(cont)

handled and petted. This in itself is important as quiet sluggish birds are thus easier to spot in the event of one becoming ill, and it facilitates the farm’s daily random temperature and general health checks. Equally, the birds are happy to return to the shed at dusk, and having worked in each of the three egg producing systems, Lesley is happy the birds can express their natural behaviour.

“I’m an animal lover.” Says Lesley, who has cats as pets at home. “I couldn’t live with myself if the birds weren’t kept in the very best conditions possible. They’re happy, almost tame, and well-loved birds and that’s as good for our production levels as it is for for the animals themselves.”

Leaving the farm, we were more convinced than ever that free-range farming is the kindest possible system for the 48,000 Lohman Brown birds providing eggs for the company, and felt validated that even production to supermarket volume can be humane and accommodating to the welfare of the animals. It’s also a massive coup for the county and for Select Lincolnshire, whose logo appears on the eggs, that supermarkets such as Tesco are looking to our county for their goods and that declaring Lincolnshire as its eggs’ origins is considered such a selling point.

It would be easy to demonise the supermarkets for their trading monopoly, and for proliferating the industrialisation of farming, but It’s a consumer-driven market. The ironic counter argument is that the resources large food producers such as Noble Foods have at their disposal can fund better farming practices.

Following our visit though, we’re only too happy to reassure consumers that having visited the site anyone choosing Lincolnshire eggs can be assured not only of high quality traditionally farmed food, even when produced in such quantities, but also of the best standards of animal welfare too.

To find out more: visit Noble Food’s website and trace the origin of your egg at  www.mylincolnshireeggs.co.uk.

Traceability & Provenance...
How to find out where your egg was produced...
Noble Foods receives eggs from 38 free range farms from the
Humber to the Wash, and produces eggs customers including Tesco,
Co-Op and Morrisons. Despite its enormity – our farm alone spanned over 140 acres – each single egg can be individually traced.
Each chick has a ‘passport’ which follows it right through from the hatchery to the farm, and each egg is marked so that consumers or Noble Foods themselves can trace an individual egg’s origin… to find out which Lincolnshire farm your individual egg originates from simply visit www.mylincolnshireeggs.co.uk and enter its code next to the Lion print into the website.