Celebrity Chef Curtis Stone Openly Promotes Cooking With “Cage” Eggs

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by Michael Parrish DuDell June 21, 2010
Categories: Animals, Causes
Tags: .

Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone is causing a whole lot of controversy down under.

The famous cook, who’s been featured on many popular American shows including Oprah and The Biggest Loser, has teamed up with Coles grocery store for a not-so-nice campaign.

The grocery giant recently started issuing a series of free recipe cards featuring dishes recommended by Stone. In one recipe for ‘lemon, chicken and rice’ soup, Curtis specifically calls for “two Coles cage eggs, lightly beaten”.

Why would he openly promote eggs from battery-caged birds when Coles also offers an organic, free-range line? Well, we think it might have something to do with the fact that each card is designed to feed a family of four for under $10.

Even so, as The Sydney Morning Herald points out, if he’d recommended the organic alternative instead of eggs from caged birds “it would take the meal cost from $9.01 to $9.36 – still safely below the $10 budget allocated for each meal card.”

We’re pretty bummed that Curtis would sign off on such a ridiculous recipe and are curious to know what Biggest Loser colleague, newly vegan Bob Harper, would say about all of this.

What do you think about Curtis’ decision to promote cage eggs? Chime in and share your thoughts!


Categories: Animals, Causes
Tags: .
  • Stephanie

    “Cage free” and “free range” eggs are not less cruel than “cage eggs”. The basic industry standard for “cage free” simply means no cages so the chickens are just kept in ovecrowded warehouses which is no better. “Free range eggs” only require that the chickens are allowed access outside for small amounts of time each day. Cage free, free range, and organic eggs all comes from birds that are de-beaked with a hot blade and who all end of up in the same slaughterhouses as caged birds when their egg production declines. The male baby chicks are still killed at birth regardless of the type of egg farm. I also believe that there is no such thing as “ethical” egg production. It is wrong to breed animals for the sole purpose of making a profit from their meat, eggs, milk, skin, or fur. Animals exist for their own purposes not for industries to make money off of them. That is exploitation, plain and simple.

    Links:
    http://www.cok.net/lit/freerange.php
    http://www.goveg.com/organic_eggs.asp
    http://animals.change.org/blog/view/no_such_thing_as_humane_cage-free_eggs_still

  • georgina0912

    Could that have been a typo? I just read that this guy, Curtis Stone endorses cooking with organic and natural foods. Maybe the money they offered to him was too good to turn down and instead he decided to sell his soul to the agribusiness devil by promoting eating eggs from battery cages. That is simply wicked.

    Also, totally agree with Stephanie, cage free and free range are simply labels that do not guarantee that the chickens are better off. True, they have a liiiiiitle more space and they can possibly even extend their wings, but we are talking about an industry that kills the males as soon as they are hatched by grinding them alive, or throwing them in plastic bags where they suffocate and die, where the chickens suffer from prolapsed uterus, where they are fed a diet that is not good for the chickens, where as soon as the chicken’s egg-laying life ends she is sent to be scalded alive to be turned into McNuggets, and where other major injustices are committed.

    The best thing to do? Do not eat eggs, period.

  • http://RawfoodsRetreat.com erin elizabeth

    Stephanie is right.. BUT people are still going to buy eggs and I’d rather buy them from the farmer anyway if I were buying eggs (I’m slightly allergic so can’t really tolerate them but my better half does so I do buy some for him)

    Speaking of which he wrote an article on why you should never buy organic eggs from the grocery store at ALL! They are treated and are really hardly “organic” If you buy straight from a farmer (who lets the chickens roam free ALL the time and just has a handful of them) they won’t do this harmful process you can read about below and probably (with just a few chickens) they’re treated better than factory farmed (organic free range or not)

    Why NOT to buy organic eggs at the grocery-

    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/06/08/why-you-dont-want-to-buy-organic-eggs-at-the-grocery-store-.aspx

  • http://www.beforewisdom.com beforewisdom

    “Cage Free”, “Cruelty Free” and other such labels are accepted as meaningless. No standards, no laws and no enforcement. From a monetary standpoint you might as well get the standard chicken eggs as there is rarely a difference with the other kind…….except for price.

    That said, if they were looking for cheap recipes for families there is no shortage of recipes for legumes, pasta, tubers, rice and seasonal produce.

    Those recipes save a family twice over animal products The family saves money when buying the food and the family saves money from avoiding the inevitable health issues.

  • Pingback: Animal Interrupted | Masked Avenger and Animal Rights Blogger &raquo RECIPE FOR DISASTER «

  • Robert Hadler

    I would like to correct the perception that Curtis Stone has endorsed the use of eggs from caged hens in Coles’ “Feed your Family for under $10″ recipes. I would like to assure your readers that this was an error by Coles. It has always been Curtis’ philosophy to only use free range eggs and the inclusion of caged eggs was a production error by Coles which was only identified after the recipe card had gone to print. After the recipe card was issued, Curtis immediately contacted Coles regarding the error and instructed removal and all reference to caged eggs as he does not support this ingredient in any shape or form. Coles offers customers a range of eggs to meet their needs, including free range and barn laid. Our intent with this recipe was offer customers great value and tasty meal ideas for families on a budget.

  • http://www.loseyourquit.com Danny Cahill

    I’ll tell you something. We should not be on Curtis Sonte’s case here. We should be on the case of who makes healthy and organic foods TONS more expensive than unhealthy food. Why does low sugar Heinz ketchup cost 50% more than high sugar Heinz ketchup? BECAUSE THEY PREY ON THE HEALTH WAVE! We need to STAND UP against companies that do this! Offer healthy choices for near the same price as healthy choices and we can change the world! This is coming from a man who lost 55.58% of his body weight in less than 7 months, owning the record for the Boggest Loser Ever of NBC’s The Biggest Loser! Now, I am even forced to buy more unhealthy choices because of cost concerns! LET’S START A MOVEMENT! Email me at danny@thedannycahill.com if you agree and go to http://www.loseyourquit.com for motivational and inspirational messages from me!

  • http://RawfoodsRetreat.com erin elizabeth

    Why does it say seven responses but when I click there are only 5? :(

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