Should factory farmed eggs be considered treif?

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Food for thought: How much should humane conditions factor into whether something gets a hechsher or not? Can we just go by the letter of the law and ignore the horrors of factory farming?

Eggs, for instance. Chickens are stuffed 5 to a cage, barely able to move around for their entire lives. This is basically torture. In my opinion, your conventional supermarket eggs should be treif, given the terrible צער בעלי חיים the chickens are subject to. But I still make compromises, because I'm not going to question hosts on what kinds of eggs they use. Nor do I buy the more expensive pasture raised eggs (the ideal), but settle for the cage-free variety, which are more affordable, and at least I know that the chickens aren't trapped in cages.

Where does halacha end and where does ethical eating begin?

Comments

  1. David StaumJuly 21, 2015 at 11:55 AM

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    Good question. My husband and I are struggling with the same issue. We, too, settle for cage-free eggs.
    We're also trying to avoid dairy products made with recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, because that hormone makes cows sick. Good news: Les Petites Fermieres cheeses are certified kosher (chalav stam, not chalav yisrael) by the OK and are rBST-free.
    Shira Salamone
    http://onthefringe_jewishblog.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

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