World’s first carbon neutral egg

As the climate change talks get firmly underway in Bonn this week, one Dutch poultry farm has proclaimed it has produced the world’s first carbon neutral egg.

Kipster Farm, which describes itself as the most animal-friendly and environmentally-friendly poultry farm in the world, deploys a massive array of 1,100 solar panels to boost sustainable energy usage. They use 40% of the energy generated to power the farm and sell the rest.

The white hens – which are lighter than brown birds and require less feed – are fed on residual flows such as left over bread and agricultural by-products to help with the zero carbon rating. Around 70% of the carbon footprint in eggs is accounted for by feed.

Farmer Ruud Zanders said the birds were not fed corn and had impressing housing facilities, designed with bird welfare in mind. It consists of a glass covered inside garden with trees and tree trunks for the birds, and features two outdoor spaces so they can get fresh air.

Eggs from the 24,000 bird farm at Venray in the province of Limburg cost around €0.23 – 0.24 each compared to the average €0.16 – 0.17 cents and are being sold in Lidl stores in the Netherlands.

Male chicks are being raised and fattened to 17 weeks and then marketed and sold for a burgeoning rooster burger market. Spent hens are processed into chicken nuggets.