The federal organic law’s requirement that all animals have access to the outdoors and be able to exhibit their natural behaviors has kept the worst aspects of factory farms out of organic – you won’t find battery cages in an organic hen house – but the USDA has turned a blind eye to less cruel forms of confinement.
The USDA has allowed large-scale “organic” producers to get away with keeping thousands of chickens squished into huge sheds where the only access to the outdoors is through tiny doors to small, bare patches of ground or caged “porches” with no dirt at all.
The USDA has never enforced or even described a “natural behaviors” standard for chickens. If they were to address that aspect of the law honestly, they would have to admit that chickens need to be able to scratch and peck for worms and insects and munch on leafy greens.
The organic law also requires farmers to minimize negative effects on the environment, but the USDA has never outlined or implemented rules that direct farmers to control their greenhouse gas emissions.
The chicken manure and urine soaked sawdust that piles up at the large-scale confined animal farming operations that dominate organic chicken and egg production are the source of potent nitrous oxide, methane and carbon emissions.
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