During the Butter and Eggs day parade, I spend the day with my family to celebrate the roots that our town was grown on. We try to stick together and fight through the massive crowds of people to get that single bite of breakfast burger from McNear’s that I could have bought any other day. For some reason however, on this day a fried egg on a cheeseburger topped with bacon never tasted better. West Petaluma’s old town feel is what as made it such a special place. No chain restaurants, no huge department stores, five cows for every one person, and an adorable little town built on its roots of dairy and egg farming, and proud of it.
Fresh, Local, Delicious (Image by Austin Wolf)
Eggs are the first food we associate with breakfast. The image of a round yellow yolk surrounded by the perfect egg whites. Eggs are rich in protein and are delightful way to start off the morning. In the cafeteria at Chapman University, on any morning some 80% of kids chose to eat eggs with their meal. But there is so much more to the eggs that you enjoy eating most mornings. Each egg takes a journey from the hen to your plate, and it all starts in the little town of Petaluma. A five-minute drive out of downtown will show you why Petaluma was once known as the egg capital of the world. Rolling green hills stretch on for miles littered with cows and barns. All of this culture that makes Petaluma special is all based on the agriculture that has remained a huge part of the town.
Although we may never know if the chicken or the egg came first, what is sure is that eggs came long before any human or historian. We know very little of where our standard laying hen came from, the Leghorn. The leghorn has a very close resemblance to a race of fowls that existed in Italy and parts of Europe. It is believed that a boat brought this animal from Italy to America in 1834, and quickly became popular due to their prolific laying abilities.[1] Modern breeders have created varieties of the leghorn like the single-comb white Leghorn. Producing 150 to 200 eggs per year only 4 months after birth, the single-comb white Leghorn is the Jersey cow or chickens.[2]
Eggs have come to represent one special Sunday in the spring, Easter. Growing up my parents would tell me that the Easter bunny would come and leave eggs for me and my siblings to go find. Other festivities involved painting and decorating eggs as well as egg tosses. The involvement of eggs in Easter stems from Jesus’ resurrection. Eggs represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb. It is believed that eggs were once a forbidden food during Lent, so people had nothing better to do with them but decorate them.
Happy local chickens (Image by Austin Wolf)
In 2008, proposition 2 was passed with overwhelming approval. With respect to chickens, the law requires that all hens must be in an environment where they can lie down, stand-up, fully extend their wings, and turn around freely by the year 2015. This law will put a significant economic burden on the California egg farm business to the point where many farmers may completely shut down their businesses or at least move out of the state. In 2008, the economic output of California’s egg industry was about $648 million and employed 3,561 people; however, with the new legislation, this would be cut by 95%.[3] “At this time, my partners and I were having serious discussion with ourselves about the possibility of shutting our business down because of the passage in 2008 of the farm and animal welfare act. We knew that prop 2 would require that we invest a significant number of capital, probably in the neighborhood of $20 million,” says Arnie Riebli, a 4th generation egg farmer and owner of Sunrise Farms. Sunrise farms has been in the egg business for almost 100 years and handles about 1 million eggs a day. About 85% of what is produced is consumed within a 65 mile radius, the town of Petaluma. Recently, Riebli has been working closely with Senator Feinstein’s office and in the next week or two she is going to introduce legislation that will define exactly how much space hens must have. Hens are going to be required 160in2 of floor space per hen which is a significant increase from the 67in2 previously necessary. Considering that about 18 or 19 million layers currently exist in the state of California, about 8 million layers are going to have to be removed from California due to these laws.[4] “There are quite a few producers who are just going to go out of business,” says Riebli.
With local farms going out of business, problems arise. There are many benefits to foods being locally produced beyond the cost of shipping. When all foods are first produced they are at there peak of vitamin content. As the foods age, their nutrition content diminishes significantly. Eggs contain choline, folate, lutein, vitamin A, vitamin E, and other B vitamins all of which are very important nutrients. [5] For example, spinach loses about 50% of its Vitamin C content 24 hours after it is picked[6]. Eggs and spinach may be different foods, but Vitamin C is the same chemically no matter where it is found so it is going to deteriorate in the same rate.[7]
A fresh egg that was cracked to reveal the egg yolk in the picture above. The egg is fresh and sinks. (Image by Austin Wolf)
Local farms often give more time and attention to their hens so they are healthier and happier. A study from Mother Earth News revealed the benefit or locally produced, pasteurized eggs. Eggs were collected from fourteen local farm flocks. Compared to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the studies eggs’ contained[8]:
• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
The most shocking part of the study by Mother Earth News showed that vitamin D content was 4-6 times higher in the studies’ hens. Vitamin D is found in small amounts in few foods, but plays an important role in bone construction and the immune system. This makes adding fresh locally produced eggs to your diet a huge benefit.[9]
Health aside, the idea of a fresh meal is much more appealing than leftovers or food made up of imported ingredients. I conducted a study amongst six college students at Chapman University. All six were given fresh eggs that were laid the day before from a friends backyard chicken coop then given a sample of eggs purchased from the supermarket one week prior. The students were not told the eggs where the eggs came from. The students also had to hold their eyes closed so that they could see the color difference between the eggs. All six expressed that they preferred the taste of the farm fresh eggs.
Not knowing how far your eggs are coming from, it seems necessary that one should be able to tell if his eggs are fresh. There are a few ways you can check to see if eggs are fresh. Dropping the egg into water will show you how dense the egg is. If it sinks that means that it is fresh. If it floats, the eggs is old enough that air has taken the time to enter the egg and means that it is getting old. Another simple way to test if an eggs is old is to simply smell it. Rotten eggs will have a foul smell. The last way to test an egg for freshness is to crack it onto a flat white plate. A fresher egg should have a nice tall round yolk surrounded by a cloudy colored egg white.[10]
Farm fresh local eggs taste better and are better for you. Legislation that keeps local farms in business is ideal across the world of food. Employing local families makes happy communities like the city of Petaluma. People celebrate our heritage, our roots, and our farms at the butter and eggs day parade, but as local business move to other states so that they can survive and the bond that ties are community together weakens. Proposition 2 hurts communities and should be repealed as it hurts Californians across the state. What is important is that any further potential laws that cause instantaneous benefit should be thoroughly investigated so that the extent to which local farmers and businesses are affected is taken into account.
All photos by Austin A. Wolf
[4] Phone conversation with Arnie Riebli
[6] Handbook of Frozen Food Processing and Packaging by Da-Wen Sun
Austin Wolf 