November 28, 2011
PROFILE: Hope Eco Farm
Staff Report by Melissa Matlow, Campaigns Manager, WSPA Canada
HOPE Eco-Farms in Aylmer, Ontario is a co-operative of Amish farmers that grow a diverse array of vegetables and raise free-range hens and Berkshire pigs. We visited three farms that had less than 100 hens each and one flock of 500 hens that are kept out on pasture in a moveable tent. When the weather is comfortable, the tent door is left open so the hens can access the open air. They rotate the tent every two to three days so the hens get fresh grass and the ground gets the appropriate level of nutrients. All of the hens had the choice of eating grass or organic grains and had access to nest boxes and perches. It was so wonderful to see hens foraging on pasture, pecking around for bugs and dust bathing in the sunshine as the majority of hens inside Canadian egg barns are confined to barren, battery cages and can't express these natural behaviours.
This Amish community has developed their own set of farming standards which stipulate, among others things, that there must be three roosters per 100 hens. This is in keeping with their belief that the animals should be kept in a more natural social group and environment. And while they would also prefer not to buy chicks or pullets that have had their beaks severed, they said it is difficult to get them this way. Chicks raised specifically for egg production typically have their beaks trimmed with a hot blade. It is a painful mutilation that is performed without anaesthesia or analgesia in an effort to reduce injuries caused by feather pecking. At HOPE Eco-Farms, I saw flocks of hens with fully intact beaks yet no evidence of feather pecking or feather loss. The farmers were surprised when I informed them that feather pecking is a common problem cited by battery cage egg producers. "Why would they peck at each other, when there is so much for them to peck at on the ground?," asked one farmer.
None of these farmers have to purchase quota. The family with the 500 hen flock is exempt from the quota system because they had the farm before 1984 and were 'grandfathered' into the regulations. The other farmers had less than one hundred hens — the maximum number an Ontario farmer can have without quota but they it wasn't worth the cost of grading them to sell outside the farm gate. Increasing the quota exemption from 100 to 500 hens would make their farms economically viable and help satisfy the increasing demand for local, humane and sustainable food.
Watch footage from our visit to HOPE Eco-farm:
You can buy free-range eggs from HOPE Eco-farm at Fiesta Farms and Culinarium in Toronto. Look for the label "Small Flock's Delight – Brown Eggs from Hens on Green Grass".
