élevés au sol, plein air

English translation: You're on the right track with "free range"...

04:09 Aug 18, 2000

French to English translations [PRO]

French term or phrase: élevés au sol, plein air

Context: "Commercialisation d'œufs extra-frais, datés, élevés au sol, plein air et bio en GMS."
I can only think of "free range" to apply to both these terms. Has anyone got a better idea?

Gillian Hargreaves (X) KudoZ activity Questions: 98 (none open) (1 without valid answers) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 918
Local time: 13:25

English translation:You're on the right track with "free range"...

Explanation:
...in contrast to standard mass-produced eggs and poultry, in which the hens sit on elevated rails inside long sheds and drop their eggs into baskets on conveyor belts, without ever seeing the light of day or scratching in a yard. (According to some sources, this lack of contact with the tiny pebbles and bits of shell that ground-raised hens eat reduces the calcium content of the eggs produced by the factory hens.) Thus:

"élevés au sol" = "raised on the ground," or "yard-raised" (even if not completely free-range)

"plein air" = "[in] open air"

"bio" = the current French buzzword equivalent of the U.S. "organic" or "organically grown/raised" (although - even with genetic modifications - it's a little hard to see how hen eggs could be produced any other way!)

"GMS" = "Grands Magasins Spécialisés," i.e., "major department stores" or "major retail outlets"

In full, then, you have: "Major retail marketing of extra-fresh, dated, organic eggs [from hens] raised in open-air yards."

Bon appetit!

Selected response from:

Heathcliff
United States
Local time: 05:25

Grading comment

Thanks Heather - you must be the hardest-working Pro on the network!
Just one point - I have found GMS to mean "grands et moyens surfaces", i.e. hypermarkets and supermarkets.
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

grown under naturall conditions / naturally grown

Telesforo Fernandez (X)

You're on the right track with "free range"...

Heathcliff

farm-yard raised in the open air

Gary Moelk

see below

Nikki Scott-Despaigne

Answers

11 mins

grown under naturall conditions / naturally grown

Explanation:
this is another way of putting it. Plein air = full air.
I hope it will help you.

Telesforo Fernandez (X)
Local time: 17:55
PRO pts in pair: 216

1 hr

You're on the right track with "free range"...

Heathcliff
United States
Local time: 05:25
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 953

Grading comment

Thanks Heather - you must be the hardest-working Pro on the network!
Just one point - I have found GMS to mean "grands et moyens surfaces", i.e. hypermarkets and supermarkets.

1 hr

farm-yard raised in the open air

Explanation:
I used to work on a chicken farm. However, I don't remember any specific phrase for this. So, you can probably use your poetic license.

Best egg-ards

Gary Moelk
United States
Local time: 08:25
PRO pts in pair: 5

2 hrs

see below

Explanation:
Taking the terms one by one :

commercialisation : marketing, selling, distribution

extra-frais : really fresh

datés : date-marked (rather than date-stamped, although it is usually a stamp. I wonder how many eggs are broken?!)

élevés au sol : raised on the ground (sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it means that the chickens are out in the yard, rather than stuck in little pigeon (chicken?) holes which is the case of battery farmed hens. Almmost all the farms in Brittany, where I live, produce eggs. They would be incapable of producing anything other than a wholly natural product.

plein air : you ses this on the packets in the supermarkets here too, for the chickens themselves or the eggs they produce, meaning open air

bio : biologically-produced, or rather organically-farmed, which I prefer to "grown" with reference to eggs

en GMS : available in grandes et moyennes surfaces = distributed for sale in medium-sized and large (chain) supermarkets : eg, Leclerc, Casino

So, putting the bits of the puzzle together this gives :

"distribution of fresh free-range organic eggs, date-marked, via medium and large supermarket chains".

I am considering that free-range (= kept or produced in natural conditions, Collins English Dic.) covers the French "élevés au sol, au plein air" in one go. At a pinch, could also cover "bio" as free-range really does imply natural. I have also dropped "extra" from fresh. I believe that an English person seeing really fresh would wonder why "fresh" is qualified. The eggs are either fresh or they are not.

Regularly buy eggs from supermarket and local farms in France.
Collins, English Dictionary

Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Local time: 14:25
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 4638

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