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Can Vegans Eat Eggs?

  • Writer: Emanuele Bortolotto
    Emanuele Bortolotto
  • Jul 15
  • 7 min read

Updated: Jul 28

Let’s cut to the chase: eggs. 🍳 You’ve seen them. You’ve probably eaten them. You have, at some point in your life, thrown one into a hot pan and watched it bubble and spit like it’s about to reveal a terrible secret from the underworld. The egg is a cornerstone of global cuisine, a symbol of breakfast, a binder of cakes, and a fundamental, unquestioned part of most people's diet.

But if you spend any time in the world I investigate—the world of veganism—you will quickly discover that the humble egg is not a simple food item. It is a profound moral crisis. It is a philosophical battleground. It is the subject of more heated, passionate, and frankly bizarre debates than almost any other food on Earth. This led me, as an investigator, to ask the big question: Can vegans eat eggs?

The short answer is no. The long answer is a strange and winding journey into the heart of modern farming, avian biology, and the very definition of compassion. So, buckle in.


What Is an Egg, Really? (A Scientific and Philosophical Autopsy)


Before I could understand why anyone would object to an egg, I felt it was my duty to understand what an egg actually is. Scientifically speaking, an egg is a reproductive cell produced by a female chicken. It is an ovum, wrapped in a protective layer of albumen (the white) and a shell. It is, in essence, one part of a chicken's menstrual cycle. It is a chicken period. A thought that, once you have it, is very difficult to get rid of. My apologies for that. 😬

Now, the first and most common objection I hear from people is this: "But the eggs we eat aren't fertilized! There’s no baby chick in it, so what's the problem?" This is a perfectly logical question. The eggs you buy at the supermarket are almost always unfertilized. They are, in a biological sense, a dead end. They were never going to become a chicken. So isn't eating one kind of like... eating bird tofu?

It’s an excellent piece of logic. And it is also, from a vegan perspective, completely and utterly wrong. I was discussing this with my friend,  I asked him what he thought an egg was. He said, "The thing you have to check isn't broken before you buy the box." A man of profound, practical insights. But for a vegan, it's much more complicated than that.

The vegan philosophy, as I’ve investigated before, isn’t just a diet. It’s a moral stance that aims to avoid all forms of exploitation or cruelty to animals. The problem, for them, is not the unfertilized egg itself. The problem is the entire, sprawling, and often brutal industrial system that is required to get that egg into your carton.


The Egg Industry, Uncooked: An Investigation into the System


To understand the ethical vegan position on eggs, I had to look into the standard, legal, and routine practices of the commercial egg industry. And let me tell you, it is not a pretty picture. Even on the farms with the fancy "free-range" and "organic" labels, the system is built on a foundation of practices that are, from a vegan perspective, morally indefensible.


The Male Chick Problem: A Grinding Inconvenience


This is the first and most shocking discovery of my investigation. In the egg industry, male chicks are completely useless. They can't lay eggs, and they are not the same breed of chicken that is used for meat (broiler chickens), so they don't grow fast enough to be profitable. They are, from a purely economic perspective, a waste product.

So, what happens to them? On their first day of life, the tiny, fluffy, newborn male chicks are separated from the females. They are then killed. The methods are brutally efficient. They are either thrown into a high-speed grinder (a process called maceration) or gassed with carbon dioxide. In the global egg industry, it is estimated that over seven billion male chicks are killed this way every single year. 😭

This practice is universal. It happens for caged eggs, cage-free eggs, free-range eggs, and organic eggs. It is the foundational, hidden horror of the entire industry. For an ethical vegan, buying a carton of eggs is directly funding this mass slaughter.


The Overworked Hen: An Ovulation Machine


The next part of my investigation focused on the hens themselves. The wild ancestor of the modern chicken, the Red Junglefowl, lays about 10 to 15 eggs per year, in a specific breeding season. The modern egg-laying hen has been selectively bred over decades to be an egg-laying machine. She now produces over 300 eggs per year.

This is an immense biological strain. It’s like forcing a human to run a marathon every single day. The constant production depletes her body of calcium, often leading to osteoporosis (brittle bones) and an increased risk of bone fractures. Other painful reproductive health problems, like uterine prolapse (where the hen's reproductive tract is pushed outside her body), are also common.


The Retirement Plan: A One-Way Trip


A chicken's natural lifespan can be ten years or more. But in the egg industry, a hen's life is brutally short. Once her frantic egg production begins to naturally decline, usually around 18 to 24 months of age, she is no longer considered economically viable. She is a machine that has lost its efficiency. At this point, the "spent" hens are rounded up, packed into crates, and sent to the slaughterhouse, where their low-grade meat is often used for things like pet food or chicken soup.

So, when you put it all together, the ethical vegan sees a system that is built on the mass killing of male infants, the intense biological exploitation of the female body, and the eventual slaughter of the female once her body is exhausted. From this perspective, the unfertilized egg on your plate is not an innocent bystander; it is the central product of a deeply cruel and violent system.


The Labyrinth of Labels: "Free-Range" and Other Comforting Lies


"But I only buy free-range eggs!" This is the common and hopeful refrain. My investigation looked into what these comforting labels actually mean, according to the laws in most Western countries.

  • Cage-Free: This is the most misleading label of all. It simply means the hens are not in tiny battery cages. Instead, they are usually crammed by the tens of thousands into massive, windowless sheds. They are free to walk around, but the conditions are often so crowded that they can barely move.

  • Free-Range: This label means the hens must have "access to the outdoors." What does "access" mean? In practice, it can be a few small pop-holes in a giant shed that lead out to a small, sad, barren dirt patch that most of the birds can't even get to. 😥

  • Organic: This means the hens are fed an organic, non-GMO diet and are not given routine antibiotics. It is a standard for their feed, not necessarily for their welfare.

  • Pasture-Raised: This is generally considered the highest welfare standard. It means the hens spend a significant amount of their time outdoors on a pasture. However, even on these farms, the male chicks are still killed, and the hens are still slaughtered when their production declines.

While the conditions may be "better," from an ethical vegan's perspective, all of these labels are just different tiers of the same exploitative system.


The Backyard Chicken Dilemma: A Moral Sudoku 🐔


This is where the debate gets really interesting, even for the vegans I've studied. What about the eggs from your friend Margot’s happy, spoiled, backyard chickens? The ones she has names for, who listen to jazz and get to live out their full, natural lives. Is it okay to eat those eggs?

My investigation revealed that the vegan community is deeply divided on this. It is a true philosophical puzzle.

  • The "Yes, It's Fine" Camp: Some vegans, the pragmatists, would say that in this specific, idealized scenario, if the chickens are genuinely rescued, happy, and not being exploited, and they are just leaving their unfertilized eggs lying around, then eating them causes no harm.

  • The "No, It's Still Not Vegan" Camp: The purists, however, have several counter-arguments. They argue that it still involves using an animal’s reproductive system for our own benefit. They argue that it normalizes the idea of eating eggs, which can have a ripple effect. And they point out that chickens will often eat their own unfertilized eggs to re-absorb the valuable calcium and nutrients, so taking the eggs might be depriving the hen of something she needs.

This is the point where, as an investigator, I have to conclude that we have left the realm of simple ethics and have entered the world of what I can only describe as "moral sudoku." There is no easy answer.


Questions from the Internet: "Okay, but aren't eggs a health food? What about the protein?"


This is the classic health argument. And it's true, an egg is a neat little package of protein and other nutrients. But my investigation confirms that it is in no way essential. You can get all the same nutrients, without any of the ethical baggage. And the egg "package" also includes a hefty dose of dietary cholesterol (around 186 mg per large egg) and saturated fat, which are not things most of us need more of. For every nutrient an egg provides, there is a plant-based source that can provide it just as well, if not better. Lentil soup, for example, is also full of protein. So is peanut butter. So is, probably, punching the air in frustration at this entire, complicated debate.


Questions from the Internet: "What do vegans even use instead of eggs in cooking?"


I was amazed to discover the sheer ingenuity of vegan egg replacements. The substitute you use depends on the job the egg was supposed to be doing.

  • For Binding (like in a burger): A "flax egg" (1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water) works wonders.

  • For Moisture (in cakes): Applesauce or mashed banana are perfect. 🍌

For a Fluffy, Light Texture (in meringues): The magical, miraculous liquid from a can of chickpeas, known as aquafaba.

The culinary world has completely solved the "egg problem."


The Conclusion: An Unscrambled Verdict


So, after this deep and frankly exhausting investigation into the world of the chicken's ovary, we return to our original question. Can vegans eat eggs?

The final verdict from my investigation is a clear and resounding no.

Based on the core ethical principles of veganism, which seek to exclude all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty, the modern egg industry is a complete non-starter. From the culling of male chicks to the slaughter of spent hens, the entire system is built on practices that are fundamentally at odds with the vegan worldview.

Even in the most idealized "happy backyard chicken" scenario, the question remains a deeply divisive philosophical puzzle. For anyone committed to the clearest, most consistent application of the vegan philosophy, the answer is to simply leave eggs off the plate. The good news is that with the incredible array of plant-based alternatives available today, you absolutely do not need them. 👍


The logic behind avoiding eggs is a core part of the vegan philosophy. To understand the bigger picture of why people choose to live this way, and the other products they avoid, you have to read my in-depth investigation: [What Is Ethical Veganism?].


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