The grilled hanger steak on the lunch menu at Equinox (818 Connecticut Ave. NW; 202-331-8118) is dressed up with an arugula salad, pickled red onions and Parmesan-flavored bechamel, but that’s not all that distinguishes the meat from that of the competition’s.

The California law fits into a growing international consensus concerning force-feeding for foie gras, which Israel, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Austria, Germany and other countries have passed laws to ban. It also reflects a broad movement.

It is one of the great biological and epistemological conundrums of all time, so, for the record, let’s pose the question once more. Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?  For me, it was the egg, but that’s only because I started my tour at the egg end of the operation at Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs.

In the continuing struggle between your socially conscience brain and your gourmet palate, there’s now a way to please both.

Apologists for the meat industry say they’re merely giving people what they want — lots of meat at low prices. Adele Douglass of Humane Farm Animal Care believes it is up to American consumers to demand something more.

Murray’s Chickens will add the “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” label to its packages starting in July, after the South Fallsburg, N.Y.-based company received approval from Humane Farm Animal Care, a national nonprofit organization based in Herndon, Va.

It was exactly on such a day last month that I paid a visit to Tobin Farm, a unique and commercially successful egg business in eastern Washington (the sunny side of the state) that offers lessons in how some of the agricultural issues that concern both traditional and alternative farmers and producers might be addressed.

The sign at the entrance to Hunter’s Head Tavern in Upperville says, “Good Food Served Here.” Now the three-year-old English-style pub can boast that it is the first restaurant in the United States to receive the “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” label for the beef stew, shepherd’s pie, pork barbecue sandwich and other meat and poultry dishes on its menu.

While Hunter’s Head Tavern is the first restaurant to receive the Certified Humane designation, Ayrshire Farms is one of about 15 farms and producers across the country that has received the designation under the program, which began last year.

It’s trite but true: You have to ask for what you want. Particularly at the supermarket.