What makes Kipster a new chapter in sustainable egg farming? It comes down to three core innovations:
- Improving well-being
- Closing cycles
- Raising Roosters
Improving well-being
Our farms are designed around the chicken’s instincts and needs. We see chickens as beings with desires and feelings – they both suffer and enjoy. Chickens are forest birds, which means they’re not fans of open plains and they hate rain. That’s why we created a natural-like wooded environment – both indoors and outdoors – with plenty of variety, daylight, fresh air and free-range foraging space. The park is fenced and netted off to keep out hungry predators and bird flu carriers.
Closing cycles
Our chickens eat specially developed feed made of safe by-products from food manufacturing, such as from large bakeries. In fact, our feathery friends upcycle these food production remains into new valuable proteins for people. In this way, we bypass using agricultural land and we don’t need to plough up any more native grasslands or forests for feeding our animals. The CO2 footprint of this feed is 50% less than standard chicken feed. But this is only part of what helps us achieve a carbon-neutral egg. We also use solar panels to power our farms and treat the chicken litter. And to achieve full carbon neutrality, we compensate for any extra emissions. (Meanwhile, as we get started in the U.S., our roosters will begin with a regular chicken diet. However, over time, we will reduce our environmental footprint by moving away from using soy and corn.)
Raising Roosters
It’s a boy! As biological law goes, half of the hatched eggs will be girls and half will be boys. We keep both: the hens to lay eggs and the roosters for meat. By raising the brothers of the layers, we go off the beaten track. We think it’s our ethical duty to do this. As National Geographic puts it: “It’s one of the most jaw-dropping, least-known facts of American food production: to keep the egg industry running efficiently, hatcheries kill hundreds of millions of newborn male chicks every year.”
Stay tuned
In early 2023, Kipster carbon-neutral eggs and meat products will be available in limited quantities on U.S. retail shelves.
We are thankful for our partners MPS Egg Farms and The Kroger Company who are working closely with us to make this happen. Kipster has also received welcome guidance from animal welfare organizations like the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) and others as we get off the ground in the U.S.
More information?
Please mail Sandra