>> Of course, a chook would like no fences at all...

You've been talking to your chook again, 579? And she's talking back now?

You can have anything you want, so long as you pay for it.

Free range has been a fuphy for years.

Clever marketing, that's all it is.

Now once someone can tell a free range egg from a cage egg, just by looking, then you may get somewhere.

In the mean time we just have to trust egg producers who, lake most other businesses, are under preasure to meet their commitments.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The conscious awareness level of a chook, is one level up from a sea squirt!

"Nutritionally, the commercial eggs are all the same. I can't understand why people allow themselves to be conned into paying $8 a dozen when they can get cage eggs for less than half of that"

The desire to not be an accomplice to torture, perhaps?

Plus, if one is silly enough to buy their eggs in a supermarket, they may well pay $8/dozen - I pay $5 for two dozens in the open market, free range of course.

But if my concern was specifically about nutrition, then I would buy "organic" at $6-$7/dozen. The definition of "organic" includes free-range by the organic-associations standards, which bypasses any government-imposed definitions, thus the $15 scare is untrue. Of course, those who like to go to bed with the government may well pay $15 for that pleasure.

Yuyutsu, the reason you are buying your eggs for $5 for 2 dozen, is purely due to the fact that you are buying them illegally from an unregisterd trader/seller, who does not pay rent, wages, insurances, nor do they have health laws to comply with, all of which adds to the difference between your price and the shop price.

So by all means save the chooks from what you say is a life in hell, but at the expense of both the tax payer and the workers alike.

Seems a bit odd that you would put the chooks welfare ahead of your fellow man.

"you are buying them illegally from an unregisterd trader/seller"

No, there is nothing illegal about buying my eggs, by myself and 100's of others who go there. It is all in the open. There may or may not be something illegal about selling them, which neither I nor yourself knows, as I have not asked any questions and you haven't even been there.

I do hope that the seller pays their income tax (and GST I believe is not applicable on raw foods), but as for the other red-tape measures that you mentioned, I couldn't care less. In fact, I would be honoured (if that's indeed the case) to purchase from someone who is willing to risk defying them, which is a victimless crime.

"but at the expense of both the tax payer and the workers alike."

As for the tax, I hope they paid it (or will pay).

As for workers - well who said there are any? why assume that the seller didn't pick up and packed the eggs himself - or even if others helped him, perhaps friends and family members, how can you criticize the arrangements made between them without knowing what they are? so long as those arrangements were made voluntarily, they are fine, even if the government doesn't like it.

"Seems a bit odd that you would put the chooks welfare ahead of your fellow man."

Was the possibility of torturing humans ever brought up in this context?