Why eating eggs is cruel….

May 5, 2008 at 10:51 am (Economics, Veganism, Young Jains)
Tags: , , , , , ,

Taken from the Vegan Society Website…written by PHILIP LYMBERY in 2002. Please see the this link for the article and the full set of accompanying references

For more information see:

Animal Aid

Viva

The Egg Industry

The world laying hen population is currently estimated at 4,700 million. The 15 countries of the European Union (EU) house 271 million laying hens, second only to the 800 million birds in China. Other major egg-producing regions include the USA (270 million birds), Japan (152 million), India (123 million) and Mexico (103 million) (IEC, 2001).

Worldwide, some 70-80% of laying hens are housed in battery cages. The proportion of caged hens in the EU is about 90%. This is likely to change rapidly following the coming into force of the 1999 Laying Hens Directive, which prohibits barren battery cages by 2012. So-called “enriched” cages will continue to be legal. There are 29.2 million hens in the UK egg-laying flock. About 78% are currently in cages, with the rest in alternative non-cage systems: 16% kept free range; and 6% in perchery/barn systems (Williams, 2000).

There are 26,500 flocks of egg-laying hens in the UK producing 8,800 million eggs per year, the majority for UK consumption. Over 75% of hens are kept in flocks of 20,000 birds or more (BEIS, 2001).
Consumers

In the UK, the average consumer eats 170 eggs per year. Of these, 140 are eaten as eggs bought in shell, whilst 30 will be consumed in processed form such as in cakes and ready-made meals. The UK laying flock produces 8,800 million eggs per year. The majority (60.5%) are sold through retailers, whilst catering outlets account for 21%, and food manufacturers using egg as an ingredient take 18.5% of the total (BEIS, 2001).

From 2004, European Union legislation will make it compulsory for eggs to be labelled according to method of production. The following terms will apply:

  • Battery eggs will be labelled “Eggs from caged hens”;
  • Barn eggs will be labelled “Barn” eggs;
  • Free-range eggs will be labelled “Free Range” eggs.

FARMING SYSTEMS FOR EGGS

Battery Cages

In the battery system, hens are crammed into a cage so small that they cannot stretch their wings, let alone walk or peck and scratch at the ground. Under these conditions hens are prevented from performing most of their natural behaviours, such as dust bathing, perching and laying their eggs in a nest. Up to 90,000 caged hens can be crammed into one windowless shed. The cages in Europe are stacked between 4 and 9 cages high. Japan is said to have the world’s highest battery cage unit, with cages stacked 18 tiers high.

There is clear scientific evidence that hens suffer in battery cages. Common sense also tells us that to keep a healthy hen in a barren wire cage, with less space than an ordinary sheet of typing paper, is bound to cause suffering. These conditions prevent the hens performing their natural behaviours and cause their bodies to degenerate through lack of exercise.

Brittle Bones & Injured Feet

Battery hens suffer Caged Layer Osteoporosis (CLO), or brittle bones. Research has shown that 35% of premature deaths in cages are due to CLO, a slow death from paralysis and starvation at the back of the cage.

Confined to the cage, the hen is unable to forage by scratching and pecking at the ground. Under natural conditions a large proportion of a hen’s day would be spent looking for food. Denied this simple activity, the hen’s claws can grow long or twisted and be torn off. They can even grow around the wire mesh of the sloping cage floor. The slope itself puts painful pressure on the hen’s toes, causing damage to the bird’s feet.

European Scientific Veterinary Committee Report

In 1996 the European Union’s committee of scientific and veterinary experts published a report acknowledging the behavioural needs of hens and the welfare problems caused by caging. After reviewing the evidence, the Scientific Veterinary Committee report found that:

  • “Hens have a strong preference for laying their eggs in a nest and are highly motivated to perform nesting behaviour”.
  • “Hens have a strong preference for a littered floor for pecking, scratching and dust-bathing”.
  • “Hens have a preference to perch, especially at night”.

All of these behaviours are denied to caged hens. The report concluded that:

“Battery cage systems provide a barren environment for the birds… It is clear that because of its small size and its barrenness, the battery cage as used at present has inherent severe disadvantages for the welfare of hens”.

In 1999 the European Union agreed to ban the use of conventional battery cages from 2012. The new Laying Hens Directive (Council Directive 1999/74/EC) forbids the introduction of newly-built battery cages from 2003, and from that date space allowance in existing conventional battery cages will be increased from 450 cm2 to 550 cm2 per bird. To put these space allowances into context, an A4 sheet of typing paper covers 620 cm2. So-called ‘enriched’ cages will not be banned under this new legislation.

“Enriched” Cages

The European Union has agreed to ban barren battery cages from 2012. However “enriched” cages will still be allowed. “Enriched” cages must provide at least 750 cm2 per hen, of which 600 cm2 is “useable area”, the rest being shared space for items such as a nest box. “Enriched” cages must be 45 cm high over most of the cage. This compares with 450 cm2 of cage space per hen in battery cages and a height of 40 cm. “Enriched” cages must also have a nest, “litter such that pecking and scratching are possible”, 15 cm of perch space per hen, and a claw-shortening device.

It is claimed that “enriched” cages will be better for the hens’ welfare than battery cages. However scientific and practical evidence shows that, in welfare terms, a cage is still a cage, “enriched” or not, and that birds will continue to suffer. The space and facilities provided in “enriched” cages are so inadequate that they deprive the birds of the ability to fulfil natural behaviours, leading to abnormal behaviours, frustration, suffering and body degeneration (Lymbery, in press).

Barn Systems

“Barn” eggs are produced from hens kept in loose flocks confined within a shed. Birds in this system are not caged and can roam throughout their house but are not let outside. They are provided with perches, platforms, and nestboxes and litter areas. Some barn units keep their hens in large flock sizes of up to 16,000 birds in conditions that can resemble a crowded football terrace.

Free Range Systems

“Free Range” often conjures up idyllic images of hens scratching in the farmyard. The reality is often very different. They are often kept in “Barn”-type houses in flocks of up to 16,000 in large sheds. They are often debeaked. The birds must have access to the outdoor range area, which can be stocked at a maximum of 2,500 birds per hectare of land available to the hens. However, in large-scale free range units, often less than 50% of the birds regularly go outside. As with all commercial laying hens, after usually a year of egg production they are slaughtered.

Debeaking

Many hens are debeaked. A red-hot blade sears off a chunk of the birds’ sensitive beak. This suffering is caused in order to stop birds pecking at each other or cannibalising, common problems on commercial egg farms – whether caged or free range.

Debeaking, often referred to as ‘beak trimming’, is a serious mutilation which is carried out on a large proportion of laying hens in all production systems. It has been suggested that debeaking is no more painful than for humans cutting their nails. This is a false analogy, since scientific evidence shows that hens not only feel pain at the time of the operation but can also suffer a lasting, chronic pain.

Debeaking is carried out to stop the hens pecking out one another’s feathers, an abnormal behaviour that can lead to cannibalism. It is widely acknowledged that these behaviours are borne out of frustration of natural behaviours, leading to stress in industrial-scale poultry farms. Debeaking adds insult to injury by punishing the birds themselves for the bad husbandry systems they are kept in.

Brittle Bones & Malignant Tumours

The average hen lays about 300 eggs a year. Some reach 330 eggs a year. That’s nearly one a day. This compares with the laying of 5-6 eggs per brood during the breeding season of the hens’ wild ancestors. The modern drive toward ever-greater egg production puts strain on the birds’ physiological system. Is it any wonder that hens all too often suffer osteoporosis and malignant tumours?

Bone weakness in laying hens is a major cause of concern. Although it can mainly be attributed to the battery hen’s almost total lack of exercise (Broom, 1992), the great demand for calcium for the formation of egg shells depletes natural stores of calcium in the hen’s body, often leading to severe osteopenia (RSPCA, 1989).

Another welfare problem associated with pushing hens to lay more eggs is the development of malignant tumours of the oviduct. In one investigation, a significant proportion of malignant tumours of the oviduct were identified in 20,000 ’spent’ layers selected from ten different farms. The researchers concluded, “… the increase in the prevalence of the (magnum) tumour coincides with continued selection of fowl for high egg production” (Anjum, 1989).

Slaughter of Spent Hens

Most egg-laying hens in the UK are sent for slaughter after a year of egg production. This can be a traumatic experience for hens as they are caught and bundled into crates before being transported by lorry to the slaughterhouse. One study found that at the time of catching and crating, levels of the stress hormone corticosterone in battery hens were 10 times higher than normal. Once caught, the hens are held by their legs and carried upside down out of the shed and packed into crates for transport, often breaking their bones in the process (Turner & Lymbery, 1999).

On average 29% of battery hens arriving at the slaughterhouse are reported to have at least one freshly-broken bone. Removing the birds from the crates and hanging them upside down on the shackle to await slaughter increases the proportion of hens with broken bones to 45% (Gregory and Wilkins, 1989; Gregory, 1994).

“Spent” hens can be worth as little as two pence per bird. After slaughter their carcasses will be used in chicken soups, pastes, pies, pet food, etc.

Slaughter of Cock Chicks

For every hen hatched for egg laying there is a cock chick that is killed almost immediately after struggling from the egg. Modern selective breeding techniques have resulted in distinct strains of chicken for egg laying and meat production. This breed specialisation has gone so far that birds of the laying strain do not make good meat birds. As male birds of the laying strain do not lay eggs and will not produce meat efficiently, they are killed when a day old.

Official advice is to kill the chicks before they are 72 hours old using carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. Where small numbers of chicks are involved, neck dislocation or decapitation is also advised. (MAFF, 1987). Another often-used method is a mechanical ‘homogeniser’, which minces the chicks alive. About 30 million cock chicks a year are killed a year in Britain alone.

Eggs, Food & The Environment

Food vs. Feed

Hens laying eggs don’t produce food, they waste it! It takes 3 kilos of grain as chicken feed to produce one kilo of eggs. This is because the conversion of crops by farm animals into food for humans is grossly inefficient. And it is not only food, such as grain, which could be fed directly to humans, that is wasted. Each battery egg takes about 180 litres of water to produce. Compare this with the human use of water in developing countries. In India, for example, the poorest people use an average of only 10 litres of water each per day (O’Brien, 1998).

Environmental Impact

Ammonia gas escaping into the atmosphere is a serious pollutant linked to acid rain. Studies of farm animal housing have shown that egg farms have one of the highest farm emission rates of ammonia gas. Laying-hen houses in the UK and other European countries have also been found to have levels of ammonia and inhalable dust close to or over the regulated limits for continuous exposure for animals or for 8-hour occupational exposure for stockpersons (Turner, 1999).

The intensive farming of eggs depends on a plentiful supply of affordable feed, which is usually grown intensively using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Intensive farming practices have been linked to severe declines in farmland wildlife such as birds.

Human Health

Salmonella

Eggs are an important source of salmonella food poisoning. Eggs were responsible for 10% of Infectious Intestinal Disease (IID), or food poisoning, outbreaks in England and Wales in the period 1992-1999 (FSA, 2000). Nearly 17,000 cases of salmonella infection in humans were confirmed in 1999. This represents a 53% fall in cases since the peak of 36,400 in 1997 (ACMSF, 2001). In 1988 the then Health Minister, Edwina Currie, caused controversy by claiming that most egg production in the UK was infected with salmonella. Reports of salmonella infection have only just fallen back below pre-Edwina Currie levels.

Advice from the Government’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) is that “eating raw eggs may pose a health risk. Vulnerable groups such as the elderly, the sick, babies and pregnant women should only consume eggs that have been cooked until the white and yolks are solid” (FSA, 2001).

Cholesterol

Eggs are a rich source of cholesterol, which is linked to heart disease. A single egg contains most of a person’s recommended maximum daily cholesterol intake.

PHILIP LYMBERY

Leave a Comment

If Gandhi was alive today, he would be a vegan.

April 2, 2008 at 10:32 pm (Jainism, Veganism, Young Jains)
Tags: , , , , ,

Young Jains organised a ‘Vegan Lifestyle’ event a couple of weeks ago. The event was coordinated by Mahersh Shah, the founder of Shambhu’s Kitchen, a vegan catering company that delivers lunches to offices in central London in a low emissions vehicle (and also my somewhat distant uncle).

At the end of the event, Mahersh read out two quotes by Mahatma Gandhi that lead me to believe that if he was alive today, he would be a vegan. I would like to share these quotes with you all – they can be found in Chapter 8 of Gandhi’s autobiography.

“It is my firm conviction that man need take no milk at all, beyond the mother’s milk that he takes as a baby”

“I should be greatly obliged if anyone with experience in this line, who happens to read this chapter, would tell me, if he has known from experience, and not from reading, of a vegetable substitute for milk, which is equally nourishing and digestible.”

Apparently there is much more in his autobiography that is relevant to the topic of veganism. I can’t wait until my exams are over so I can read it.

The event was brilliant. Saurabh Dalal (of the Vegetarian Society of Washington DC) made an excellent presentation on veganism and its the connection with Jainism and it was incredible listening to the experiences of Wenda Shehata from Hugletts Wood Farm. There were also representatives from a number of vegan organisations including Mr. Man restaurant in Edgware, London Vegans, The Vegan Society,Vegan Campaigns and Lifescape Magazine.

My personal experience tells me that cultural and social influences within the UK Jain community have resulted in the objectives of financial stability and a high quality material standard of living have gained a higher priority over practising Jain principles within many Jain households. I found it deeply humbling to see so many vegan organisation representatives who have come from non-Jain backgrounds, but yet appear to practice the Jain principles of non-violence, self-control and non-absolutism to a greater extent than many people who call themselves Jains. My admiration for these people is deepened when I imagine how difficult it must have been to switch from a non-vegetarian non-Jain background to veganism – it makes my journey from a lacto-vegetarian in jain-vegetarian household seem like such a small step.

I was also deeply inspired by Mahersh and Saurabh’s enthusiasm to demonstrate the relevance of veganism for Jains. I believe the event will spark a healthy debate within UK Jain community about the priorities that we should have when trying to reduce our karmic footprint in the context of the complex production and distribution processes that envelope our consumption habits. For example, perhaps promoting a vegan diet during Paryushan might be more effective (in terms of karmic impact), and be more meaningful to small children who find it difficult to understand the harm of eating root vegetables.

I was impressed by how the event brought together a number of Jain vegans and people wanting to become vegan. Before I went to JAINA, I didn’t know any vegans (at least I didn’t think I knew any vegans). At the event, I realised that I knew quite a few vegans – but I just didn’t know that they were vegan. For someone trying to reduce animal products from their lifestyle, knowing that you have a friend or two doing it at the same time can be really motivating, and sharing tips and recipes is really useful.

A Jain Vegans e-support group was created at the event to try and provide support to any Jains looking to go vegan or to those already vegan who would like to shape a growing vegan community. The group has been running for about a month now, and we have a number of active members from the US, the UK and India. The e-group has a number useful links and documents, and through the group members have found recipes for vegan chocolate cake, vegan yoghurt and vegan gulab-jamun. If you would like to join the group please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JainVegans/.

Leave a Comment

My Vegan Journey

April 2, 2008 at 10:02 pm (Friends of the Earth, Jainism, Veganism, Young Jains)
Tags: , , , , , , ,

I had thought about turning vegan for a long time.

I frequently received articles about milk and the dairy industry and I would frequently be disgusted. I would be disgusted by the fact that dairy cows are forced to produce 6,000 litres of milk per year (more than 10x the requirement of a normal calf); I would be disgusted by the fact that calves are separated from their mothers within 48 hours of birth so that the milk produced by a cow can be used for human production rather than to feed her own children; I would be disgusted by the fact that dairy cows would be slaughtered at the age of 5 or 6 even though they would naturally live for more than 20 years; and I would be disgusted that the typical glass of milk contains over 300 million cells of pus and blood (the legal limit is 400 million cells [of pus and blood]).

I would be disgusted, but then I would try and forget it all. I would try and forget about it because I thought it would be impossible to become a vegan. It’s not that I didn’t want to become a vegan, it’s just I didn’t know how. I thought it would be impossible to give up milk, cheese, butter and the other thousand or so foods that contain them. I didn’t know anyone who had become a vegan personally (at least I thought I didn’t). I was already frustrated by never having a choice of more than one or two meals at a restaurant or sandwiches at a sandwich shop; and I would always be causing inconvenience to my non-vegetarian friends when they hosted dinner parties and barbeques.

I would try and forget it all because it would make my life easier. I knew that if I were to think about the amount of pus and blood in milk, I wouldn’t be able enjoy my breakfast. I knew that if I were to think about how a cow had to separated from its calf in order to produce cheese at low cost, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy eating pizza – one of my favourite foods. And if I couldn’t eat pizza or cereal, I would have to look for something else to eat for breakfast or when out in restaurants. I knew that would mean extra hassle for me – searching for alternatives to dairy milk, asking and enquiring about what is dairy and what is not dairy free. As a Jain who strongly believes in the principles of ahimsa and self control – I knew it would be the right thing to do. I knew that a small effort from my part could make a big impact on the suffering of cows in the dairy industry. But it was easier just not to think about it. No thinking – no hassle.

Fortunately, in the summer of 2007 I experienced two moments of enlightenment that have changed the way in which I think. Both of them occurred at the JAINA (Federation of Jain Associations in North America) convention in Edison, New Jersey USA. I was doing an internship in New York in the summer and a couple of friends from Young Jains came over from London to go to the convention. After much persuasion (well, after I found out the Lauren Hill was going to be performing one evening), I decided to join them. Lauren Hill didn’t bother turning up in the end (probably for the better), but deciding to go was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life.

Since a substantial proportion of Jains in North America are vegan, a wide range of vegan and ‘jain vegetarian’ meals and snacks were available. One evening, the organising committee put out pizza (both vegan and non-vegan) for the youth group to feast themselves on. Being used to eating regular (non-vegan) pizza, I naturally picked some up and offered a slice to a 12 year old boy who I had been speaking to earlier in the evening. He politely replied “No thank you”. A bit confused, I asked him “Don’t you like pizza?” he replied “I do, but I’m a vegan. I’m just waiting to get a slice of the vegan pizza”. “You’re a vegan?!?” I exclaimed “when did you become a vegan?” I asked. The boy replied “About a month ago.”, and then pulled out a fact sheet piece of paper with some information about how dairy cows are treated “I went to a talk by this guy [the person that wrote the fact-sheet] a couple of weeks ago and I decided to turn vegan”.

And then it hit me. I felt more ashamed at this moment than I had ever felt in my entire life. I was humbled by the fact that a twelve year old had boy more will power and discipline than I did – but there is no shame in that. I was ashamed because I realised that I was a hypocrite.

I would frequently criticise my dad when he said he occasionally ate meat shortly after he first moved to the UK because it was so difficult to be a vegetarian. I would frequently criticise my non-vegetarians friends who expressed a desire to become vegetarian but often argued a reason for not changing was because they ‘wouldn’t know what to eat’. And I would frequently criticise the same non-vegetarians when I saw them ordering non-vegetarian dishes at restaurants when vegetarian food was available.

I was a hypocrite because I was guilty of the same things that I criticised my father and my non-vegetarian friends for.

I would always tell my dad that if he really made the effort, vegetarian food would have been available, and that he just didn’t care enough about being a vegetarian [he disagrees]. Yet the very reason why I didn’t turn vegan earlier in my life was because I thought it was too hard to be a vegan. Of course it wasn’t too hard to become a vegan, it’s just that I wasn’t prepared to go the effort to even try. And when vegan was readily available to me (the pizza), instead of trying the vegan pizza, I just instinctively went for the regular cheese pizza. Just like my friends who ordered non-vegetarian meals at restaurants out of habit.

As I realised this all, I felt really bad. I felt bad for criticising my dad and my friends for things and doing the same thing myself. I then remembered two of my favourite quotes by Mahatma Gandhi that had been mentioned earlier at the convention – “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching” and “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony”. I was unhappy with myself for having inharmonious thoughts and actions. At this moment, I decided to make a vow to myself. I vowed to always choose vegan food over non-vegan food so long as vegan food was available.

I spoke to a couple of people at the convention about turning vegan (including Saurabh Dalal, who I will mention later), and I was amazed about how helpful everyone was. I really felt that many American Jains had got to a stage where they were actively thinking about applying the principles of non-violence, non-absolutism and self-control rather than blindly following traditions that may no longer appropriate given the complex production and distribution methods that exist in modern society.

A couple of people advised me to speak to Dhrumil Purohit, an inspirational Young Jain who was co-organising the youth events at the convention. Dhrumil is a raw-foodist (some thus doesn’t eat food that has been cooked (i.e. a temperature above 40 degrees C) for spiritual and health reasons. I was amazed at his ability to give up all cooked foods, but a small conversation with him made me much more confident about the vow I had just made. I asked him “Isn’t it difficult to be on a raw food diet?”. He replied “No. It is just as easy as being a vegetarian, if not easier”. Initially, I didn’t understand. He explained further that any restaurant or any place that serves vegetarian food must use raw ingredients to produce the final dishes. So, as long as vegetarian dishes are available, raw food is also available. Since raw food is easier to produce than cooked food, it is easier to eat raw food than regular vegetarian food. If raw food isn’t available, then you probably don’t want to be eating at such a restaurant as a vegetarian as they don’t use fresh products.

After this conversation, I experienced my second moment of enlightenment. It wasn’t that I now wanted to convert to a raw food diet – far from it. It was about the vow that I made to myself. I vowed that so as long as vegan food is available, I would always choose it over non-vegan food. However, since I realised that a raw food diet was a subset of vegan diet, and raw food is nearly always available when vegetarian food is available (practically all the time), it means that vegan food must nearly always be available. That means in 99.99% of circumstances, if I ever eat non-vegan food, it is out of ‘greed’ and not out ‘need’.

Although I was happy that I had come to this conclusion, I was scared about the strength of the commitment I had made. Many people had told me that ignorance is bliss – what you don’t know can’t hurt you. I remained pensive for the rest of the convention and was fortunate to be reminded of another two of my favourite Mahatma Gandhi quotes “There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed”, and “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. Mahatma was right and I knew it. I was inspired to become a vegan.

I left the conference feeling like a changed man. The people that I had met had opened my eyes, and made me realise that it was possible to do things that I once thought were impossible.

It didn’t take long before I realised just how much vegan food is available out there – I just hadn’t taken notice of it because I was concerned about so many other things in my life. (If you would like to do a quick test to see how easy it is to not to notice things goto www.dothetest.co.uk – and you will see what I mean). The corner-shop underneath my apartment sold 3 varieties of soymilk, almond milk and rice milk, and it turns out that there were about 10 vegan / vegetarian restaurants within a 5min walk from apartment – I just hadn’t noticed them. My local supermarket (Wholefoods Market) also sold a number of vegan cheeses, cookies, cakes, cheesecakes and other desserts.

Although vegan life in New York was incredible, I was weary about returning back to the UK since I did not know any other vegans (at least I thought I didn’t know any vegans in London). However, I was pleasantly surprised about how vibrant the vegan community is in the UK.

I started my second summer internship at Friends of the Earth, an environmental campaign group based in London. There, I discovered the links between veganism and environmentalism. I discovered that that rearing animals for meat and dairy is responsible for 18% of carbon dioxide (a higher share than transport), 37% of methane (which is 23x more polluting (in terms of global warming) than carbon dioxide), and 65% of nitrous oxide (296 x more polluting (in terms of global warming) than carbon dioxide) (The UN report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome, 2006).

A substantial proportion of Friends of the Earth employees were also vegan, and they introduced me to a couple of other vegan organisations such as Vegan Campaigns, the Vegan Society and London Vegans. It is also at Friends of the Earth that I discovered a number of delightful vegan food delivery services such as Hoxton Beach and Shambhu’s Kitchen.

That takes me to where I am now. I am now looking to get more actively involved in vegan societies around the country and to try and promote veganism within the UK Jain Community.

Leave a Comment