Standard Cornish vs. Cornish-X
- Thread starter GoodEnough
- Start date
- Status
Quote:
Because it's a conversation, and like almost all conversations, the topic tends to wander a bit. One thing leads to another. It's all related.
Quote:
Those are all good questions, not silly at all, but like Buster mentioned, it's all in degrees, and we all have choices we can make, some better than others.
I have hard time finding local produce at any grocery stores around here. I find myself buying less of it, and growing more of my own, I realize that not everybody can do this. But even within that limit there are still choices when I do buy produce, for example, citrus is one you mentioned. I live in KY. Florida is closer than California, so I buy Florida citrus. Texas is another big producer of grapefruit, I'm not sure about other citrus, and is often overlooked. I do not buy citrus (or other fruit) imported from New Zealand, China, Viet Nam, South Africa, South America, or other countries. There's a lot available from all those places, but I stick to buying citrus from Florida. If I can't get local, I try for regional. Georgia peaches instead of California. If I can't get regional, I go for at least the same country. Or I skip it altogether, and choose a different food that's at leas from my region.
If I grow a lot of my own, and buy as much as I can from local sources, (farmer's market, but that's unavailable in the winter, here) or at least regional, that's less wasteful than if everything I buy, or most of what I buy, comes from clear across the country, or from around the globe.
To me, food issues are more critical than items like knives, and other less frequently purchased items. How many knives does one buy in a year, vs. how often you buy food? And, like Kingsolver mentioned in her book, there are items that are just not available from a local source. Some I can give up easily, like saffron. Some I would only give up if I just couldn't get it anymore, like coffee, tea, and cinnamon. I'm not saying give up all that's dear to your palate, but if we just look at the labels on things, it's no harder to pick up a bag of oranges from a place nearer to us than it is to pick up the one imported from another country, or from the opposite side of the country. And think about just how important it is to you to have certain items. Would you feel overly deprived if you didn't buy that plastic gizmo imported from China? Would your world come crashing down if you waited for summer to eat strawberries? We tend to be kind of spoiled, and it's often not good for us. A lot of the out-of-season, shipped-in-from-far-away produce actually doesn't even taste very good, and we pay a lot for it, both at the register, and in terms of pollution and negative impact on local farmers. And we ARE in control of what we buy. We CAN make better choices, if we want to. I want to, whether you want to or not is up to you.
As for the fuel consumption between Purdue's big truck all the way across the country, and a local farmer, it depends a lot on how local. I live less than 10 miles from the farmer's market I'll be selling produce from this summer, twice a week, and 20 miles from one where I'll go once a week, but I'll be going from one to the other, and so I'll already be almost halfway there, leave the one about noon and head over to the other for the afternoon. Depending on whether there have been a lot of customers, I may have to spend more gas to go home and pick up more produce before I head to the second one. This is my first year as a seller at the FM, so I don't know yet how it will go. The folks at the meeting who sell meat at the FM, all live in the same county as the FM, so they won't be hauling the food in from a couple of hundred miles away either. I can't say about FM's in other locations. If Purdue has processing plants all over the country, (and they probably do) you may be right in terms of fuel to transport the meat. They may not actually be transporting meat from all the way across the country at all. So I don't see a clear answer to that part of the question at all, really.
Nonetheless, I feel that eating a bird I hatched, that was raised right here on my own farm by a hen or by me, using a brooder, butchered and cleaned myself, right here, fed with grain from a local mill, probably grown by farmers right here in KY, used a lot less fuel to produce than one hatched at a hatchery, shipped to where ever, raised by a grower, (who also had to feed it, figure the feed-fuel transport will vary by location and where one buys the feed) transported to the company's processing plant, processed, packed, and shipped to the grocery store. And, if the person selling meat at the FM hatched and raised those birds, that probably cut out part of the fuel use as well. As for processing, that will vary by state and whether the farmer is allowed to process or not, and how far they must travel to get them processed, if they can't do it themselves. Here, I can't. KY laws are written to keep small producers from being able to process legally at all. So I don't sell meat. I wish I could, though.
Because it's a conversation, and like almost all conversations, the topic tends to wander a bit. One thing leads to another. It's all related.
Quote:
Those are all good questions, not silly at all, but like Buster mentioned, it's all in degrees, and we all have choices we can make, some better than others.
I have hard time finding local produce at any grocery stores around here. I find myself buying less of it, and growing more of my own, I realize that not everybody can do this. But even within that limit there are still choices when I do buy produce, for example, citrus is one you mentioned. I live in KY. Florida is closer than California, so I buy Florida citrus. Texas is another big producer of grapefruit, I'm not sure about other citrus, and is often overlooked. I do not buy citrus (or other fruit) imported from New Zealand, China, Viet Nam, South Africa, South America, or other countries. There's a lot available from all those places, but I stick to buying citrus from Florida. If I can't get local, I try for regional. Georgia peaches instead of California. If I can't get regional, I go for at least the same country. Or I skip it altogether, and choose a different food that's at leas from my region.
If I grow a lot of my own, and buy as much as I can from local sources, (farmer's market, but that's unavailable in the winter, here) or at least regional, that's less wasteful than if everything I buy, or most of what I buy, comes from clear across the country, or from around the globe.
To me, food issues are more critical than items like knives, and other less frequently purchased items. How many knives does one buy in a year, vs. how often you buy food? And, like Kingsolver mentioned in her book, there are items that are just not available from a local source. Some I can give up easily, like saffron. Some I would only give up if I just couldn't get it anymore, like coffee, tea, and cinnamon. I'm not saying give up all that's dear to your palate, but if we just look at the labels on things, it's no harder to pick up a bag of oranges from a place nearer to us than it is to pick up the one imported from another country, or from the opposite side of the country. And think about just how important it is to you to have certain items. Would you feel overly deprived if you didn't buy that plastic gizmo imported from China? Would your world come crashing down if you waited for summer to eat strawberries? We tend to be kind of spoiled, and it's often not good for us. A lot of the out-of-season, shipped-in-from-far-away produce actually doesn't even taste very good, and we pay a lot for it, both at the register, and in terms of pollution and negative impact on local farmers. And we ARE in control of what we buy. We CAN make better choices, if we want to. I want to, whether you want to or not is up to you.
As for the fuel consumption between Purdue's big truck all the way across the country, and a local farmer, it depends a lot on how local. I live less than 10 miles from the farmer's market I'll be selling produce from this summer, twice a week, and 20 miles from one where I'll go once a week, but I'll be going from one to the other, and so I'll already be almost halfway there, leave the one about noon and head over to the other for the afternoon. Depending on whether there have been a lot of customers, I may have to spend more gas to go home and pick up more produce before I head to the second one. This is my first year as a seller at the FM, so I don't know yet how it will go. The folks at the meeting who sell meat at the FM, all live in the same county as the FM, so they won't be hauling the food in from a couple of hundred miles away either. I can't say about FM's in other locations. If Purdue has processing plants all over the country, (and they probably do) you may be right in terms of fuel to transport the meat. They may not actually be transporting meat from all the way across the country at all. So I don't see a clear answer to that part of the question at all, really.
Nonetheless, I feel that eating a bird I hatched, that was raised right here on my own farm by a hen or by me, using a brooder, butchered and cleaned myself, right here, fed with grain from a local mill, probably grown by farmers right here in KY, used a lot less fuel to produce than one hatched at a hatchery, shipped to where ever, raised by a grower, (who also had to feed it, figure the feed-fuel transport will vary by location and where one buys the feed) transported to the company's processing plant, processed, packed, and shipped to the grocery store. And, if the person selling meat at the FM hatched and raised those birds, that probably cut out part of the fuel use as well. As for processing, that will vary by state and whether the farmer is allowed to process or not, and how far they must travel to get them processed, if they can't do it themselves. Here, I can't. KY laws are written to keep small producers from being able to process legally at all. So I don't sell meat. I wish I could, though.
Last edited:
Quote:
Sorry. I should have prefaced that with my belief China is no longer sustainable. I was talking about the local agricultural system based on intensive gardening on small farms described in the book Forty Centuries of Farmers, published in the early 1900s. While that system still exists to some extent in the countryside, it is barely hanging on due to the advent of the factory farm and the Cultural Revolution that tried to destroy all the remaining cultural patterns and systems in the country.
Yes, China was poor back then, too, but that type of farming was what led to and inspired the later organic movement. I have reason to believe we will all be considering such alternatives in the future. The status quo cannot be maintained.
Sorry. I should have prefaced that with my belief China is no longer sustainable. I was talking about the local agricultural system based on intensive gardening on small farms described in the book Forty Centuries of Farmers, published in the early 1900s. While that system still exists to some extent in the countryside, it is barely hanging on due to the advent of the factory farm and the Cultural Revolution that tried to destroy all the remaining cultural patterns and systems in the country.
Yes, China was poor back then, too, but that type of farming was what led to and inspired the later organic movement. I have reason to believe we will all be considering such alternatives in the future. The status quo cannot be maintained.
- Thread starter
- #154
So I go away for several days and the 2 pages of posts has turned into 16! Mostly on sustainability. I hadn't realized I'd opened a can of worms! I knew it could be a touchy subject, but not that bad.
However, to all of you who responded, thank you. You have made up my mind and provided more info than I expected.
One little tidbit to support some other folks' claims.... An older local lady was telling me she would buy the Cornish-X in the spring, raise them through the fall and get some eggs out of them before she did them in. Said she never had any problems. So, as someone who has been listening and talking to folks (and reading), I definitely think feed, raising style and genetics plays in... no matter WHAT breed of chicken you are raising (same as any other animal).
Thank you to everyone.
However, to all of you who responded, thank you. You have made up my mind and provided more info than I expected.
One little tidbit to support some other folks' claims.... An older local lady was telling me she would buy the Cornish-X in the spring, raise them through the fall and get some eggs out of them before she did them in. Said she never had any problems. So, as someone who has been listening and talking to folks (and reading), I definitely think feed, raising style and genetics plays in... no matter WHAT breed of chicken you are raising (same as any other animal).
Thank you to everyone.
Glad you got the information you needed. Welcome to the forum!
As this did get a bit heated and off topic I'm going to close it now.
As this did get a bit heated and off topic I'm going to close it now.
- Status
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest posts
-
-
Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.- Latest: Ladies-Eight
-
-
-
Latest threads
-
HELP Possible Cocci?
- Started by HowellChicken123
- Replies: 0
-
-
-
-
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
-
-
-
Please Help! Eggbound & Possible Prolapsed Vent- Started by Elspeth Dinsmore
- Replies: 102
-
