You need to look at local farms, especially - check out nearby grocery stores, especially any that cater to people who want organic food. They should have meats that are from animals raised more humanely; look for phrases like "free range" or descriptions of their practices. Chain supermarkets like Whole Foods and Wild Oats are aimed at consumers who want more healthy and more humane food, but don't necessarily want to be vegetarians. I'm a vegetarian (but I eat dairy and eggs) and cook meat for my husband, and we at the very least try to get eggs from free-range chickens.
There are a lot of problems with "free range" arising from the government's lack of regulation. Currently the US government only regulates chicken raised for meat while all others - chickens raised for laying eggs and other animals raised for meat - remain outside these regulations. Farmers and agribusiness corporations alike can freely use the term "free range" or "cage free" indiscriminately on their products' labels. Many humane-centered non-profit organizations have repeatedly found gross discrepencies from what businesses claimed and what they found. According to regulations concerning broiler chickens, the birds only need to have access to the outdoors without a specific time requirement. The rest of the day, chickens are usually crammed into large warehouses. In fact, the USDA doesn't even require chickens to be allowed outdoors, merely exposed to outdoor air.
Free-range chickens are often subjected to debeaking, or as some in the industry prefer, beak trimming. Regardless of the name, it is a process used in chicken production which removes the front part of the beak with an automated heated knife. There are many other problems with the egg-laying industry, but those concerns deal with what happens to the birds later or the unwanted male chickens and less on the egg part.
If you are hell bent on eating eggs raised from more humanely treated chickens (in this day where so many people eat eggs, it is impossible to produce eggs 100% humanely) there are a couple of options. Whole Foods
has done a good job with ensuring the meat and eggs produced for their store is humane. Also, very - and I mean very - locally raised chickens can be a viable option if you are able to visit and look around the farm.
