Working with the group called the Lexicon of Sustainability, PBS recently released a video entitled “The Story of an Egg.”

The video highlights the challenges associated with egg production and marketing in the United States. And it signals the scope of greenwashing in the conventional food stream.

Greenwashing refers to efforts by organizations to spin their marketing to appear more environmentally friendly. In the case of food production, greenwashing is fairly common. Terms like “free range” and “cage free” evoke the image of a chicken free to roam green fields and stand in stark contrast to the traditional intensive-model of egg production. But as The Story of an Egg shows, terms are often co-opted by marketers in an attempt to curry positive associations with their brands and influence consumer behavior. Indeed, “free range” and “cage free,” to paraphrase from one of my favorite movies, probably do not mean what…