Aggrevated at Farmers Market customers complaining about prices

[eKo_birdies]

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[PhilErvin]

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GREAT idea!!! GREAT way to educate folks!!!

 

[dancingbear]

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I guess that depends on your individual environment. These birds of mine don't exactly look panic stricken.

Here's some more, in late winter.

They don't look very freaked out, either.

In addition, even if you don't have an area where you can let your birds wander free, there are alternatives to battery cages, as I'm sure you're aware. Many people use movable pens, or "tractors". Birds have a lot more room to move around than battery cages provide, and are moved onto fresh ground daily, or every few days, depending on the size of the pens and the stocking density.

Regardless of what any "study" might suggest, especially one slanted to support ideas like this, I will never believe that a chicken stuffed into a battery cage with no room to even move, or flap her wings, is just as happy as one that gets to roam around, forage, scratch, dust bathe, and act like a chicken.

 

[dancingbear]

Another thing about this article citing the study, it's full of errors like this:
(pasted copy)
? You can see it. A shadow comes over and they are completely startled.?

A team at the university?'s poultry unit measured levels of the hormone corticosterone in the whites of eggs laid by caged, barnreared and free-range birds. (end pasted copy)

See all the weird ?'s where they don't belong? That indicates something that has been copied, pasted, edited, and generally messed up. It may not include relevant material from the original.

I'll also argue that we have no idea what conditions those free range birds were in. Did they take a bunch of formerly caged chickens and stick them in an unfamiliar environment? Or what? We have no idea.

While free-ranged birds do get startled now and then, that doesn't mean they are under constant stress, nor does it mean they are "unhappy".

 

[TiaView]

True. I like the freedom to walk through the park, but if something that could eat me flew overhead I'd look startled, too.

 

[Buster52]

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Efficiency isn't everything, and I've never seen a year to year and half old hen that was "through producing".

But the point is, they live this way their entire adult lives, then they are dead. That's no kind of life.

 

[Buster52]

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So we go all the way from battery cages to people have to eat and don't own chickens? Like there are no alternatives like local farmers?

Or farmers markets?

 

[agnes_day]

ok, fair enough. here is a family that lives in the projects. no car, no money except for food stamps. the only farmers market in town is miles away and only takes cash.
what do they do? spend their bus money on some eggs that have no more nutritional value than the cheaper alternative?
as for farmers, this family lives in the city. there are no farmers around for at least 100 miles.

 

[Peruvian]

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They are not shopping at Wal-Mart either since they wouldn't move to that neighborhood. Most inner city folks have to end up shopping at the local bodega and have very limited fresh food available to them regardless of what's happening at the farmer's market.

The good news is that there is a huge boom in urban farmer's markets currently happening. Not because Tyson or Birds Eye or any other large food processor gives a rip about these folks, it's because farmers are doing their best to open new markets for their products.

Here in Vermont we have the Farm to Family Program where folks that receive WIC benefits can use coupons at the local farmer's markets. If more state and federal food stamp programs could be spent on fresh food, you would see more of these markets in the inner city.

 

[dancingbear]

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Agnes, I grew up in Oklahoma. There's no place in Oklahoma that you could go 100 miles and not encounter a farm. In fact, I've lived in several different states, and I driven all over this country, and I've never been anywhere that you could not locate farms in less than 100 miles. In fact, it would be unusual to not be able to find one within 30 miles.

However, I have lived in the inner city, with no transportation other than the city bus, and you are correct, those folks would be hard pressed to find locally produced food. In fact, they'd be lucky to be able to find even a regular supermarket, much less farmer's markets, etc. If they can manage to get supermarket chicken and fruits and vegetables at all, they're doing better than the ones who are stuck with processed crap from little corner stores that are the only option in some places.

There are people in situations in which fresh local food is not a realistic or affordable option. That's not what the topic is about. It was about people who come to the farmer's market, so obviously they get there, complaining about the prices. And why that might be.