There needs to be some clarification of the term vegan typically vegan denotes a lifestyle that includes the foods one selects to consume see dylan barsby s description in the comments.
Vegetarian free range eggs.
Today most commercial egg laying hens are fed a vegetarian corn and soybean based diet even though they are not naturally vegetarians.
No vegans do not eat any eggs free range or otherwise.
This is largely due to the extra expenses involved in meeting organic certification requirements.
This is not the case with the more common factory farms however where hens are still kept in tiny cages with no room to move or get outside.
Those who follow a veggan diet are willing to include eggs from hens or poultry that they know are raised ethically such as free range hens or those kept as pets in a backyard farm.
When eggs are produced on certified humane free range farms like ours a hen is not harmed by laying an egg.
In many cases animals raised on organic or free range farms suffer from the same painful mutilations as animals raised on conventional farms.
If a chicken is vegetarian fed it means that particular bird is not really free ranging at all as there is no access to actual dirt and green grass.
The effect on the animals.
Yet the reality is that free range.
If you see free range chicken or eggs labeled in this way run.
These aren t just any eggs.
The hens have.
Eggs or meat labeled as vegetarian fed means that the poor chickens were actually free ranging on concrete floors.
Organic eggs can cost up to 4 dozen roughly double the cost of commercial eggs.
Free range or organic labels don t guarantee that animals are treated humanely any more than kfc s flowery assurances about its animal.
If you are a vegetarian and include eggs in your diet please share the reasons why in the.
Labels other than organic on egg cartons are not subject to any government regulations.
Battery and enriched cages.
If you re not already vegan please take the 30 day vegan.
Those who follow a plant based whole food diet which is often mistaken for a vegan diet do not eat eggs either.
Once they re free ranging and outside they re going to.
Cage free eggs are eggs from birds that are not raised in cages but in floor systems usually in an open barn.
Finally be aware that free range eggs aren t necessarily the same as organic the usda requires that free range eggs come from chickens that have some access to a small fenced patch of cement which they may or may not use.
We re not talking a carton of free range from m s or even organic ones from the farmer s market.