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Caged or free: Do hens’ conditions matter to egg-buying Victoria residents?

Online readers respond on egg purchase habits
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Signs at the egg section in Victoria’s Save-On Foods describe conditions the hens are kept in. (Keili Bartlett/News staff)

When Save-On-Foods and BC SPCA partnered in 2011 to give customers more information about where their eggs were coming from, they were interested to see if it would change buying habits.

Some online readers of Black Press community news in Greater Victoria say yes, it has.

READ MORE: Egg buyers given more information, options in Greater Victoria stores

Jennie Bartosik commented, “Yes! Those labels changed my choice 100%. Love having them in stores!”

“Yes. I now buy free range/veggie fed/cage free eggs because of the signs with them,” wrote Ann Kalonoff Thomson.

But for others, the conditions of the hens wasn’t the only factor in their decision making.

“It used to but now the hens in cages are 1/2 the price and with the price of groceries these days this is one place I can save,” Susan Warrender wrote.

Others said they skip the grocery store all together, buying directly from local farmers.

“I have my own chickens. Most people can have 5 in their backyard legally. Before that I would only but from local farm stands. Commercial chickens have terrible lives regardless of their “fee range” status,” wrote Van Essa.

Krista Randall takes it one step furter: “Sure thing. I got chickens instead. Now I know exactly where my eggs come from.”

READ MORE: Mustard seed celebrates ribbon-cutting on re-envisioned food bank


@KeiliBartlett
keili.bartlett@blackpress.ca

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