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blmurch, Flickr
Easter will be here in a few more days. All over the US, families are dyeing eggs, assembling Easter baskets, singing charming songs about Peter Cottontail, and soon they'll be hunting or rolling Easter eggs outdoors. As for the children—well, the children will be mystified again about how a bunny is supposed to lay chicken eggs (or chocolate eggs, or jelly beans for that matter); but they'll go along with the gag, if only to score the sweets.
Jelly beans and chocolate bunnies aside, how do you choose that basic Easter basket building block, the egg? Some people just go for size and cost. Other people add in other qualities like humane treatment of the chickens, absence of antibiotics, or Omega-3 fortification. Cage-free or free-range chickens may produce eggs that pass the ethical treatment test and taste great, but there is no regulation governing these labels. Caveat emptor.
My best advice? Go organic. You can test this advice. Buy a half dozen certified organic eggs and a half dozen of your favorite supermarket specials, be they cage free, free range, or just old fashioned factory farmed, antibiotic laced conventional eggs. Make an omelet using the commercial grade and another omelet using the organic. Which one looks and tastes better?
Certified organic eggs are laid by antibiotic-free chickens that have been fed organic food. In addition, for an egg to be organic, the care of the chicken must meet high animal welfare standards, including providing access to the outdoors. Grade AA eggs are the best. Grade A eggs are acceptable. Grade B? Not so great. The last question for you to consider is a thorny one. Does size matter? All indications are that it does matter, and smaller is better. Whether you're buying organic or commercial eggs, you'll find that medium eggs are less watery and the shell quality is better.
It doesn't take a fabulous chef to make a fantastic omelet, but it does require excellent eggs. And for excellent eggs you need excellent chickens. All of which implies that the chicken came first, not the egg, solving one of the great philosophical conundrums of our time.
How to foster green biodiversity
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So glad you solved the chicken/egg dilemma! We go for local first (organic if possible), which means that the eggs in the carton are often varied sizes, then if I have to get grocery store eggs, I always buy large eggs--most recipes are designed for large eggs--and try to get eggs that are produced only from vegetarian feed, organic if possible. I stay away from the "free range" labeling if not also organic because it's pretty much meaningless on the grocery store shelves. I find that the omega-3 fortified eggs often taste fishy so I stay away from those in particular.
FYI--it is illegal to feed chickens growth hormones in the US, so any egg carton that advertises that fact is greenwashing to get you to buy them.