A couple months ago we had a farmer friend over for dinner and we got to talking about the specifics of what it’s been like for her to raise chickens and turkeys. During the course of our chat she mentioned — in a completely matter of fact way because it is, at this stage of the industrial food complex, a complete matter of fact — that she’s got to order her birds each year from a hatchery. And that these birds are delivered to her through the good ole US Postal Service within a couple of days of their birth.
It was meant to be an unimportant, inoffensive detail within a larger discussion of the cost of organic grain. And I suppose it was a detail that reflected a reality I’d already been made familiar with. But I must have somehow managed to forget it, because when I was reminded of the image of fragile, helpless, utterly disoriented chicks chirping in a box aboard an airplane and, later, in the back of a post office, I was totally distressed.
There’s the obvious animal welfare concern in this scenario, even if these birds are headed to a blissful life on a small farm with yummy, chemical-free grain and soil rife with grubs. (Would you put a newborn puppy in a box and freight it a couple hundred miles?) But what’s more upsetting is the underlying issue that points to a more complex concern that I’m having trouble articulating. Though generally it is something like this: The chickens we eat can no longer have sex and procreate the way nature intended. Even the birds we’re buying from reliable, local farmers.
Oh yeah, that goes for turkey too. Even the heritage breeds.
To be clear, this is not meant to be a criticism of our farmer friend, or any local farmer that continues to raise poultry — especially those farmers who, like our friend, are going to great lengths to give these birds the finest life they can. I’m not sure it’s meant to be a criticism at all. Maybe just a public proclamation that there is something seriously disturbing about the genetic state of poultry and the corresponding cavalier relationship we all — even us self-identified good eaters — have with eating it.
This is, I suppose, a coda to an earlier post, written from a slightly more repulsed perspective after having read the entirety of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals. It’s excellent book, though his argument for vegetarianism is tragically incomplete — he overlooks the fact that welfare issues extend to dairy animals and laying hens. However, he makes several strong points against eating poultry, including:
1. What do any of us know about the hatcheries whence our birds come from? What kind of conditions are their parents living in?
2. Birds aren’t capable of reproducing because their genetics have been so manipulated by the market. “By design they can’t live long enough to reproduce.”
When was the last time you heard someone pass on a piece of breast meat, explaining “I’m sorry, I only eat red meat.”
Never. Which is to say, it’s sort of like chicken isn’t even meat anymore. Or like it doesn’t come with any environmental, health or economic issues worth measuring — at least not compared to beef or pork. Though, when you really think about it, grass-fed beef might be the most actually sustainable kind of meat you can eat. The total inputs are grass and water, compared with shipped in grain for chicken (plus, the life and death of one steer feeds many, many more mouths than the life and death of one chicken).
For no particular reason, Darry and I only eat chicken about three or four times a year. Compared to the 221 pounds (or roughly 37 birds) the average American consumes. I suppose it’s because it’s been harder to find, and more expensive, than ground beef or sausage. When we do buy poultry, we’re purchasing whole birds for an average of $25. Usually they come from Stillman’s. Once from Misty Knoll, though, after not receiving any response to our inquiries for more info on their practices, that will be the last time. It’s worth noting that Pete + Jen’s Backyard Birds seem like a great option, if you can buy before they sell out. Other small producers, like our friend, are great too. Absolutely nothing from the supermarket is acceptable. You’re fooling yourself if you buy that Bell & Evans bullshit.
Because it’s already so minimal, I doubt we’ll be scaling back our chicken purchases at all. But we might be thinking differently about it when we do eat chicken. We’re still formulating those thoughts. Please, weigh in!
As an aside, breeding to the point of infertility, or at least to the point of being unable to reproduce on one’s own is not restricted to animals alone. Read Pollan’s “Botany of Desire,” where he addresses the reproductive needs of corn.
Most poultry breeds are more than capable of reproducing on their own.
Yes, and corn is suffering a similar fate for the same reasons.
What are these poultry breeds that can reproduce? And do you know of any New England farmers that are raising them — and allowing them to reproduce naturally?
I assume by “similar fate” you mean that it is being somewhat rejected by the newly educated public? If this is the case, it is not wholly true. Many people have been trying to eliminate corn byproducts from there diet, but, I don’t think many folks have been limiting there sweet corn intake.
Almost any chicken breed is capable of reproduction. Certain breeds like the Cornish x Rock grow so large so fast that they have difficulty walking after a period of time. I believe this is what Foer is referring to at least, although, I have not read the book so I cannot be certain. If your interested in eating a chicken that is capable of reproducing, look for people that produce heritage breeds. That said, I do not know any folks off the top of my head who breed their own birds as opposed to order through a hatchery. You would need to ask around.
Err… by similar fate, I mean corn, like poultry, is being cultivated as a monoculture and therefore genetically distorted and therefore reliant on humans to procreate. Of course we know folks are getting smarter out there about corn byproducts!
I’m curious — do you raise chickens? Just wondering where your info is coming from. Always looking for alternative perspectives!
Just one point of clarification: heritage turkeys can mate naturally, so this is one reason to buy heritage breed turkeys. Although most people don’t think about it, I feel that mating is one of the natural behaviors that animals should be allowed to express, in addition to being able to move about, forage, and socialize. Natural mating vs. insemination is one of the questions you should be asking your local farmers. Small farmers are probably less likely to inseminate, but you make a good point that people don’t tend to ask what’s going on at the hatchery. Unlike heritage breeds, commercial turkey breeds have to be inseminated due to their freakishly large breasts. I’m sure you’ve read the PETA writeup about the working life of turkey inseminators. http://www.goveg.com/f-artificialturkeys.asp . Chickens can mate but are they allowed to? At my place, yes, at the hatchery, ?
Most dairy cows are also not allowed to mate, but rather are artificially inseminated from purchased genetics, since it is difficult to keep a bull. A large portion of the dairy cows in the US come from the same fathers, decreasing genetic diversity and security in the food supply. The book ‘Portrait of the burger as a young calf’ goes into alot of detail on this practice in the dairy industry. This is one of the reasons I preferentially buy from farms like Misty Brook, who keep their own boar for breeding the pigs and a bull for their dairy herd.
On a recent trip to a tropical island, I witnessed a massive amount of naturally AND unnaturally hatched chickens. I’m pretty sure they weren’t heritage breeds, just your garden variety birds. The naturally “raised” birds were clearly still having sex.
I realized I meant to reference “Omnivores Dilemma” instead of “Botany of Desire.”
Erik, I’m not sure how you’re differentiating between naturally and unnaturally hatched/raised chickens, what do you mean by that? As a side, I did not mean that heritage breeds are the only breeds capable of reproduction, simply that it was an assurance of that capability.
Raising chickens as a monoculture isn’t quite the same as raising corn as a monoculture. People have simply selectively bred the hell out of them. That said, the reason that corn relies on humans to reproduce is again, not necessarily due to moncoculture. I am in no way defending monocultures, this just isn’t one of their evils.
I work on a farm that raises chickens among other things.
Joe-
The naturally “raised” chickens were roaming freely throughout the neighborhood where I was staying. Though they were clearly being fed by their “owners”, I’m pretty sure no one was controlling their reproduction. The unnaturally raised chickens, roosters mainly, were kept in small cages and bred for cock fighting. The latter were _not_ happy birds. The former, assuming they made it past chick-hood (i.e. didn’t get eaten by feral cats), seemed pretty satisfied.