier and happier they'll be and the better their eggs will be.
What are the chicken regulations in my town? — You will want to research this before jumping in because some places have zoning restrictions and even noise regulations (which especially applies if you have a rooster).
Are my neighbors on board with the idea? — It's a good idea to see if they have any concerns early on.
Can I afford a flock? — There are plenty of benefits to growing your own eggs, but saving money isn't one of them. There are significant upfront costs to getting a co-op set up, plus ongoing expenses for supplies.
