The big chicken turn off

[PurpleChicken]

Another minor twist on this discussion is waste. If I buy a piece of meat in the store
and some goes to waste it bugs me but not too much. When I cull one of my own
chickens and something goes to waste I get very upset.

This isn't to say that wasting food in any way is ok. It's not and I consider it a sin.

How much food is being wasted behind the scenes? Anyone ever look in a grocery
store or restaurant's dumpster?

Maybe the years of hearing "There are people who don't have any food" got through
to some of us. :|

 

[MissPrissy]

Most Americans are too far removed from their food source. If they buy it from the grocery in neat little packages they can be oblivious to the fact a life was taken for their eating pleasure and they think the blood isn't on their hands.

The sad part is they would rather feast on garbage meat instead of eating quailty meats.

Would she continue to eat grocery store beef if she knew the cows where fed chicken poop and the mixed wood shavings? chewing gum with paper and foil wrappers included? or that often the industry puts sick cows into the food chain? (like the down cows that went to Va school children's lunches?)

Perhaps a little education would be an eye opener. Not an in your face kind of thing but a "Wow, I was reading this and you know what I discovered?" kind of way.

The one thing I cannot understand (I am NOT trying to start an arguement) is the number of people who absolutely refuse to eat any chickens they have raised (clean, well fed and cared for chickens) yet they will sit down and eat like pigs on chickens that we all know where raised in horrible conditions living in their own feces until their belly feathers rot off, fed all sorts of minimal nutritions, pumped full of antibiotics, worming agents, etc and are more likely carriers of salmonella.

I eat meat. If I want to eat meat I have to take responsibility for the life given for the food on my table. I try very hard to teach my kids to respect the lives given so we can eat well.

When we dispatch a bird I hold it. I don't let it flop or hang. I hold it until every last twitch is over. I owe it the bird. It is my way of showing respect.

 

[Mom 2em All]

I have encountered a similar situation. With eggs.
My sister in law told my brother that they will NOT eat any eggs I give them because they have not been "processed". huh?

And she also told my brother that "brown eggs smell".
And an egg that doesnt run in the pan is an egg that
"is going bad- the fresher they are, the runnier they are."

How do you argue with stupidity?

She also told my mom that my chickens/yard are smelly. And she is afraid that someone is going to complain and they will come and take my children away from me. For the record here, I have asked everyone (including my mother who has had the best nose in the world since I was a teenager trying to sneak a cigarette) if they smell anything when they are here. Nobody smells my chickens- there is no stink. I am obsessed with my illegal chickens- no smell allowed. Pine shavings is all you smell out there. My brother said he cannot smell anything either. Just his wife.

Now get this. She is SO afraid that her son, my dear wonderful little nephew, who is 21 months old, is going to catch something from my two daughters-age 10 and 12- because they are carrying germs and stuff because of the chickens.
Like I said, how do you argue with stupidity?

 

[MissPrissy]

Makes you wonder what thought processes goes into how they figure people managed to live BEFORE electricity and how perishable foods where shipped.

My oldest DD works in the ER. She sent some of her co-workers into fits of denial when asked if she 'picked' eggs from the farm. She replied no, she doesn't 'pick eggs'. Chickens lay eggs in a nest. The end disclosure of the egg exiting the chickens butt created a real fuss. LOL

This also makes you wonder

http://www.worldpoultry.net/news/id2205-57104/russia_banning_imports_from_19_us_chicken_plants.html

What is done to commercial chickens that even Russains won't eat it?

Russia banning imports from 19 US chicken plants// 29 Aug 2008
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced that imports from 19 US chicken plants will be banned.


It has been reported that the chicken plants will no longer be allowed o export chicken products to Russia because they ignored warnings from Russian inspectors who examined poultry companies in 2007.
It was also reported that another 29 US plants would receive warnings.​

 

[burntumber]

Yes, I've run into this.

I've dealt with people (usually meat eaters) who scorn how we raise our meat chickens; in 4X8 moveable open bottom pens, up to 15 birds per. They say it's like "prison." HA!

I then inform them that the primary reason I raise them this way to protect them from predators that would kill them in a most horrible fashion, and sometimes I go on to explain how weasles, owls, and coyotes often just eat off a leg while the chicken is still alive, etc...

And then I go on to explain in brief how I'm boycotting the super-meat industry, how my grocery store bought chickens would be raised in thousands of tiny cages, two and three birds per, that would never see sunlight or breathe clean air, without enough room to even open their wings, and that are kept alive in these conditions via antibiotics.

Suddenly my chickens in their "prisons," pecking happily at green grass or napping on a roost or having a dust bath in the sun, seem pretty happy and healthy to these people.

 

[chiknlady]

I thought it was just me...my City sisters will not eat the fresh free range eggs I provide. One stated she didn't like the taste( freshness is odd I suppose) the other cited safety concerns over Salmonella etc...meanwhile my daughter will not have eggs over their houses as she states they taste bad... to each his own

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

My son is a truck driver hauling all kinds of freight across country. He said that his first visit to a meat packing plant made him an instant vegetarian--this from a guy once known to polish off a 16 oz steak at one sitting!

 

[AllChookUp]

It sounds like "learned" behavior. Of course, I grew up with Daniel Boone for a Dad, so I got used to eating anything and everything. Being more of a "sportsman" than just a "hunter".

Like Miss Prissy says, most people are far too removed from their food sources. If they had to work the farms, they might change their minds. Then again, some people will not open thier minds.

That said, I try not to name what I'm going to eat, but if I have to, I have to. I doesn't bother me too much. I do not see anything wrong with honoring the animal by raising it well, dispatching it quickly and as painlessly as possible, cleaning it well, and creating a tasty dish out of it.

.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I have told my family and friends that this year since I just acquired my flock, they are my pets and parent stock. Most of them have names, although my BO Roo, Pocket, is looking mightly plump and tasty, and I tend not to eat it if I name it. Now, whatever they produce next year and hatch out, free game for dinner!

I must confess to being a bit queasy, though. I am not sure I could actually go out there and butcher my own birds. I am sure I am willing to learn, but the first few times are going to be difficult for me.

I would much rather eat what I raised, and no that it is fresh, than have store bought.

We used to raise our own beef and are trying to get back to that. My husband names the cows because they will learn to come to that name. We made the one he named Nosey into a pet. It was very hard on me when we butchered her, but let me tell you, she was delicious! I didn't want to eat her, but my husband made me try the steaks he had grilled and I was hooked!

We also eat venison or anything else my husband will hunt. We have two turkeys right now that one is going to be Thanksgiving Dinner (I hope!).

 

[purr]

When I was a little my father let me name our piglet.It followed me everywhere.After It was butchered I didn't talk to my father or uncle for months now that I'm an adult I understand the need for butchering my friend I just wish I hadn't been allowed to become close to the animal, I was 8.
Some people would just not survive if we had to go back to the old ways, I pride myself on the fact that I could.