The good Egg Project with Jim Wade

Our  program on May 19^th was a presentation by Jim Wade who works for the Sparboe Farms in Litchfield, MN. He presented a lot of facts about the egg industry, eggs in general, and about hatcheries. With the recent outbreak of bird flu, there were also a lot of questions.              

 

Some off the information he presented: it takes about 24 hours for a newly-laid egg to go from the hen to the grocery store cooler; eggs are still “candled”, although they don’t use candles any more; brown and white eggs are the same – they are each laid by different varieties of birds; the national preference in Japan is for eggs with a paler yolk than here in the US; Americans eat about 250 eggs per year per person; there are more chickens than humans in the world; hens get 67 square inches of living space in their nesting areas, and the figure is regulated by the USDA.                                                                                                                     

Sparboe is a family-owned business with the 3^rd generation now managing the company. They have spent over $5,000,000 in new facilities in Litchfield to modernize and improve their operations. Most of their production appears in the grocery markets under other labels, usually the grocery chain’s brand. Iowa was the largest producer of eggs, but they have been hard hit by the avian flu, and may lose their top place.

 

More information about Sparboe can be found at www.goodeggproject.org.