Bigger is not Better

[GwenFarms]

Ugh...I hate posting this. I live in an area where there are tons of chicken and turkey farms. Many of my good friends own these. You all know, if you've read any of my post, that I am a strong believer in animals being treated well while they are here in our care. I raise as much of my own meat animals as I can free range, or virtually.

As a child I had family that owned a commercial chicken barn. There is a world of difference in the barns today and the barns then. Then the chickens lived their entire lives in a little cage not big enough to turn around. Today they roam around a fairly roomy barn. Is it as good as our backyard birds have it? No. Is it better than it was? Yes.

Without these farms our town would die. Hundreds of people would have no jobs. Folks would lose their homes.We are not talking about rich corporate fat cats. These are my neighbors who are scratching out a living like we are. Visit one of these farms before you make up your mind, if you haven't. I am not in anyway saying it is a perfect situation, but it would be impossible to meet demand by raising birds in the same style as we can individually.

There is a stench over our whole town when its barn cleaning time. I've learned to like it. It is the smell of hay growing and summer coming. Thats the only time there is this awful odor. Its about twice a year, that its noticeable, when birds are going out and they are preparing for new ones to come in. They pull up the slat floors and use machinery to scoop up the shaving and waste. Yes, you can see a couple of rats, at times, running out of the barns while this is going on, but in a well maintained barn there shouldn't be an abundance and this isn't something that should be effecting neighboring homes. They usually just run into the next barn over. They spread the waste over the hay fields. Very little goes to waste just as on our own homesteads.


I would like to see some improvements in the commercial farming industry, more even in cattle and pig farms than poultry. Its impossible to deny that there have been quite alot of improvements already over the past 20, or so, years. I'm very hopeful that in years to come things will only get better with all of the organic and free range demand that we are now seeing. In any case I urge everyone to visit first hand a few different barns and talk to the farmers to find out a little more about all of this. Don't trust youtube videos..etc that can be outdated, or edited. There is one on there now that is atleast 25 years old being passed off as current and another where the chickens are being frightened by the camera man to huddle into a corner making it look as if they are ridiculously overcrowded. Its convincing, but if you look closely you can see through some of these things. Instead go judge for yourselves and come up with some good improvements to suggest to the USDA and your state's ag department.

 

[halo]

Thank you for posting facts and first hand experience.

This is one very real problem with the internet. Someone posts an article...if its an article, it must be true, right? Everyone gets up in arms, rattles sabers, without having the actual facts at hand, or looking at both sides of the issue, or getting a first hand look at what is being discussed. Ive been on too many forums that someone has posted an article, everyone has jumped all over the issue without having first hand knowledge, and the entire issue has gotten out of hand quickly. Ive learned a long time ago to cast a jaded eye at everything I hear or see in the media and not to jump to conclusions before investigating on my own, if its something that interests me.

If everyone wants to fight these large chicken farms, then be prepared to pay a LOT more for your chicken that you buy weekly. A LOT.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

GwenFarms' post was uniquely insightful and well-written. There is always room for a different way of looking at things.

As long as the human population grows, there will always be abuses of aspects of the earth that are easy to abuse.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Simple, get the whole country to buy chicken raised in more "humane" ways... good luck getting people to pay the 3,4,5+ dollars per lb on the chicken meat though when they can just as easily get .89 cent a lb whole fryers from this industry.

I too am always very skeptical about propaganda, which many things on the net are.

 

[BearSwampChick]

It costs me $12-15 to buy a butchered, pastured chicken from a family farm. How many people in this country can afford that, especially if you have a large family and need more than one chicken to feed them?

 

[greyfields]

You would have to be naive to say there would be no 'hurt' if industrial chicken farming were regulated. But, I look at all these people who make their livelihood... and they're making it because animals are being mistreated. I think if your livelihood comes from the mistreatment of animals, then I think we must temper our sympathies for humans. We choose what we eat, how we make our livings and where we live. Animals simply do not.

This is why I farm. I want to know the animals I consume are treated ethically. It's my duty. I want my animals to have a higher quality of life than is offered them in the traditional food system.

 

[countryboy]

yes there are chicken farms all over the place.

 

[GwenFarms]

The mistreatment of animals is not confined to commercial farms. As a matter of fact I've never seen first hand what I considered widespread mistreatment in a commercial poultry farm setting in my adult years. I have seen it in some backyard flocks. These barns are layed out very precisely, with square footage calculated per bird. They are on central automatic watering systems and are never allowed to run out of feed. The temperature in all barns are constantly controlled. They have curtains built on the outside of the barns that are set and reset throughout the day to maintain optimal temperature year round. The barns are never left unmanned.


While there is reformations that need to be made and, as with anything, there is room for improvement. Honestly, the biggest changes that I see needed are for the benefit of the people who work in these houses more so than for the animals. It should be mandantory that workers have to wear industrial filtered masks and children under the age of 12 should not be allowed to "help" their parents in the houses, or really be in there for any length of time. Its not that I have a problem with kid's going along to work with Mom and Dad, it's a health related concern. The dust can really get stirred up and I've read compelling studies of lung damage in children. I also feel like there should be some type of sterilization process when you come out of these houses to cut down on salmonella poisoning. I had this once and thought I was going to die, possibly nearly did. I don't know how this would work, but I do know that shoes worn in the barns, should not be worn home, or in your car. Maybe some education of workers would be enough. The pay scale for farm labor needs some definite revisions.


In regards of the actual chickens. The biggest changes I see that need to be made is an end to antibiotic laden feeds. I just don't trust the final product. The growth rate when fed these feeds seems unnatural to me, particularly with turkeys. I think there should be mandatory humane euthaniziation of culled birds. Birds will become injured, or sick (prolapse...etc) and when this happens they should quickly be euthanized and disposed of.

I'm sure that there are other important changes that could be made, but saying that we need to shut down the commercial poultry industry in America is just spinning our wheels. Even if every member of BYC boycotted the industry it wouldn't make a difference. The woman who is raising three kids in a subsidized apartment is just thankful to have meat on the table once a week, much less once a day. She isn't concerned if it is free range, or barn raised, she is just glad she could afford it. She has no knowledge of raising chickens and nowhere to raise them if she did. This is the mindset of the majority. We are an enlightened minority here on BYC.

What we can do to make a difference is develop reasonable suggestions and present them to our Ag Departments and the USDA. You may think calls and emails don't make a difference, but other people see the same problems that you do. Your opinion will be one of many. I urge anybody that wants to be taken seriously to have first hand accounts. Don't trust what you see on the internet. Go find out and make informed recommendations.

 

[Beekissed]

I would have to agree with Gwen Farms. I live in the middle of commercial poultry country and it is a sad, sad way to make a living. But, you have millions of indifferent Americans who don't care what they eat, really. The smell around here when they spread the litter on the fields is gagworthy and one has to wonder how much of this runs off into the streams. Plus....I used to think the flies as one of the plagues on Egypt was kind of a wimpy plague....until I moved here. We're not talking about a few or even a hundred flies swarming into every home. Its thousands upon thousands and no insecticide will stop it. My walls and all surfaces are splattered with fly guts, I am constantly bleaching and scrubbing walls and counters. I can't imagine what diseases they are carrying on their feet.

Money is being made here and noone stops the money-making, especially not the government, as they get their healthy cut of it. These folks won't grow crops. Poultry is much too lucrative and less labor intensive. I don't know of one poultry producer here who is living on the "poverty level". They all own nice big farms, new vehicles, tons of equipment and nice homes. They wouldn't do this if they weren't making any money off it. AND they don't eat their own chickens....if that tells you anything. I've heard them say, after what they have seen, they just can't eat chicken or turkey.

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

Quote:
Could you please list your source for the 12 cents/bird quote. I don't believe that figure is anywhere near correct.
Even 12 cents per pound would be way off.

My current data for the Chicken Farmers of Ontario Quota shows the lowest price to be $1.364/kilogram liveweight.

That works out to 62 cents per pound.

SOURCE.....

http://www.cfo.on.ca/Bulletin.cfm