Make money doing the work you believe in
Reading a lot of crap about Vital Farms on Reddit, and while I don’t want to delve in there, it’s got my ire up and I want to clarify some things:
Vital Farms does not produce eggs. They do not keep or feed any chickens. They are not a farm. They are a company that contracts with local egg farmers (which we hope to be someday soon) to purchase and distribute their eggs under the Vital Farms label.
Vital Farms does not make choices about the care and feeding and housing of chickens. The farmers do. VF holds regular inspections to make sure the farming practices meet their standards, but ultimately, the farmers are the decision-makers.
Any corners that get cut in terms of feed quality or anything else involving chicken care is not the result of Evil Corporate Greed, it’s the result of choices made by a single farmer who is trying to pay off millions of dollars in debt and maintain a barn full of super-expensive (and costly to repair) equipment while also maintaining a living income.
Vital Farms farmers are contractually obligated to get their birds outside daily (barring inclement weather or predators passing through the area) and to rotate their pasture regularly. Claims that these birds never leave the barn are completely false. A LOT of infrastructure goes into setting up each paddock to be super comfy and safe for the chickens, so you bet those farmers are going to utilize that pasture and not leave their birds locked in the barn.
Hens can’t live solely on what they hunt and forage in a day, and have to have supplemental feed to survive, let alone to thrive and be healthy enough to lay eggs. This is as true of back-yard free-range flocks as it is of large commercial flocks.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.