Organic/locally produced chicken feed

[Rowzy]

I was looking on craigslist and came across a post for organic and non-organic locally produced chicken feed with no GMOs. The problem is it is 27-30 dollars for 50 lbs, which is nearly double what I pay for feed store layer pellets.
Has anybody tried something like this and did you notice any difference in your eggs? If you sell your eggs, are people willing to pay a higher price for the eggs? Pretty much I am trying to figure out if its worth it.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I feed organic feed because I sell organic eggs. Is there much of a difference in the eggs? No, not really. It has more to do with personal ethos. The feed was raised naturally without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides being applied to the land and possibly being introduced into the feed and further on into animal products. That is important to some people.

Yes, people will pay more for the eggs, but to actually sell those eggs as "Organic Eggs" you need to follow all of the laws involved with the National Organic Program. You can't make any claims that the eggs are organic without following certain standards.

 

[bibliophile birds]

i've also noticed that my chickens go through their really good quality organic feed ($26/ 50 lbs) a lot slower than a previous batch that was on just regular Co-Op feed. 50 lbs of regular feed lasted about a week whereas the organic, soy-free i use now last about 2-2.5 weeks. in that way, the cost ends up being almost the same.

even if it wasn't, though, i would still buy it. i just don't trust the "safety" of pesticides, GMOs and everything else companies are trying to feed us (directly or through our livestock). and i don't want my money going to support companies like Monsanto who want to deny us information (they fought to keep GMO foods from being labeled) and have said that making sure things are safe isn't their job.

 

[saladin]

Personally, if it doesn't have animal products in it I will not buy it regardless of what else it says.
saladin

 

[dancesWchickens]

You can pretty much guarantee that non-organic feed has the residues of pesticides and probably herbicides in it. GMOs in crop plants are not necessarily bad in my opinion; it's the herbicides that get sprayed on some of those GMO crops that I take issue with. The plants (mosst of which are made by Monsanto) have been engineered to carry herbicide-resistance genes, so a farmer can spray the entire crop with herbicides to kill the weeds. Pesticide and herbicide residues in chicken feed end up in eggs, and in the bodies of whomever eats the eggs. I don't trust what the USDA says about what levels of these things are safe in the body - the agency really works for big agriculture companies like Monsanto and not for consumers - and the FDA has no power to regulate this stuff anymore. For example, atrazine and some of the other chemicals commonly used by non-organic farmers are estrogen analogs, which means they definitely affect animal bodies. There is a bunch of research that proves the effects, and some of them are quite visible (check out the hermaphroditic frogs in streams with agricultural runoff). The debate about whether to ban the use of estrogen analogs in agriculture has gone on for decades, just like the similar debate about DDT and other chemicals that are now considered too dangerous to use.

But even beyond the personal health issues, the scale of food production in this country is having global effects that I don't like. For example, Monsanto has a virtual monopoly on corn and soy seed, and apparently uses strong-arm tactics on large-scale farmers that don't use their seed. Even aside from the herbicide-drenched Monsanto GMOs, I do not want agriculture companies to control farmers, so I will go out of my way not to buy products that have been produced using Monsanto products. I also think the control wielded over Washington by large food companies is resulting in policies that are damaging our bodies and our environment, so I also go out of my way to avoid the products of large food companies. Is it a pain to shop like this? Incredibly. Do I personally have an impact on these large issues? Not a bit. But if enough of us consumers take a stand on this something might change, so I'm in.