Eating better breakfasts

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, March 19th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Sharing good food. The price of eggs continues to be a talking point for both politicians and consumers.

MAST: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said recently that nearly 160 million birds have been killed as a result of an outbreak of avian flu. That’s caused egg shortages, price increases, and now a run on spring chicks.

Even so, Rollins suggested raising chickens on small farms or even backyards might be part of the solution. Audio from Fox News:

ROLLINS: I think the silver lining, we've got chickens too in our backyard. How do we solve for something like this. and people are sort of looking around like, wow, maybe I could get a chicken in my backyard, and it's awesome.

For those thinking of starting backyard flocks, there are a few things to keep in mind. WORLD’s Paul Butler has some suggestions from a small-scale operator.

SOUND: [FEEDING CHICKENS]

PAUL BUTLER: Isaac Hebert has been raising chickens since he was a kid. He’s a small egg producer in North-central Illinois with about 70 hens. He does it to get people to the farm. And it’s working. Business is booming with egg buyers on a three week waiting list.

He says he’s found that people have lots of questions about raising chickens. He starts by making sure they’re getting into it for the right reasons.

HEBERT: If you're just a family hoping to produce eggs in your backyard for yourself, and you think you're going to save money, you’re not. To go out and build a chicken house and buy all the equipment, the eggs would cost you 10 times what they do in the grocery store...

In other words, before you start, count the cost. And not just the cost of the chicks and bags of feed. There’s a lot of other stuff you need. All things Hebert already had laying around the farm.

The second thing Hebert tells would-be chicken raisers is the same thing animal shelters tell folks wanting to adopt a pet:

HEBERT: You gotta care for these animals. You're their support.

Daily feeding and watering, and of course collecting the eggs. But also remember that chicken coops don’t clean themselves, and the birds require protection from the elements and other wildlife.

HEBERT: It's a huge commitment…you can't just put these birds in the backyard. And Just expect them to take care of themselves.

One more thing Hebert reminds folks: while it’s warming up across the country:

HEBERT: Don't forget about what the weather was there a couple months ago, because that'll come in a year from now, you're going to be out there with zero taking care of your chickens again. So keep that in mind.

Hebert isn’t trying to keep folks dependent on his own egg production. He’s just seen a lot of people jump in with both feet and then regret it. The costs. The responsibilities. The sick or dead birds.

Yet even with all the complications, he enjoys it. It was his introduction to caring for animals as a kid, and he’s teaching his three year old son those same lessons now, one egg at a time.

For WORLD, I’m Paul Butler in Arlington, Illinois.

BROWN: And now the story of one New York couple, who look at their small farm and the eggs they raise as a way to care for people. WORLD’s Lindsay Mast has that story.

SOUND: [Sound of chickens]

MAST: The chickens roaming the grounds of Cucumber Hill Farm in New York live 50 miles from the busy streets of Manhattan. Owner Miho Urisaka and her husband didn’t start out as farmers, but a few years ago, they took an opportunity to get out of the city.

URISAKA: That's always been our dream. We moved during the pandemic. We moved from Brooklyn to Putnam Valley to get a little bit of land and truly, the connection back into the earth is something that we're missing in our society and our lives.

SOUND: [Sound of gathering eggs]

Urisaka pulls eggs–dark brown, blue, mocha– from the nesting boxes at Cucumber Hill. She wants the eggs to be the best, so she gives her chickens the chance to be chickens.

URISAKA: Most chickens aren't getting sunlight, most chickens aren't getting the chance to bathe in the soil. Most chickens aren't getting the chance to kick up a grub and eat it as a snack. And so I think that's what makes a difference.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average price of a dozen eggs nationwide hit nearly six dollars in February. In some Manhattan stores, eggs cost more than $12. But for Urisaka, raising chickens isn’t about turning a profit. It’s about providing the opportunity to eat great food.

The chickens get their fill of locally-sourced, organic feed. Their baby chicks stay indoors until they’re a few weeks old. Then the busy little birds get to free range on the farm. Urisaka’s husband, Justin Baker:

BAKER: They're healthy birds. They're birds that still know how to be chickens. So you can see in their behaviors, they're able to move about. They're able to scratch and peck and just live, express these natural chicken behaviors.

The chickens are free to roam, eating ants, and exploring. But the eggs are headed somewhere a little more confined.

PATIENT: That’s so weird, so tender right there.

Urisaka still works as a physical therapist in Manhattan. Over her years of treating patients in pain, she developed an interest in how the food we eat might influence our health.

URSIAKA: Quality of food has a huge effect on how your body feels on the physical level, on the mechanical level - and that's why we started bringing in all these other modalities into our clinic.

SOUND: [Sound of stocking the fridge]

One of those modalities? It’s not a new breathing or movement technique. It’s those eggs, fresh from the farm. She stocks the office refrigerator with cardboard boxes full of them.

URISAKA: As soon as the chickens started laying, we started bringing them into here.

The farm generally charges $9 a dozen for the eggs–a number that’s stayed pretty steady despite changes in the egg market. And it’s not much more than current prices for organic eggs at a Manhattan Whole Foods.

URISAKA: We've always sold out even prior to the shortage. So this is really done more as a service to our clients who appreciate this kind of quality to our customers and our patients who really value what they're putting into their body.

Baker says the farm adjusts prices based on what they have to pay–not on the demands of the current egg markets.

BAKER: Feed costs have gone up, but not tremendously, largely, I think probably (due to) fuel costs. But as our feed prices fluctuate, that might affect the prices of our eggs. But other than that, we haven't been affected by bird flu or any of the other pressures in the market.

For some people and restaurants, the high price of eggs has been challenging. But for those who have the means to afford higher quality eggs, it can be worth the expense. And Urisaka’s PT clients are eating up the opportunity to buy eggs from a farmer they know.

PATIENT: And so I know what went into them. So I know there's integrity and they just taste actually better.

PATIENT: It's a little pricier than some of the... we normally buy pasteurized, so it's a little pricier than that, but not by much at this point with where prices are going. So it's worth the extra dollar or so to get really local.

SOUND: [Sounds from the farm]

Back on the farm, Urisaka and Baker tend to the goats and bees, turkeys and ducks, who live alongside the 400 chickens they keep. Their Instagram account shows the couple’s care for the animals throughout the changing seasons of the Hudson Valley. And they’ve found the benefits their animals enjoy apply to humans, too.

URISAKA: You need your food, you need your water, you need your sunshine, you need recreation, those are all things that are good for all living beings.

SOUND: [Sound of chickens]

And unlike seasons, feed prices, or egg supply, those needs don’t change.

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