OpEds: A Humane Egg

By Suzana Megles

There are so many things in this world that need changing. There is also so much suffering to be addressed both regarding humans and animals. Changing the way we eat can affect both positively if we are courageous enough to try new things.

My title is a bit deceptive.  Perhaps it should read “A humane alternative to eggs,” but tell me, how many people would want to read something with a title like that?

Still, I hope that anyone who loves eggs, but despises the cruel suffering of our caged chickens, will at least want to read about a very compassionate and enterprising young man named Josh Tetrick.  As Hampton Creek’s CEO, he aims to revolutionize the food industry with a plant-based egg alternative.

Bill Gates, in his endorsement of a vegan lifestyle to save the world, believes that it is the only way we can feed the millions and millions of people who face starvation daily.  We need to use our grain and water resources to feed them instead of the animals we raise for food. And he mentioned even eating faux meat and eggs to help do this.

I had already heard about the first meatless hamburger that tastes and looks like a real hamburger, but I was surprised when he mentioned faux eggs. So, I was delighted to learn more about them in “allanimals”, a bi-monthly magazine put out by the Humane Society of the US.

We already have an “Egg Replacer” product we can use anywhere calling for a binder, but it can’t be used to make a scrambled egg dish or a quiche.  Nor will this new product yet do this, but Tetrick says that in the future he hopes to develop a liquid product that could be used to make scrambled eggs.

For now we hope that his product–a pale green powder called Beyond Eggs–will lead to the eventual elimination of the cruel battery cages where our chickens are forced to “live” miserable lives day in and day out.

His product gets its green color from a variety of pea, which the company’s scientists and chefs identified after testing 287 plants.  It also contains sunflower and canola oil and other natural ingredients. It can be used to replace eggs in baked goods like cookies or in sauces like mayonnaise.

There is a picture of this young handsome entrepreneur in this HSUS article, which is titled “Best Laid Plans“.  He looks more like a movie-star than businessman.  But this man is much more than either.  He is driven by compassion to find a product that does not depend on eggs laid on factory farms by hens  crammed in battery ages where they  can’t even spread their wings.

Even incarcerated criminals and murderers are allowed to exercise, and yet these poor hapless chickens are given no consideration at all as to their needs by virtue of an exploitive factory system that we endorse every time we buy their “cheap” eggs.

The food industry traditionally uses processed eggs in either liquid, frozen, or powdered form to make cookies and mayonnaise. One-third of factory-farm eggs goes for this purpose.  Tetrick hopes to take over as much of this processed-egg market he can because he says his product is not only more humane, but is even 20 percent less expensive.  It is also better for the environment and healthier for us because it has no cholesterol and has none of the food-safety risks of eggs from factory farms.

This year Beyond Eggs will be used by two major food companies.  This product will also be available to consumers through Hampton Creek’s website. I plan to ask The Bin–my neighborhood health store–about carrying this product as well.

HSUS’ article is worth reading and I only have touched some salient points.  But I would like to share what this young man said to HSUS’ Karen E. Lange, senior writer, about his vision for Beyond Eggs and where he hopes it will lead.

Her question to Tetrick was, how did your concern for animals lead you to develop an alternative-egg product?

“About 1.1 trillion eggs are laid every single year globally,” he responded.  “Most come from places that we wouldn’t be too proud of if we saw them, places that are awfully cruel, awfully unsustainable, and pretty bad for our health.  And I just thought that there’s got to be a better way to take the animal entirely out of the equation when it comes to conventional egg production and do something that’s better and less expensive.”

What a marvelous, compassionate, and beautiful human being.  What else can I say except that I hope and pray that his vision will lead to the improvement of the billions of chickens globally who today are terribly exploited–” living” lives of pure hell.

Josh Balk, Director of corporate policy for The HSUS’s Farm Animal Protection Campaign, observed that “Beyond Eggs could pave the way to ending battery-cage facilities so that the only eggs on the market come from higher welfare, pasture-based systems.”

Please God, may it happen.

A final comment

I have been concerned about animal suffering ever since I received my first puppy Peaches in 1975. She made me take a good look at the animal kingdom and I was shocked to see how badly we treat so many animals. At 77, I’ve been a vegan for the past 30 years and I thank God every day that I am. I am most disturbed at how little the Catholic Church and Christian churches generally give to concern re animal suffering in their ministry. I wrote to 350 bishops in 2001 and only 10-13 responded. I feel that the very least they can do is to instruct that the priests give one sermon a year on compassion to animals. I am still waiting for that sermon. I also belong to Catholic Concern for Animals – founded in England in 1929. (They are on the internet) I recently sent a sample copy of their bi-monthly publication called the ARK to the 8 Catholic bishops of Ohio. Only ONE kindly responded. Somehow we have to reach the Christian teaching magisterium. There is next to nothing re animal concerns and compassion for them. They basically believe that animals are the lesser of God’s creation and that gives us the right to do anything we want to them. Way wrong. We need to change their mindsets. The animals are God’s first and He expects us to treat them compassionately.