Ask most organic egg and poultry consumers what they imagine organic chickens’ lives are like and they’ll probably describe a bird scratching in the soil, digging for bugs, and kicking up a dust bath on a quaint farm pasture.

However, in reality, many organic chickens are subjected to the same factory farm horrors as conventional birds — their entire lives spent crammed with tens of thousands of other hens in barren, fluorescent bulb-lit sheds with little access to soil or sunlight. 

Studies show people who are paying a premium for organically raised chickens usually do so with the expectation that they’re supporting ethically and humanely raised animals. But there exists a gap between what many consumers imagine they are buying and what they are actually buying.