- Nov 28, 2010
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Quote:
Say"free range" to most people and they think of chickens running around on the grass, chasing butterflies and living the ideal country life. But thanks to the input of commercial egg producers, the USDA definition means only "access to outdoors". That can be a 5 acres of clean, grassy pasture, or a crammed pen packed with bare dirt, or even just a porch with a cement floor. All that's required is that the birds have the option to "go outside" even if they can't "go" anywhere or do anything when they get there.
Thanks to the ever helpful folks at the USDA, "cage free" only means "not packed into cages", which is why the commercial poultry industry can advertise "floor raised" birds, meaning thousands packed shoulder to shoulder into a barn. "Organic" standards are, imho, even farther removed from the public's perception of the word; to get that organic label, a producer must use no antibiotics, and only documented organic feed may be used. The birds themselves can spend their entire miserable life crammed six or seven to a cage, and as long as the owner documents his feed purchases, and doesn't medicate or vaccinate them, they're "organic".
That's why terms like "heritage" came up; yes, it's a way to attract buyers to your product, and, in the case of the ALBC, a way to attract prospective breeders to those breeds most in danger of dying out. But the word "heritage" should refer only to the age of the breed, old as opposed to "new", not how it's being raised. If you are talking about keeping birds with free access to the outside - on the grass- eating some grains and many bugs, that are put up in safe enclosure at night and released in the morning (just like Grandma kept her birds), then I believe the word you are looking for is something more along the lines of "traditionally raised".
Say"free range" to most people and they think of chickens running around on the grass, chasing butterflies and living the ideal country life. But thanks to the input of commercial egg producers, the USDA definition means only "access to outdoors". That can be a 5 acres of clean, grassy pasture, or a crammed pen packed with bare dirt, or even just a porch with a cement floor. All that's required is that the birds have the option to "go outside" even if they can't "go" anywhere or do anything when they get there.
Thanks to the ever helpful folks at the USDA, "cage free" only means "not packed into cages", which is why the commercial poultry industry can advertise "floor raised" birds, meaning thousands packed shoulder to shoulder into a barn. "Organic" standards are, imho, even farther removed from the public's perception of the word; to get that organic label, a producer must use no antibiotics, and only documented organic feed may be used. The birds themselves can spend their entire miserable life crammed six or seven to a cage, and as long as the owner documents his feed purchases, and doesn't medicate or vaccinate them, they're "organic".
That's why terms like "heritage" came up; yes, it's a way to attract buyers to your product, and, in the case of the ALBC, a way to attract prospective breeders to those breeds most in danger of dying out. But the word "heritage" should refer only to the age of the breed, old as opposed to "new", not how it's being raised. If you are talking about keeping birds with free access to the outside - on the grass- eating some grains and many bugs, that are put up in safe enclosure at night and released in the morning (just like Grandma kept her birds), then I believe the word you are looking for is something more along the lines of "traditionally raised".
