Fwd: Oregonian: Burgerville puts egg money in one basket

January 17, 2007

Yea! This is a big victory. I'm going to write and thank Burgerville. You can, too, at: tastenw (@burgerville.com)Paul Shapiro <pshapiro wrote: Oregonian: "Burgerville puts egg money in one basket"Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:00:39 -0500"Paul Shapiro" <pshapiro http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_north_news/116900610958400.xml & coll=7 & thispage=2 Burgerville puts egg money in one basket Cage-free - The fast-food chain will buy 600,000 eggs a year from a farm where hens are allowed to roam Wednesday, January 17, 2007 ALLAN BRETTMAN The Oregonian VANCOUVER -- A cage-free chicken is a happy chicken, Burgerville has decided. And in the Northwest, happy chickens make happy customers. So the Vancouver-based chain announced Tuesday that starting this week, all its egg-based breakfast menu foods would be made with eggs from cage-free hens. In so doing, it will drop-kick the eggs produced by hens confined to a life in cages with little space -- the eggs typically used by its quick-service competitors. The decision earned fast praise from the Humane Society of the United

States and two sustainable food advocates in Portland. "While many grocery stores and food service providers are acknowledging the inherent cruelty in a caged egg product," said Paul Shapiro, the humane society's factory farming campaign director, "Burgerville is the first fast-food restaurant to take this step." Burgerville will purchase about 600,000 eggs a year from Stiebrs Farms of Yelm, Wash. Previously, the chain bought its eggs through Sysco Corp., which received its eggs from a variety of producers. Burgerville expects to

pay slightly more for its cage-free eggs. The increase likely will be tacked onto the cost of breakfast biscuits, bagels and platters when the chain does its annual price review. Although they don't expect customers to notice a change in flavor, company officials already have gotten a taste of customer reaction. About 300 Portland-area residents, tipped off to Burgerville's move by the national humane society, sent e-mails over the weekend praising the move. Burgerville customers get partial credit for guiding the 39-restaurant chain to Tuesday's decision, said Tara Wefers, a company spokeswoman. Burgerville has carved a niche in the sustainable food practices world, choosing not only ingredients produced by area suppliers but also those

made with a dash of ethos. For example, the chain buys its free-range beef from Oregon Country Beef, and its free-range turkey meat from Diestel Family Turkey Ranch in Sonora, Calif. "Guests of ours were curious," Wefers said, asking, "Where do our eggs come from?" And they added that Burgerville should call the Humane Society of the United States for guidance. Although it may be easy for a single restaurant or a mom-and-pop co-op to buy socially responsible eggs,

buying 600,000 a year is different kettle of fish. "Wow. That's a lot of eggs," said David Yudkin, co-owner of another socially responsible food vanguard, Hot Lips Pizza. The humane society helped play matchmaker for Burgerville and Stiebrs, which has been in the egg-producing business near Olympia since 1953. Cage-free living Stiebrs began as a free-range kind of place. Over the years, it converted to cages, but in 1997 began moving its 500,000-bird flock back to its

cage-free roots, said Kiasa Kuykendall, sales and marketing manager and the farmer's daughter. It's a work in progress. About 50,000 of the chickens are still in cages. About 300,000 are cage-free, allowed to roam in a building. And about 150,000 are living the really good life: cage-free, able to move outside their building to socialize and feast on organic feed. The cage-free eggs cost about $2 a dozen; it's about $3.50 a dozen for the

organic variety, Kuykendall said. Burgerville's eggs, Wefers emphasized, will come only from the cage-free side of the Stiebrs operation. Greener pastures Yudkin of Hot Lips and Greg Higgins, owner of Higgins Restaurant in Portland, both active in the sustainable food organization Chef's Cooperative, slathered praise on Burgerville's egg choice. But, they said, Burgerville -- and Hot Lips -- can do more. They could buy their eggs from the same kind of a place Higgins gets his: a pasture-raised operation. Higgins'

supplier, Graf Century Farm in Corbett, lets its hens frolic outside the henhouse, eating whatever nature brings their way -- worms, for instance -- as well as what the farmer brings their way. At night, the hens retire to the henhouse. In the morning, they emerge to a new setting on the farm, apparently unfazed by the fact that the house has been moved overnight to another spot to spread land usage around. Could such an operation as that crank out 600,000 eggs a year? "That's a whole buncha eggs," Higgins said. "I'm not sure there is somebody out there who's ready for that." Allan Brettman: 360-896-5746 or 503-294-5900; allanbrettman ©2007 The Oregonian Interested in taking action online to help animals? Then join our online community and sign up for our Humane Action Network. Go to www.hsus.org/join . PLEASE TRAIN DRIVERS & NEW ADOPTIVE OWNERS SO THEY DON'T LET THE DOGS GET LOOSE & KILLED AT HANDOFFS/REST STOPS! Harnesses work.