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US-Appointed Egg Lobby Paid Food Blogs and Targeted Chef To Crush Vegan Startup
An anonymous reader writes: The American Egg Board targeted publications, popular food bloggers, and a celebrity chef as part of an effort to combat a perceived threat from Hampton Creek, an egg-replacement startup backed by some of Silicon Valley's biggest names, according to internal emails. The Gaurdian reports: A detailed review of emails, sent from inside the AEB and obtained by the Guardian, shows that the lobbyist's anti-Hampton Creek campaign sought to:
- Pay food bloggers as much as $2,500 a post to write online recipes and stories about the virtue of eggs that repeated the egg lobby group's "key messages."
- Confront Andrew Zimmern, who had featured Hampton Creek on his popular Travel Channel show Bizarre Foods and praised the company in a blog post characterized by top egg board executives as a "love letter."
- Target publications including Forbes and Buzzfeed that had written broadly positive articles about a Silicon Valley darling.
- Unsuccessfully tried to recruit both the animal rights and autism activist Temple Grandin and the bestselling author and blogger Ree Drummond to publicly support the egg industry.
- Buy Google advertisements to show AEB-sponsored content when people searched for Hampton Creek or its founder Josh Tetrick.
The whole food-industrial complex in the US is so far out-of-wack with the concept of healthy food it's not even funny.
Want to fix our chronic health / obesity / diabesity problems --
1. Reform campaign finance laws.
2. End corn subsidies.
3. Profit (from good heath).
The Egg Board is an advocate for the consumption of eggs. What's the problem?
This article seems more like a slashvertisement for Hampton Creek
This all sounds like what many companies would do when faced with an upstart competitor - basically what's known as "playing hardball".
If this Hampton Creek company is backed by some of the "biggest names" in Silicon Valley, isn't it well-positioned financially to respond? This doesn't exactly sound like David vs. Goliath.
As an aside - is there such a thing as "Big Egg"? We buy ours from a local farm.
#DeleteChrome
I'm strongly in favor of eggs. Go eggs.
Is OP alleging this activities are all illegal? Are any of these things illegal? I am scratching my head to figure out which one. Maybe buying of the google ads for someone else's trademarks if that was done?
Or should we add to the the Hampton Creek side of the ledger....spammed second rate news for nerds site with hyped up allegations of mean business practices in support of egg replacement for friend working at egg replacement company......
Those are all perfectly legitimate responses to attacks from food-fear mongers.
It's not just one startup--it's a multi-billion dollar industry built on FUD.
so they are doing what all businesses have done when they face other competition, how can this be anything new thing, the guardian seems to have a very slow day, mabe they ran out of click baits
as long as their are not spreading lies or misleading information about their own product or competition then there is nothing to see here
Makes you wonder about where hatchet pieces like this came from. And who lit a fire under the FDA's ass to crack down on the definition of "mayo?"
...why it is not illegal for and organization whose board of directors is selected by the Secretary of Agriculture and whose funding is collected by the United States Government under a mandatory "check off" program, to target a competing industry much less an innovative product, a specific brand and a particular person?
The purpose of these "check offs" (which despite the name are not voluntary) is to promote economic development, foster innovation and promote our commodities overseas. The Egg Council is doing the exact opposite. It is not lawful to spend checkoff money to PROMOTE a particular brand or product. How then can it be legal to spend checkoff funds to ATTACK a specific brand?
Seems to fall under the category of overly-zealous competitive marketing. I didn't see enough to justify verbiage like "crush vegan startup". In fact, I kind of agree with their assessment that it's not "just mayonnaise", that it shouldn't be marketed as such.
I do think that gov't sponsored industry-support groups can be anti-competitive. But I'm not sure they differ materially from other subsidized industries.
This is less a smoking gun than business as usual. Doesn't mean it's not important. Just that this company isn't justified in crying foul very loudly.
I'm a little overly sensitive to the over-sensitivity of Silicon Valley startups. The competitive environment is competitive, perhaps unfair if gov't is involved. But the notion that the state should be impartial or non-interfering is naive in my opinion. The gov't should be considered a player of the competitive landscape rather than referee.
Doesn't mean gov't shouldn't be held accountable for whatever.
You do realize that one of those is not a government agency, right? If not, I'll leave it as an exercise to figure out which one.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
I read the TFA, I even went to the news article at the Guardian, and still I can't find any real link !
It is easy to say that so and so lobby paid thousands to blogs to publish this or that, but until we can read the articles in question ourselves, how are we to believe anything reported in the news article is true?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
It's always an unfair (evil illuminati) conspiracy when some vegan hippy talks shit about mainstream food for profit and ends up with naught. But whatever they have support from their imaginary pleiadian collective.
Raise your own hens? Or buy eggs from someone who has hens and is not associated with the egg lobby?
Honestly, if you went to your local farmer's markets, you'd probably find someone with eggs pretty quickly.
Ha! I have been a vegetarian since the age of 18, which means I have been a vegetarian longer than I haven't. Became a vegetarian because I think it's better for health. For the first 8 years I was a vegan but later started eating cheese. What I miss here is the point of artificial eggs, the point of artificial anything. Why bother? If you are a vegetarian or a vegan, why bother eating something that is like an artificial egg in the first place?
You can't handle the truth.
organisation
How can I avoid them?
Judging by your non-American English spelling of that word, I think you already are.
This has literally nothing to do with news for nerds.
Normal eggs? Nope.
Vegan lifestyle? Nope.
Corruption, legal or otherwise? Nope.
Technically, all posts are off-topic in this thread.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Why not Humpty Creek?
The Egg Board is an advocate for the consumption of eggs. What's the problem?
This article seems more like a slashvertisement for Hampton Creek
The problem is a fraud on the public. Advocating a position that is based on who pays you, without regard to reason or truth or the benefit to mankind, without so much as a notice of your bias, causes massive amounts of harm to the public by sustaining inefficient practices.
It is perhaps the single most harmful activity to society a person can engage in--it wastes other people's lives. It perpetuates the spread of misinformation.
And it is fundamentally contrary to the ideals of Nerds, Geeks, and those who believe in the potential of science and information to help mankind get out of the mess we've made of our world and our societies.
7.67 billion eggs are produced in the US each year. Can you even imagine how many 'hobby farms' it would take to accomplish this feat? Quite nearly every remaining square foot of the US would have to be transformed into hobby farms to accomplish this. Hampton Creek is challenging an unsustainable industry, and providing an excellent replacement, but is being pursued by the government for this innovation...that just doesn't seem right. : \
Really, who cares what they think? *pauses for reflection*
"I believe this and therefore you should too!" - is that persuading you? Well then... I rest my case.
Just stop listening to all the talking heads and the world becomes a much nice place ;D
Requiem for the American Dream
Eggs are pretty simple to grow. My brother has 3 hens in his back yard. His two school age children help with egg collection and learn about sustainable animal husbandry.
21 eggs a week provide the family of four with a soft boiled egg for breakfast each weekday.
(Now I know people live in apartments but still...)
I don't get it
eggs? lobby group? blogs? articles?
Is it blogs? I guess that is remotely techy?!?
I have lots of recipes involving eggs, would you pay me two grand per recipe for me to post them on a blog?
Love,
A terminal ovovore.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
You do realize that he didn't call any of them government agencies? If not, I'll leave it as an exercise to figure out what he actually said.
This is the big problem with your kind, you jump to conclusions that fit your pre-existing mental state and then freak out about it. Didn't you people used to be anti-US government and anti-everything-American?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Well, it wasn't a suggestion for every single person in the US. I'd imagine that it'd be quite difficult raising hens in a studio apartment, or any apartment, for that matter. Given enough backyard space, though, it's feasible for anyone to do. Especially if you cook at home and produce a good amount of green waste.
That should read 'The Grauniad reports' , everyone knows that.
This has literally nothing to do with news for nerds.
And how about stuff that matters?
Slashdot has never, ever been excluively tech topics.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
It is The Guardian, beloved of the Left. You don't need to question them, it is unseemly and icky. Everything they print is true, because it agrees with the Left's pre-existing ideas. Anything contradictory is simply not printed in the first place. This is one of the big reasons the Left has gone off the rails into obsessed hate in the past 20 years, they live in an echo chamber and think that dissident opinions have no place in political speech.
I certainly do not agree with everything the Gaurdian prints, but it is worth remembering that as it is a UK publication they have printed this knowing that if they can't prove every word they would be sued into oblivion for liable under the strong laws we have in the UK. We also have a slightly more regulated press than the you in the US in terms of a body that overseas them and force retractions if they print anything that is utterly made up.
So with that in mind you can be fairly sure that there is a fair amount of substance to this story unlike half the crap that the right wing press in the US run with where your free speech laws allow them to just make stuff up. All you have to prove in the US is that although you printed a pack of lies you did not do it "maliciously". Since that maliciousness is almost impossible to prove in court the you can get away with far more.
I dont read
It's what lobbyists do all day, they buy elections even, egg on their face is nothing to them.
I also fail to see the 'news for nerds' and 'things that matter' angle, unless it's the fact that a blogger was mentioned somewhere along the line.
"JUMP to Conclusions!" "yes, that idea, it is horrible"
well, I suppose you could always use the roof of the apartment building...
Well, on Slashdot, a lot of folks like to gripe about the "Big Oil" or "Big Pharma" lobbies.
I guess what we have here is a case of the "Big Egg" lobby.
"Hey! Youse got Big Eggs . . . ?"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Real link to what? A reporter wrote a report on some leaked information. You're asking for the source material? The emails which were leaked? The Guardian isn't Wikileaks, they operate under the old model of credibility - you're supposed to read the article and believe it not because you've gone through hundreds of emails yourself, but because the Guardian is Britain's most reputable newspaper and you trust that they've done due diligence.
This is not unreasonable, they have nearly two hundred years worth of claim to that trust, but okay - let's say you love Wikileaks and hate traditional journalism. Even if that's the case, there are instances where publishing source material can compromise the safety and identity of the informant. Even Wikileaks recognized this and acted with some measure of caution with the State Department leak. They gave the information unredacted but confidentially to some traditional journalists who then picked out and published only the pertinent information... and then blew the whole thing by publishing the encryption key. Okay fine, but that was accidental.
The point being that even if it might be nice for a traditional paper to change their methods a bit and publish more of the source material, now that the internet exists and archives like that are easy things to make available, the onus of believeability should be on the lobbyists to disprove this.
"The result is that they try to make us feel guilty for eating eggs, drinking milk and even chewing on imported fruits."
It's a yolk we have to bear.
The fact you think "The Left" is some monolithic entity with a single goal speaks volumes for how abjectly childish and oversimplified your view of the world is. Seriously. It's embarrassing to read someone launch such a poorly thought-out tirade against half of the political spectrum as if it is one entity. You really need to read more.
And yet, astonishingly enough, there are more than 130 comments from people involved in this discussion, coming from the tried & true Slashdot user perspective.
Funny, that.
I've been reading this site for over 15 years, and not a week goes by when somebody doesn't make that same general complaint. It's a cliche at this point. A super cliche. A human behavioral bug. Predictable mechanical behavior which has no effect other than to broadcast one's Missing The Point.
You'd better run, egg!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The result is that they try to make us feel guilty for eating eggs, drinking milk and even chewing on imported fruits.
There is a difference between expressing a viewpoint you yourself truly believe and bullying others to express that viewpoint. Whether you believe them or not is entirely up to you.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
The Egg Board also says they talked about doing the things mentioned, but didn't actually do them. If they did, they should get smacked down for it as two wrongs != right. However, the same applies to an article that fails to mention the key reason why the AEB and FDA reacted as they did.
It's called "Just Mayo". Mayonnaise has a formal definition that includes eggs. Furthermore, the label has a big picture of an egg! That's why the AEB and FDA are ticked off. It's a blatant case of false advertising.
To invoke argumentum ad monsantium, you must be shilling for Big Chicken.
Or to invoke argumentum ad pomum, you're one of those fanboix who just love eggs so much that whenever a hen clucks, you're standing in line to grab the egg, knowing that it has to be way better than yesterday's egg.
The story may well be true. The problem is that you may never see the counter story on everything vegan activists groups are doing to promote THEIR lifestyle. If the egg council, or whoever, are paying for promotion, it's fine to let people know about it. But are they also going to let us know when leftist groups do the same thing? Because it's not honest journalism if you're only going to call out the people and movements you don't like, while giving a free pass to those you like.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
You can always calm yourself with some yolka exercises.
Which came first, Big Egg or Big Chicken?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Those "strong libel laws" and censorship boards exist to protect important UK personalities and further UK political interests; the idea that they protect foreign governments from being badmouthed by UK publications is ridiculously naive.
This story happens to be true: the US pays vast amounts of money to its agricultural lobby and agricultural lobbies heavily influence what the US government tells the people about food. Of course, what the Guardian neglects to tell you is that the crap that's going on with agricultural subsidies and agricultural lobbies in Europe is just as bad, if not worse. The purpose of articles like that is to distract ignorant Europeans from the enormous problems in Europe, which are being swept under the rug by your elites and your government controlled media. And while anti-Americanism serves the political elites and media in Europe to distract Europeans from their problems, Americans generally don't give a crap about all the political, social, and economic dysfunction in Europe.
I guess what we have here is a case of the "Big Egg" lobby.
Gettin ostricher and ostricher at our expense.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
It is [Right-Wing Rag], beloved of the Right. You don't need to question them, it is unseemly and icky. Everything they print is true, because it agrees with the Right's pre-existing ideas. Anything contradictory is simply not printed in the first place. This is one of the big reasons the Right has gone off the rails into obsessed hate in the past 20 years, they live in an echo chamber and think that dissident opinions have no place in political speech.
Yup. Still holds true.
How fortunate that the Guardian isn't the only journalistic outlet out there...
They're not under any obligation to run a story just because you think that it's not fair. If you don't like their slant, then don't support them.
Also, if you could provide an example of where "vegan activists" have engaged in this sort of behavior, it would go a long way towards making your argument credible.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
It's an extension of conservative absolutism. When presented with a solution that came from anywhere but the echo chamber, the right dismisses anything that isn't a magic bullet that fixes it 100% without any side effects.
I realize that's me calling the kettle black when I refer to the "right" as a monolithic entity, but the general philosophy is to dismiss anything that wasn't their idea, or is too complicated to think about in terms of shades of grey. Conservatives tend to latch on to the simple, ideological solutions without any concern for anything they don't care about. For example: It's all well and good that Trump wants to deport 12 million people. That's an attractive sound bite that fits nicely on a bumper sticker, but it ignores how complex the issue is. Complexity tends to mean expensive. Who's going to pay for identifying and rounding up all those folks? Where are they processed for deportation? How do we transport them to the border? Who replaces the cheap labor that the agricultural industry relies on? I find that they refuse to see the world as it is, but how they think it should be.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
A typical UK cereal with milk is in the 125-150 calorie range. Even the worst sugar laden ones are only about 350 calories per bowl.
I don't know the size of your bowl but 60 grams of oat flakes (that stuff in muesli) plus 80 grams of 0.5% milk is 253 calories.
No added sugar, flavor or anything.
You want extra flavor, add fruit or a couple of spoons of fruit yogurt.
At about 84 calories per 100 grams for those yogurts which don't contain extra fructose for taste.
Slice an average peach into it and that's about 40 more calories per 100 grams, or about 1 peach.
Or a banana for 90 calories per 100 grams, or about 110 calories per banana.
So, a bowl of "healthy", raw, low calorie fruit and unprocessed cereals with low fat milk is in the range of 290-370 calories, for about a 200 ml bowl.
I'm guessing that your "typical" bowl might actually be a "small" bowl and OP's bowl may be a "medium" to "large" bowl.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I suspect he meant the Department of Commerce, an agency of the federal government dedicated to crony capitalism.
(In the US the Chamber of Commerce is, of course, a private lobbying group; in other nations, however, it is indeed a governmental entity.)
That the hollywood types, blogging about the dangers of this or that to try to destroy other industries that aren't on their "good" side. All things are politics. It just depends on which side of the isle you are on, to consider it good or bad.
Slashdot tries to read the pulse of the community in order to fulfill the "Stuff that Matters" mantra. Classically, these "off-topic" topics have been religious, civil, political, etc.. In the past several years there has been a huge uptick of interest in dietary matters within Slashdot. Hence...eggs.
It is called advertising.
Now if a blog takes money then the issue is with the blog IMHO.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I've not heard that before..associating what one eats and dietary choices to being Left or Right?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Synthetic eggs are dumb.
Synthetic meat is dumb.
These are things we can easily grow out in our pastures using natural cycles that help to sequester carbon and produce nutrients for the vegetable part of the farming cycle.
When you make synthetic versions you're using Big Corp's Big Chemicals under their control with Big Petro to create an inferior, synthetic version that goes bad in Big Ways with Big Recalls. You are giving up control to the big guys. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Get a chicken. Get free eggs. Eat the chicken when you're done and get another chicken. Wow! Works!
I bought some "Just Mayo" and was a bit annoyed when I tried it and it ended up not being mayonnaise. I'm fine with non-mayo spreads, but be clear about what you are. Their name is misleading IMO and makes you think that it is, well, mayonnaise. If that's the particular flavour you are going for and you get something else, well that annoying.
The UK press is perfectly capable of lying through their teeth and getting away with it as long as they do it about the right people. I've personally seen ombudsmen and others in the appeal process flat out say they know something was wholly untrue, libellious, and that they don't give a fuck.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
"Snooping as usual, I see."
-- Dr. Eggman
My point is there isn't enough backyard space to do this...and ignoring that, there are a lot of issues that come up from raising your own chickens. First, you have to feed them, which takes more time and money (and since they're fairly inefficient at converting protein, and will need supplemental feed, your total cost-per-egg will go up). You also need to clean up after them (hopefully at least a few times a week.)
;)
You will now be attracting more predators into the city. Here in Greater Vancouver, there are an estimated 2-3,000 coyotes living in the area, and fortunately co-existence has been pretty good, but I could see other communities who would not be impressed with more species moving into the city. Racoons are pretty crafty, and are quite capable of getting into many enclosures, or finding when someone's been sloppy or careless in closing the enclosure (as happened to an acquaintance). This all breeds stupidity, an people end up setting traps in their backyards in an effort to 'control' the predators, and then instead of trapping predators, pets and children get caught in snares and leghold traps instead. (This also happens with regularity here in Vancouver.)
After a year, 'productivity' of chickens drops, and within 2 years you're getting an egg or two per chicken per week. So now you have to deal with this - either keeping them (and they live upwards of 10yrs), or disposing of them (I hate to think of what that means...) And then getting MORE chickens to replace them.
Chickens also get sick, get bugs, and need more care than just 'giving them food'. A few chickens in a block are pretty quiet, but if a large number of backyards in an area had chickens, the noise would become quite significant. Oh, and the stink. Doubtless some neighbours would spend as much time cleaning up, and so the stink from their manure would spread around the block as well..
I think there's a lot more to consider here.. I imagine there's a good reason people were eager to get hens out of their backyards in the first place, and find their eggs elsewhere. (Which brings us back full circle to how they're actually unnecessary, and companies like Hampton Creek are finding innovative ways to replace these things.
All excellent points. I agree with most of them, well, except for the backyard space. Canada/US are both quite big. There would be plenty of people with backyards big enough to support a few hens.
There are solutions to the cleaning up issue. You can get a rolling cage that effectively spreads the waste around the yard. This deals with the stink problem too, as the waste is dispersed and is allowed to break down before it becomes offensive. Has a good side-effect of providing fertilisation for the yard.
I've got no experience with dealing with racoons and coyotes, so can't really comment. I'm sure a sufficiently sturdy cage could fend them off, though.
Care, feed, cost per egg, and all that jazz, well, that's a bit of a strawman argument, as the original question was how to avoid dealing with those associated with the egg lobby. If you have to work a bit more, pay a little extra, then that's the cost of trying to achieve your ideal.
I applaud Hampton Creek for doing what they're doing. There's certainly a place in this world for their products. Though they will never completely replace the need for eggs, or the need for some people to raise hens for self-sufficiency, consequences of such notwithstanding.
It seems you are equivocating being Vegan (and maybe even vegetarian) to being Left/Liberal?
I've not heard that before..associating what one eats and dietary choices to being Left or Right?
Wasn't Hitler a vegetarian, or is that some urban myth?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Heya - for sure there are lots of backyards here, but my point on space is that there is nowhere enough to fulfill the demand for over 7 billion eggs. And this only offsets a small portion of egg consumption, the vast majority are used in commercial products....not eaten directly by consumers.
;)
Is there a rolling cage that provides adequate shelter from the elements, etc..? And chickens standing on wire all day is pretty cruel. =(
I don't doubt that some individuals can ween themselves from commercial eggs (but this also means eating much less processed or restaurant food, unless it's vegan.
Just curious what other 'need' for eggs you're thinking of? Of course, I'm biased as a vegan, but I haven't consumed any eggs or egg products for 25yrs now - what am I missing that's essential? =)
Yep, I agree that backyards aren't going to feed the whole US. But, it will feed the house that has the backyard, which is kind of the point of such a setup. Hence the original query has been answered.
As for rolling chicken coops, where there's a will, there's a way, my friend. Do a google search on what people have built. Ingenuity abounds.
If Hampton Creek pull off a near indistinguishable liquid yolk/white product at a price point below eggs, I'm sure we'll be moving to their product pretty quickly. It'd actually be quite convenient when producing cakes and such. Though, the liquid stuff can't replace a sunny side up egg on toast, with a rich yolk that flows like molten nutrition when the sac is cut. Nor can it be used in a Korean restaurant, when you order a bibimbap. Plenty of other types of meals that require that certain mix of whites and yolk that only eggs can give.
The other "need" is for self-sufficiency. All good and fine if a company wants to produce eggs for you. If you want to make them yourself, your only option is to raise chickens.
One of the reason the egg industry is freaking out is Hampton Creek *does* plan to make eggs obsolete and unnecessary, and perhaps even in all the ways you describe.. As someone once posted here on /. : "where there's a will, there's a way, my friend". ;)
You will not make self-sufficiency obsolete and unnecessary. Eggs from chickens will always occupy that segment, that is, until people can produce their own artificial eggs.
The recipe to make eggs obsolete: artificial yolk contained in a fine membrane, surrounded by artificial whites, in a convenient container, for a price point significantly less than what the egg industry can farm it. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's likely a very long way off. Until then, the egg industry will still be there.
There's always a way for one will. But one way for many? Sure, why not. I look forward to trying out my first artificial egg breakfast. If they can make egg yolks coagulate at a higher temperature, I may even prefer them.
I dunno, are they really a form of self-sufficiency? Where do they get the hens from in the first place? Often they're not 'local', but shipped in. The feed most people give them is also not local.. While some people will have enough 'scraps' to actually feed and nourish hens, I imagine a lot of people don't, and have to actually buy more food for them, where most of the calories and protein are lost..
For example: "By the time your layer hen has reached maturity at 5 months of age, she will have consumed approximately 20 pounds of feed." That's 20lbs of edible food gone, per hen, before you even get a single egg! How is that sustainable? 3 hens means 60lbs of grains, gone...that's a lot of food when you're talking about growing your own.
If you're really serious about self-sufficiency, then it'd be much more efficient to eat the grains you're feeding to the hen instead, dontcha think? (And again, rinse and repeat process after a year or two when you're only getting an egg or two a week, but they're still eating the same amount of food.)
Sure, some homes work, but the vast majority of back yards I'm familiar with wouldn't..or they would devour the garden crops intended for people (as happens with an acquaintance). But I think if you really examine it for 'self-sufficiency', and go beyond the hobby fad, there are a lot of strikes against them..
Well, from my experience, it is a form of self-sufficiency. Hens are sourced from local places, because keeping roosters is not very polite for neighbours. Yes, feed can be needed to supplement their food source, but chickens will eat all sorts of kitchen scraps, including egg shells themselves, and will eat bugs around the garden, and also any pulled weeds. Much better than throwing it in the garden waste bin. You don't want to rely on grain for their feed, as a wide variety of food will benefit them more. If you have a family that generate a good amount of food scraps, your reliance on feed will be minor.
Raising hens for eggs is not for everyone, that we can agree on. But it is an option, and is open to quite a large number of people. Also, I think it's a positive activity, and worth the effort. It's also a great family activity.