Organic vs. Regular chicken feed...input?

[ChickNhood]

I paid 9.97 plus tax for a 40 lb bag of layer feed at rural king

Conventional feed...non organoc

 

[SeattleLeah]

hmmm, this is exactly the question I have been debating. As a starving student, I cannot afford to eat all organic myself so it would be quite a stretch for me to spring for organic feed. I am in Seattle so feed stores do have some nice locally sourced conventional grains. I like the idea of checking to ensure they are non GMO. I think this might be a good alternative to organic for my budget.

 

[nan4848]

I buy organic. And I'm trying to stock up enough to last through the winter, at least. The drought situation in this country is really serious. Here in the midwest, farmers are starting to sell the livestock, because the cost of feeding them is skyrocketing.

 

[Intetdreamer]

I have found myself being strictly anti-organic for both myself and my chickens. The price of the organic feed I can get is $32 for a 50# bag, conventional feed is $15. I work at an Agway in south central PA, and reading the tags has yielded me saying that the only difference between the organic feed and conventional feed is that the organic feed says its organic, which means very little to me.
The price is also going to skyrocket even higher with the drought in the Midwest. All the things that make modern farming "non-organic" has served to make more food more available to more people. Since chemicals have started to be used on crops, the life expectancy for people in this country has gone up 10 years. And cancer rates have dropped 15%

Fun fact: organic farming in 2010 accounted for 1% of the food supply in the US, it also accounted for 8% of all E coli cases.

So yeah, I don't buy organic.

 

[galanie]

So 92% of all e. coli breakouts were from non-organic farms.

 

[Intetdreamer]

Yes, congratulations, you can do math, but I think you failed to see the point of that statistic.

 

[ONSTAD1]

I have found myself being strictly anti-organic for both myself and my chickens. The price of the organic feed I can get is $32 for a 50# bag, conventional feed is $15. I work at an Agway in south central PA, and reading the tags has yielded me saying that the only difference between the organic feed and conventional feed is that the organic feed says its organic, which means very little to me.
The price is also going to skyrocket even higher with the drought in the Midwest. All the things that make modern farming "non-organic" has served to make more food more available to more people. Since chemicals have started to be used on crops, the life expectancy for people in this country has gone up 10 years. And cancer rates have dropped 15%
Fun fact: organic farming in 2010 accounted for 1% of the food supply in the US, it also accounted for 8% of all E coli cases.
So yeah, I don't buy organic.

Just curious... can you point me to where you got your data?

 

[yakibert]

Life expectancy is up because doctors know better now how to keep the elderly alive - more successful heart and other cardiovascular surgeries and medicines. Not because of round-up (or other chemicals).

I'm not sure that cancer rates have gone down because of increased chemical use in our food systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_pesticides


http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/co...rveilance/documents/document/acspc-031941.pdf

There are many other factors for reduced rates of some cancers in the U.S.

At the same time:

"Do pesticides in foods cause cancer?

Pesticides and herbicides can be toxic when used improperly in industrial, agricultural, or other occupational settings. Although vegetables and fruits sometimes contain low levels of these chemicals, overwhelming scientific evidence supports the overall health benefits and cancer-protective effects of eating vegetables and fruits. At present there is no evidence that residues of pesticides and herbicides at the low doses found in foods increase the risk of cancer, but fruits and vegetables should be washed thoroughly before eating."
http://www.cancer.org/Healthy/EatHe...y-for-cancer-prevention-diet-cancer-questions

 

[galanie]

Yes, congratulations, you can do math, but I think you failed to see the point of that statistic.

No, I got the point of it. Just showing how you can use statistic to twist things. Grats yourself. You fail to see the point of Organic foods.

 

[ONSTAD1]

Just curious... can you point me to where you got your data?

With all the bad information on this site, and there is a LOT of it, this is one of my favorite questions. Two more good ones are "how many chickens do you have?" and "How long have you been raising chickens?"... There are a lot of "experts" who have raised a whole 6 chickens for 8 months.

Personally I have raised 5 chicks for 2 months. I know nothing other than I know nothing.

mo