new egg labelling and stamping requirements in Western Australia may spread to the rest of the country

Western Australia seems to be moving towards introducing effective labelling and stamping requirements for eggs. WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan described the system of labelling of eggs and traceability as a ‘joke’. She said “WA is the only State that doesn’t have a proper egg traceability system, there is no regulation and we need to modernise that and introduce more discipline.” Commercial Egg Producers Association of WA president Ian Wilson said an industry-led committee would work with the State Government to deliver tighter standards and procedures. He said while most eggs were stamped on farms before sale and it accurately reflected where they were laid, a weakness in the system meant the eggs could be bought from elsewhere and stamped as though produced on that farm. Mr Wilson said better traceability standards, identifying the origin, flock and system, would also help in situations such as the recent Eastern States recalls for salmonella. Unfortunately egg stamping in the eastern states does not provide adequate traceability, because exemptions mean that many eggs are not stamped on farm.

Email problems with Live Mail and Thunderbird

WE are having problems with our farm emails - we receive them OK, but we can't reply or send new nessages. We were using Windows Live Mail but when that started playing up we were advised that as microsoft no longer supported live mail, we needed a new email programme. So I downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird. But that hasn't helped - we still can't send emails on our farm account.It doesn't recognise the password with our ISP's outgoing server so the connection fails. Thank goodness we also have gmail and Facebook which allow us to keep in touch.

UN 'wake up' call on climate change - our webinars will help

The latest United Nations report on the implications of climate change for all life on earth is a serious ‘wake-up’ call for everyone to do their bit in the drive to halt pollution and global warming.Species extinctions are a huge threat. The impacts of industrial agriculture on the environment, public health, and rural communities make it an unsustainable way to grow our food over the long term. Scientists recognise that better science-based methods are available. At Freeranger Eggs, we believe the report validates the importance of our our proposed webinars to encourage the establishment of more freerange farms. Everyone can help to establish more genuine, small scale free range egg farms by supporting a programme of webinars demonstrating all the processes involved. The webinars will encourage hundreds more farms to be established.An eBook on starting a free range farm is also available through the Freeranger website. There isn't much time to reach the crowd funding target Of $8000 as the first webinar is scheduled for World ERgg Day, October 11. The webinars will be free and all participants will receive a copy of our eBook.The Crowd Funding appeal is at:https://www.gofundme.com/2tar52c

SEO conmen

Anyone with a website is probably fed up with a barrage of emails from people claiming to be SEO experts(Search Engine Optimisation). We get at least four or five every week. One of the latest ones claimed they could get our site http://www.freeranger.com.au onto the first page of Google. They also said we should Canonicalize our IP address. I contacted our site host, Weebly, who said that was rubbish. The junk mailbox is pretty full!

Starting Your own free range farm

Clear consumer demand for genuine free range eggs has generated a strong increase in the number of people thinking about starting their own free range egg business. A good starting point is reading the eBook on starting a free range farm available on the Freeranger Eggs website: www.freeranger.com.au . Detailed information is available on the Freeranger Club downloads page about things like shed requirements, food safety, egg packaging and labelling. When you decide to set up a free range egg farm, take the time to plan it properly. Find out the zoning of the land and talk to your local Council planning department about their requirements. It’s also worth contacting the State Department of Agriculture. You can find on-line resources in most states. In Victoria, contact: http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/farm-management/business-management/permits/guidelines-for-rural-planning-applications. Once that is sorted, talk to your Council Environmental Health Department about any specific requirements they have before you get underway. We are planning to hold webinars to spread the word about freerange farming.