to document in taste tests; see p. 87.) In
addition, mass husbandry has played a role in
the rising incidence of salmonella
contamination. “Spent” hens are often
recycled into feed for the next generation of
layers, so that salmonella infection is readily
spread by careless processing. Finally, there is
a more difficult question: whether we can
enjoy good, cheap eggs more humanely,
without reducing descendents of the spirited
jungle fowl to biological machines that never
see the sun, scratch in the dust, or have more
than an inch or two to move.
Freer Range? Enough people have become
uncomfortable with the excesses of
industrialization, and willing to pay a
substantial premium for their eggs, that
smaller-scale, “free-range” and “organically
fed” laying flocks have made a comeback in
the United States and Europe. Swiss law now
requires that all hens in that country have free