EU Newspeak

Pick up a carton of eggs at your local shop or supermarket, and if you see the words "free-range", you might think that the hens who laid them were merrily scratching around in pasture.

 

Wrong.

 

A spokesperson for the European Commission said yesterday that hens in closed coops could also have their eggs labelled as "organic" and "free-range".

 

The reason is that because of the fears of bird flu, the Netherlands has decreed that hens can no longer be let outside, but must be kept inside sheds at all times. And there just happens to be a get-out clause in the rules governing the labelling of eggs that allows for the egg producers to carry on labelling their eggs as free range as though nothing had changed if the veterinary authorities decree that hens must be kept indoors.

 

Black = white

Battery = Free-range

 

Ain’t newspeak wonderful?