The Cornucopia Institute's
Organic Egg Scorecard ranks egg producers on a scale from 1 to 5 eggs,
using criteria like
outdoor access, indoor space per bird, ownership structure, beak trimming and other factors [pdf]. The scorecard is part of the Institute's new report,
Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production from Authentic Organic Agriculture. The
executive summary [pdf] provides some political context.
"
Whole Foods, Walmart, A&P, Costco, Meijer, Safeway, and Trader Joe's store-brand eggs all received the lowest possible rating in Cornucopia's study."
posted by mediareport
on Oct 5, 2010 -
69 comments
Ideophones are words that are usually spoken but not written and are often
onomatopoeic, including (
but not limited to) the calls—often
reduplicated—with which we beckon domestic animals, kindred to our
animal imitations. In the States there are many more
pig calls beyond
soo-ee. Maxim Gorky wrote that the sound
tse tse is used to call pigs in Russia. In Spanish
coch is used.
Americans use
pipi and
biddy to call chickens and turkeys. In
Ambon Malay chickens are called with
kurrrrr or
pan kur. In
Kiswahili you call chickens with
gurúgurúgurúgurú, call dogs with
aháháhá, and straying cattle with
ishiyeeyeeeeee or
ngoyéeeeee. In Sweden, they call cattle with a loud, high-pitched
kulning (akin to
yodeling). Cervantes wrote that they use
tus tus to call dogs in Spain.
One source says in
Coolderry, Ireland, they use
gen-gen to call pigs to ford,
puddly pudde to call ducks,
peopeo to call horses, and
geg geg to call geese. In Iceland,
kibbakibb is used to call sheep. In the Hiligaynon language of the Philippines, they call cats with
míming. In the parish of Nantcwnlle in Wales they have their own
set of calls.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Aug 27, 2005 -
17 comments
First Birds with teeth in 70 million years . Vicious toothed, flying microraptors once darkened the Jurassic skies. Now,
scientists have learned to activate the dormant, vestigal avian "tooth gene" and so coaxed chicken embryos into growing teeth. From the grave, Alfred Hitchcock enviously quips - "a messy thing indeed when toothed birds kill a man". Meanwhile the French are appalled: “quand les poules auront des dents”, which translates to “when hens have teeth”, is analogous to the English “pigs might fly”. Coming soon: flying pigs.
But there might be a baldness cure in this new research. I'll remember that as the flocks of mutant raptor-fowl move in for the kill.
posted by troutfishing
on Jun 4, 2003 -
18 comments
Perdue to become the next Intel? According to today's
Washington Post, researches at the University of Delaware have filed a patent to improve microchip performance by replacing silicon with a compound made from chicken feathers. Test show that chicken feather chips are
twice as fast as silicon chips. If this works, be on the lookout for chicken farm IPOs.
posted by monkey-mind
on Jul 8, 2002 -
13 comments
Time to Crack Down on Cock. "The driver had no license plate but plenty of chickens -- all of them clucking from the back seat and trunk ... The officer knew what he was seeing: The suspect was headed to a cockfight -- and jail."
posted by bclark
on Oct 25, 2001 -
14 comments
Punk rock chickens! This has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen. But when you work with chickens, I guess you get pretty bored. Enjoy!
posted by samsara
on Apr 14, 2001 -
7 comments
In 2000, 40% of chickens sent to stores from seven plants was contaminated. And this is just the one we've heard about. Between stories like this and the animal diseases in Europe, meat is looking less and less appetizing. It looks like what the food industry gets away with may finally be too outrageous to be ignored. Not to mention whether non-meat foods are processed with any more attention to sanitation than meats. Of course if they can get away with cutting costs this way, they will.
posted by aflakete
on Mar 2, 2001 -
13 comments
