Dumbest Things People Have Said About Your Chickens/Eggs/Meat

[saellis]

Did you know that I can't go and buy chicken feed in my state without giving them my name and address?

When did chicken feed become a controlled substance? Maybe the smurfs who buy sudafed for the meth cooks will want to branch out into buying chicken feed for people who just don't want the government knowing they have chickens.

 

[gmomfarms]

My DIL won't eat my eggs because they aren't uniform and white. Won't eat my chicken because it has bones and isn't packed in a styrofoam tray and "we only eat healthy." Won't waste my eggs or chicken on them again.

 

[lazy gardener]

How very sad. I was telling an acquaintance why I raise chickens for eggs, and why I want to raise meat birds next year, told her about the arsenic being used for increased growth, as well as growth hormones, and the steady diet of antibiotics. I then told her that the cattle and pork industry were the same, if not worse. Her reply: I don't want to know about it... this coming from a lady who has already been treated for cancer.

 

[cassie]

How very sad. I was telling an acquaintance why I raise chickens for eggs, and why I want to raise meat birds next year, told her about the arsenic being used for increased growth, as well as growth hormones, and the steady diet of antibiotics. I then told her that the cattle and pork industry were the same, if not worse. Her reply: I don't want to know about it... this coming from a lady who has already been treated for cancer.

Are you saying meat chickens are given growth hormones and a steady diet of antibioitics? They aren't. Hormones are sometimes used in the beef industry. I don't know about pork. I can tell you that meat is checked for antibiotic residues and if any are found it is condemned.

 

[lazy gardener]

My reference to the routine use of Antibiotics came from the book written by Harvey Ussery: "The small-scale poultry flock." I quote him in his end notes related to chapter 1. "The poultry industry feeds it's growing broilers a steady dose of antibiotics in order to make them grow faster... In 1998, the Institute of Medicine estimated that the resulting antibiotic resistance probably cost the nation as much as 5 billion dollars annually"... He also references "Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food" by Brian Walsh, written Aug 21, 2009. To further quote,"Roxarsone is the trade name for the organic arsenic compounds added to broiler feeds. The Industry emphasizes "organic" (it is inorganic forms of arsenic that are toxic) and argues that Roxarsone is biologically inert if present as residues in chickens on consumer's plate. 2 million pounds are used per year in the U.S., most of which is excreted, and broiler house litter is spread far and wide as fertilizer on croplands. Roxarsone is soluble, highly mobile in the environment, leaching to surface and groundwater systems. Many environmental factors degrade Roxarsone to inorganic forms of arsenic."


Now, I realize that one of the references is dated 1998. but I would ask you to honestly answer the question: has the poultry industry changed that much since then? Does it make sense that chickens are now being raised in a cleaner environment than they were in 1998? Broilers are being mass produced in crowded broiler houses, with each bird having space = to the size of a sheet of paper. Quoting Ussery: "The hapless broilers stand in the deepening accretion of their own manure, which accumulates at the rate of several tons per week in a typical broiler house." How can anyone imagine that these birds can survive to slaughter without being given antibiotics?

Cassie, I stand corrected re: the use of hormones. I can't verify that they are or are not used in the poultry industry. However, I can tell you that when they started using growth hormones in the dairy industry to boost milk production, there was a public outcry, and several of the dairies started advertising that their milk was hormone free. Other studies quoted at the same time stated that there were no tests to tell if the hormone had been used, so it was a matter of trusting the farmers and the dairy industry.

 

[lazy gardener]

Sorry, dbl post.

 

[MEMama3]

How very sad.  I was telling an acquaintance why I raise chickens for eggs, and why I want to raise meat birds next year, told her about the arsenic being used for increased growth, as well as growth hormones, and the steady diet of antibiotics.  I then told her that the cattle and pork industry were the same, if not worse.  Her reply:  I don't want to know about it... this coming from a lady who has already been treated for cancer.

I've gotten the "if you've got cancer than obviously your healthy lifestyle isn't working" response from people. Honestly, I could be textbook perfect and with my family history I'd still have cancer. Even with my diagnoses I'm healthier than most people I know and so are my kids.

 

[ronott1]

I've gotten the "if you've got cancer than obviously your healthy lifestyle isn't working" response from people. Honestly, I could be textbook perfect and with my family history I'd still have cancer. Even with my diagnoses I'm healthier than most people I know and so are my kids.

In 1984 a runner and fitness guru died of a heart attack after his daily run. A lot of people used that example to not exercise.

Later someone pointed out that Jim Fixx was the oldest of his male relatives at 52 when he died. Running had actually extended his life.

 

[7 Biddies]

My DIL won't eat my eggs because they aren't uniform and white. Won't eat my chicken because it has bones and isn't packed in a styrofoam tray and "we only eat healthy." Won't waste my eggs or chicken on them again.

That's the problem with the country these days; everyone uses terms differently. I mean, "eat healthy" to her means eating things that are straight out of a stainless steel, sanitized factory. But, that's not the definition I usually see in articles about health. According to her logic, "Gogurt" is healthy food.

A recently divorced friend of mine, who had just retired, ran into the same problem when he began dating. After one or two dates, the woman expected to talk on the phone every evening "just to say good night". Apparently, their definitions of dating were very different. And, we ran into the same misunderstanding about 5 years ago when someone told us he would create "change you can believe in". Nobody asked him to define "change".

Be sure to read the fine print.

 

[7 Biddies]

In 1984 a runner and fitness guru died of a heart attack after his daily run. A lot of people used that example to not exercise.

Later someone pointed out that Jim Fixx was the oldest of his male relatives at 52 when he died. Running had actually extended his life.

As I said, it's all in the fine print. People make rash conclusions based on incomplete information. Depending on the point you're trying to make, you can twist anything to support your point of view. That's why Samuel Clemmons (Mark Twain) said, "There are 3 kinds of lies: A lie, a d@mn lie, and statistics". These days, it's called "spin", and writers, politicians, scientists, CEOs, etc., are masters of it.