Not all organic eggs are created equal. While different cartons of eggs might all have the same “Organic! Yay!” label slapped on them, standards for what that means can vary from farm to farm. One might meet minimum USDA or Federal standards while another has no real outdoor access for the chickens to speak of. To help you navigate the bedeviling array of options, The Cornucopia Institute has created an Organic Egg Scorecard to rate farms on a 5-egg system. Small farms with lots of pasture for the chickens to frolic in rate highly, while eggs put out by Trader Joe’s, Kirkland, and Price Chopper only get a one egg rating.

This is a list (PDF) of the criterion they used along with their relative scoring weight. If you agree with their standards for what makes one organic egg better than another, then you will find their farm rating system useful.

Organic Egg Scorecard [The Cornucopia Institute] (Thanks to Benjamin!)

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