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In all seriousness, it can happen with ANY eggs (just like you can naturally get pregnant with twins). It's just odd to find multiple in one carton.

Eggs, dairy, meat and dirty dozen produce are my must-buy organic items. Because organic or CNG meat is more expensive, we usually only eat meat a few times a week, and will often stock up during sales (our grocery bill this week was an extra $100 due to meat sales at whole foods, but it will last us 2-3 weeks).

Eggs are important to be organic because of the way non-organic chickens are raised. It's both humane and healthier to eat eggs of organic chickens.

Organic chickens are free-roam - they spend their days eating grass, bugs, etc (things they were designed to eat) and organic feed. They aren't given antibiotics or any type of hormone and by being "free range" are healthier in general. They experience sun and fresh air every day.

Other chickens are raised in pens in barns with no sun and fresh air. Many of them are literally on top of each other. They aren't allowed to exercise because sitting in a pen makes them fatter. They are given antibiotics even when they're not sick (because of the poor living conditions, it's more common they are constantly sick). All you have to do is google youtube videos or watch documentaries like food inc and it will likely disgust you enough to change the way you think - it sure did for me!

To me the issue of raising them in a humane way is just as important as the health aspect!

At whole foods, the 365 generic brand is about $3.69/dozen. And if you can find a local farm selling farm-fresh eggs, they are often $2-$2.50/dozen.

We buy local farm eggs from a small, humane farm. I will never, ever buy factory farm eggs again. It's disgusting and cruel how the chickens are kept (and unsanitary, to say the least). Also, factory farm eggs taste nothing like real farm eggs.

Note: larger "organic" or "free-range" (two different certifications, not one in the same) operations are sometimes not much better than your traditional factory farm so you still have to do your research. "free-range" certification can simply mean that the chickens have the *option* to go outside, not that they actually do, so it doesn't actually guarantee that the chickens have much better lives. It's horrific how chickens are treated.

@Mrs. Jacks: My mom had the sweetest blind pet chicken for many years (she would run to you when you called her name, and sit in your lap for hours and "chicken-purr"), and that prompted me to really research how chickens are treated. Needless to say; it's horrific, and "organic" and "free-range" often don't mean much!

I'm lucky enough that my mom has chickens & I get fresh, "happy" eggs from her! However, I agree with @yoursilverlining that even when buying organic / free-range it's hard to know what you are getting unfortunately. In fact, I believe organic just means fed organic feed, nothing about the conditions under which they are raised. My mom doesn't feed her chicken organic feed and the eggs are way better than grocery store organics! Maybe try to find a local chicken farmer that sells eggs? And if you have to buy a regular carton here or there, don't sweat it.

I prefer organic eggs. They taste so much better, and I've transitioned a lot of my everyday foods to organic. I have been doing so for the past year, and it doesn't even cross my mind how much non-organic eggs or milk cost. I try my best to buy from my local farmer's market, and it's $3 a dozen. I also buy from a co-op that sells farm fresh eggs for $3.50 a dozen.

I get organic free range chicken eggs mostly b/c I can. We get 1 dozen eggs from a local farmer each week for $3 per week. The chickens are able to roam free (for real!), and I love that we have a relationship with a local small-town farmer. The eggs actually taste *way* better than regular super market eggs -- even the ones marked as free-range and/or organic. My daughter eats an egg almost every morning for breakfast, so it makes me especially happy that she is eating a real egg and not some agri-business excuse for one.

So I'm just cheap and I buy the normal eggs atwalmart.

My ex was a farmer and they had a chicken house on their farm. It wasn't maintained by their family and they had no part in it really, but rented out to a chicken farmer. It is the nastiest thing you ever saw!! When the eggs are harvest and come down the line any that got discarded were tossed in a 10 gallon bucket and sat there for days until it was full...think dozens of cracked stinky eggs. The flats of eggs sat out for extended periods of time before going in the walk-in fridge and the chickens were kept in small cages stacked all along the length of the barn. I want to vomit just thinking about it!

A little off topic, but...I grew up across the street from a semi-large chicken farm. When the chickens get loose outside they have to shoot them. They often load the chickens at night and onetime a stray bullet went through our house, into my bedroom and landed a few inches from where my head should have been. I was luckily downstairs having a sleepover.

ETA: I can't eat eggs. I find them so gross! I can do them baked in things, but they still freak me out. I also can rarely eat chicken. I just don't like it.

Ohhh my brother got a bunch of free range brown eggs fron a local farmer once and we found a bunch of partciually formed chicks in them! Horrified!

We buy eggs from a local farm for $2/dozen. They are so much better than store eggs and cheaper than store eggs.

With eggs I'm way more concerned about the chickens being pastured than I am about organic designation. Most organic eggs I see are still from grain-fed chickens. Grains are not a natural part of a chicken's diet. Chickens, like most birds, are foragers. They live off worms, bugs, seeds, grass etc. When they eat their natural diet, their eggs are much more nutritious (higher vitamin/mineral levels etc.) and do not cause inflammation like grain-fed chickens' eggs.

As has already been mentioned, "free range" is one of those food industry misnomers. The best way to find truly pastured eggs is to find a local source. I'm fortunate to have someone who raises his own hens and delivers the eggs right to my office.

@hergreenapples: Does the person who provides your eggs really not feed her chickens any grain-based feed? My mom's chickens roam free and peck away at grass and bugs all day, but they also get chicken feed regularly.

@daniellemybelle: nope, none at all!

We spend more money on food, but we also spend a lot less money on clothing, cleaning supplies (we make our own), and other household items so I think it evens out. We probably buy about 80% or more organic. I don't mind paying a couple extra dollars for (what we call) happy eggs. It just means I spend less in other areas.