Teens today are overloaded with choices, and it can be hard to decide on the best choices. It’s also hard to try to live a life that hurts that least amount of people and things as possible, but many people still try to live a life like that. With so many food options today, it’s easy to grab for some quick and easy food option that is loaded with fat, calories, processed sugars, artificial colors, and artificial flavors. It’s understandable that living in today’s hectic world leaves many teens already juggling school, part-time jobs, relationships, and future life plans. This is a full plate as it is. How can adding eating healthy be added to the list without causing additional stress? Everyone knows they’re supposed to eat healthy, or eat smart, but what does that actually mean? A good place to start is thinking about eating ethically. This can begin with something as simple as choosing the right egg.
Why Ethical Food Matters
There are numerous reasons why ethical food should become part of a teen’s diet at this important stage of life that will in part determine the more immediate courses their lives take. Besides the good personal feeling of knowing that good quality eggs are coming from chickens raised in an ethical manner, there are good habits that you can learn from the perspectives of ethical treatment, ecology, sustainability, and overall quality of the chickens’ lives and, in turn, quality of the eggs.
Start Good Habits Early
Whether it’s good study habits, respect for elders, helping out neighbors, or learning other good values, as a teenager, you probably care about becoming better-equipped for adult life in addition to leaving this world in a better state than you found it. Getting the proper nutrition, staying out of trouble, working hard, putting forth your best effort at anything that’s worthwhile, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are things you’ve likely heard about from parents and teachers again and again. This can be taken a step further without much more effort by learning to think critically about where the food that is supposed to nourish you is coming from, how it’s prepared, and whether or not it’s ethical.
Chickens Also Have Working Conditions
When many consumers look at where other goods are made in the world and how they are made, such as shoes, clothing, and electronics, it’s so easy for many to become appalled by the working conditions under which these products are made. While many would agree that it’s unreasonable for these laborers to work in some rather grueling conditions, it’s also unreasonable for animals that produce food to have unpleasant working conditions. The production of ethical food encompasses taking care of food-producing animals, and that includes chickens.
This is the Root of Early Farming
The farming portrayed in TV shows and movies tends to reflect the traditional farming methods that have been replaced by much of the mechanized world. Farming methods from the past are sometimes the best, and that is especially true when considering the ethical implications of raising chickens for their eggs in a manner that is inhumane. When farmers are able to do their jobs ethically, this benefits the overall health and well-being of the generations living today and the future generations that will eventually be raised by today’s teens.
An ethical farm that produces ethical eggs is a place where you would leave happy seeing how your food is made. You would not even have to think twice before grabbing and taking the eggs home to your kitchen. These are eggs raised in the traditional farming methods that support the chickens, give the farmers some peace of mind, and provide you with the nutrition you need now and for the rest of your life.
How Technology is Making it Easier
When taking a simpler approach, it’s seemingly common to think that technology can sometimes complicate life, but that is not the case with today’s chicken coops. Modern chicken coops are mobile, and come with a whole host of features to make them more energy efficient, and to help the chickens be more comfortable. After all, healthy and delicious eggs come from happy chickens. In addition to reducing energy costs in production, choosing ethical eggs translates to benefits for environmental sustainability and overall health for both humans and chickens.
Feel Good About Where You Get Your Food
Many teens have to take some sort of food class in their schooling experience and usually they have to watch some video about the behind the scenes of the food industry. There have already been some rather appalling stories about food production through documentary or other journalistic endeavors. These reports range from horrendous conditions for livestock to gross stuff winding up in various food products. With ethical eggs, those stories are nonexistent because the chickens are treated right and fed right, which results in eggs that taste great and give many consumers a better feeling about how the food was made.
Think Ahead Seven Generations
Sometimes it’s hard for teens to think of anything more than the day or current moment they are living in. With so much living in the moment that is common today, it’s easy to not think about long-term effects of decisions. The members of native tribes were traditionally taught to think how their choices would affect people seven generations into the future. With that thought process, please think ahead seven generations about how your choice of foods like eggs will affect the quality of eggs for those in future generations, especially considering those generations will be your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on.
Feel Better Physically and Emotionally with Ethical Food
Teens are very good at noticing details or things that don’t feel right. Many consumers today can already tell a difference in taste from other foods that are organic or made without synthetic dyes and flavoring. The natural methods of growing and producing food tend to be preferred by consumers, even when the price is a little higher. You wouldn’t expect cheap food to taste great nor to be produced in a manner that is ethical and sustainable, so know that even though there is a slight difference in price, there are many greater benefits to eating ethical foods that include much better taste.
Something so common as the egg is easy to take for granted, especially with so many conventional options at various stores. It’s time to let good habits take root now during your life as a teenager. Technology has its place, and while it should not always be in one’s hands (especially while driving), it does help make it easier to choose ethical food options that make it possible to have happy eggs come from happy chickens.
Here are a couple articles about healthy eating that we think you’ll also find interesting!