Grow Your Own Magazine

Just red in a newspaper that they are selling battery eggs again after the hype with Jamie Oliver etc

the reason, shortage of free range eggs due to the cold weather-sad or what

I have to admit my Girls have slowed down to nil!

That only leaves the Co-Op and Waitrose not selling them

Money is their God!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Marks and Spencer?

Not wanting to start an argument

But is it fair to blame the supermarket? If people didn't buy the battery eggs, the supermarket wouldn't sell them. Surely they're only providing what their customers want? We should "blame" the consumer?

(And no, I have no connection to any supermarket, and no, I never buy battery farmed anything!)

__________________
Caro

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day

Could you cite a reference please jimred? I shall certainly be complaining (and voting with the not insubstantial amount that I pay Mr Sainsbury on a regular basis) if I have any proof - but Google isn't offering me anything?

__________________
I want to help to make the world better but I can't do it all on my own
Try to keep the lid on my disappointment ‘cos cynicism's such a cop out I know

Money is their God!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Business (which includes money as a major element) is the reason supermarkets exist. If there were no customers buying, there wouldn't be any reason to sell battery eggs, and if Sainsbury's didn't have eggs on the shelves, customers would go buy battery eggs in ASDA or some other less fussy shop.
I wouldn't buy any non-free-range eggs (except by mistake, like in the greengrocer's a few months back where I didn't read the box until I got home), but there are plenty for whom the low price is all that matters.

__________________
Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

i cant remember which paper it was (one of the locals) but have a look at:

Battery Eggs in Sainsburys - Allotment and Vegetable Gardening

thanks

jim

My point exactly.........some other supermarket was benefitting from there moral stance so in the name of profit, battery eggs are being sold again and morals go out the window!

Money is their God!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Those of us who are self employed realise that a business can't afford to TOTALLY ignore the profit motive, a business the size of Sainsbury's least of all. The customers who go elsewhere because there are NO eggs on the shelves won't be coming back once they reappear. To keep customers, they have to keep basic goods in stock ALL the time. If they can't get 'proper' eggs, they will sell any eggs, or lose business permanently, and go bust, which won't do anything for the chooks in the long term.
It's the customers who need convincing that they would rather use less eggs when free range are not avaliable.

__________________
Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

If Sainsbury's ARE selling battery eggs because of the short supply of Free Range, I hope they'll stop when the Free Range is back up to production ............................... but I fear they won't

__________________
My girls found their way into my heart and now they nest there

The general public still doesn't know the difference between FR and battery. Your typical Asda customer doesn't watch Jamie Oliver.

Wouldn't it be brave of Sainsbury to put a notice up, to the effect that "we are sorry about the shortage of FR eggs. While we don't condone battery production, we realise that some customers would rather have battery eggs than no eggs"

Contact us - Sainsbury’s

__________________
~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

I have a solution.

Powdered eggs.

Worked before.

__________________
A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/
Updated with more pleas for money

Yep, I've signed up for the London to Brighton Bike Ride
http://original.justgiving.com/HeyWayne

Practise makes us a little better, it doesn't make us perfect.

YES! Very much the best answer all round.

__________________
Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

And have you checked where the powdered eggs come from, usually from India or China!!!!

That's because we don't have the weather here to dry them out lots of exclamation marks.

__________________
A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/
Updated with more pleas for money

Yep, I've signed up for the London to Brighton Bike Ride
http://original.justgiving.com/HeyWayne

Practise makes us a little better, it doesn't make us perfect.

my girls haven't stopped laying over the cold weather at all, and they don't have extra lighting. I can't believe all the free range chickens supplied to supermarkets do, after all they do still have barns to go in and lighting etc... so production should not really be affected much at all
It must be with a higher demand than once was, they can't keep up with their old supply if you see what I mean, and should therefore be investing in more free range chickens.

__________________
janeyo

Please have a look at my blog

http://janefruitandveg.blogspot.com/
updated February 19th 2010

You can't hurry compost...

Utter rubbish, Sainsburys could stock Barn eggs as a substitute in the short term and move back to free range once supplies are reliable again....

Chickens are less likely to go free range anyway in bad weather, so Barn eggs would be the lesser of the two evils

I for one have complained and want to know if this is true. They have other options and are choosing the simplest.

I wonder if Jamie Oliver is supporting this since he is a patron of the BHWT!

Have a look at the bottom of this thread....see what they have to say for themselves!

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...c-bananas.html

I went to Sainsbury's this morning specially to check this out. Our store have NO caged eggs but a lot of Barn eggs and pleny of Free Range! Completely floored me as I was ready to go to Customer service and do battle!

Well I'm not changing to batteries, my girls would have a fit..

__________________
Hayley B

John Wayne's daughter, Marisa Wayne, will be competing with my Other Half, in the Macmillan 4x4 Challenge (in its 10th year) in March 2011, all sponsorship money goes to Macmillan Cancer Support, please sponsor them at http://www.justgiving.com/Mac4x4TeamDuke'

An Egg is for breakfast, a chook is for life

Next they'll be telling us battery hens are eco friendly......like battery cars!

__________________
My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I'd like to see a battery car tow three tonnes, doing my best to bring back global warming with my Landie

__________________
Hayley B

John Wayne's daughter, Marisa Wayne, will be competing with my Other Half, in the Macmillan 4x4 Challenge (in its 10th year) in March 2011, all sponsorship money goes to Macmillan Cancer Support, please sponsor them at http://www.justgiving.com/Mac4x4TeamDuke'

An Egg is for breakfast, a chook is for life

The public aren't smart enough to make informed decisions. If the shop has battery eggs they will buy them. If the shop only has barn and FR eggs, they will buy them. It IS the shops and supply chain to blame.

I've not bought eggs since September when I got my hens though, still get an egg a day from each of them, and sell about 10 a week surplus to pay for their food. Neighbour loves it!

Dan, that's an outrageous comment! If you're right then we must all be brighter than average and that's why we don't buy battery eggs. Heaven help us if the powers that be find any more reasons to make our decisions for us. How about we are only supplied with gas/electricity for a few government-decided hours per day to reduce carbon emissions? Or, we stop selling all white bread because brown is healthier? Or, we get a rations card for alcolhol to make sure we don't get more than the recommended units a week? (Personally that last one )

I think it's up to the buying public. Don't buy it, and the supermarkets will stop selling it. There are those out there who care and who get the message across, particularly Jamie & Hugh. Education is what is needed, not state enforcement!

__________________
Caro

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day

I won't buy barn eggs either. I don't reckon it to be ANY better than cage! At least in a cage system the farmer is unlikely to miss noticing a dead one for days on end, and the feed is fully accesible!
Not that some 'just-about-count-as-free-range systems are a lot better. IMO there should be a limit on the number of hens in one unit for it to count as free rqange. It's not much use having a pop-hole per 50 birds if there are a thousand sharing 20 pop-holes!

__________________
Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

I only buy food containing eggs eg pasta if they are categorically stated as free-range. Our ice cream is mackies or Ben & Jerry or G&B as they are the only makes I know use free-range eggs.

__________________
Hayley B

John Wayne's daughter, Marisa Wayne, will be competing with my Other Half, in the Macmillan 4x4 Challenge (in its 10th year) in March 2011, all sponsorship money goes to Macmillan Cancer Support, please sponsor them at http://www.justgiving.com/Mac4x4TeamDuke'

An Egg is for breakfast, a chook is for life

Sadly, you're right.
The general Sun-buying public is not informed about animal welfare. They are only told which model is sleeping with which footballer this week.

__________________
~ "I would rather do a good hours work weeding than write two pages of my best; nothing is so interesting as weeding" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I promise not to mention the rather excellent Search function again. Feel free to slap me if I do

This is the response to the email I sent to Sainsbury's

Thanks for your email. I understand your concern over the decision to sell eggs sourced from caged hens.

Due to adverse weather conditions our suppliers were unable to reach all the farms that supply our free-range eggs. As a temporary measure, we were forced to source a small volume of eggs from caged hens under the Goldenlay brand. This was simply to maintain stock of eggs and was not a show of intent to backtrack on our policy.

Fortunately this is no longer happening and we are once again not stocking eggs sourced from caged hens.

I appreciate you contacting us regarding this and for your continued support on this issue.


Kind regards

Customer Manager