Why Organic?

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

I have been feeding livestock since 1985 and am involved in several aspects of the feed industry now. I see many posts on this site about Organic Feed. I'd like to gain more insight into the reasoning people have for using Organic or supposedly Organic feeds in their chickens and livestock.

Can any of you give me your reasons?

Jim

 

[AtRendeAcres]

Although organic is way more expensive I buy it because I believe it is healthier for them & my family!

My opinion has been formed from years of watching different family members & friends react from many types of food .

Celiac Screw (not sure if spelled correct)
High Blood Pressure
Diabetics
allergies to sugar, milk & so forth

Food is powerful in my opinion it effects many of us in different ways!

so I believe:
pesticides in fruits & vegetables
preservatives
antibiotics in meats
are not Good for anyone!

Things that I can control I try too

Now I can NOT always afford to by the healthier item!!!

 

[CovenantCreek]

I agree with everything RChicks wrote, and would like to add that most commercially grown grains are produced using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Also, in some cases the grains are genetically engineered, soy beans in particular. None of this is good for the end user -- chicken or human.

Having a friend who is currently overcoming breast cancer, I'm kept informed about all the evils of processed food and food production in general. I don't want to raise my daughter on food that was produced with the "manufacturer's" best interest in mind any more than I have to. I'm not fanatical about it (yet), but until there's concrete evidence that chemical tainted food isn't associated with ADD, ADHD, asthma, and other childhood problems that seem to be on the rise, I'll do what I can to provide organic foods.

 

[panner123]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

I'd like to gain more insight into the reasoning people have for using Organic or supposedly Organic feeds in their chickens and livestock.

Can any of you give me your reasons?

Jim

Jim, the long and short of rhe reasoning is "IT IS THE IN THING". Most of these people have no idea what they are feeding, organic or not.
I had a friend that had a small truck garden, which he raised plain old veggies. Which he sold at the farmers market. A few years before he passed, he notice some people selling the same types of veggies only at twice the price. Checking this out he found they called their veggies "organic". During the week he made some organic signs and sold all his veggies as organic from the day on. Never did he change his way of growing them. I do understand those sold in stores today can be tested, but are they. The same goes for the organic feed some feed their animals, half the field is sold as feed and the other half is organic.​

 

[poppycat]

I was feeding organic until the price of feed nearly doubled but my income didn't!

My biggest reason is that I don't want my dollars supporting the chemical fertilizer and pesticide industry. Plus the environmental costs long term fertilizer use. BUT the only organic feed I could find is made by Cargill so it's not without karmic consequences.

Now it's a non-issue for me. I flat out can't afford the organic feed.

Instead I've tried to increase my chickens free range time as much as I possibly can, hoping that they get lots of good stuff from my yard that will never have any chemical inputs.

 

[greginshasta]

I'm raising chickens because I don't trust the safety of the food supply. For the same reason, we raise a large amount of our vegetables, and we do so with a focus on organic materials. We avoid use of chemicals on our crops, and wish to not introduce them to our birds - and thus to ourselves.

GMO crops are a scourge which may have effects that will only be fully realized years or decades from now. We have chosen to eliminate entire categories of "food" products from our purchasing habits due to our concerns that they might be made from, for example, GMO corn or GMO canola.

So I agree with most of the others above, and would point out that farmers markets typically have strong guidelines that dictate what can be labeled organic or not. Just because "Old Joe" thinks it is profitable and amusing to make signs declaring his veggies organic does not make them so. And when we shop for organic veggies at our local store, we feel confident that in fact the crops were grown in conditions that were proven to indeed be organic.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
I, for one, don't believe there's much truth to the statement above. Most of the people who have responded to this question have done some measure of research to find out what organic means, what constitutes "certified organic", and how it can impact their health by choosing organic. Granted it can be expensive (I used to buy organic milk, but at $6 a gallon I decided it wasn't worth it right now), but that's why we raise our own. Organic chicken at the supermarket is $7.50 lb cut up. At the warehouse store it's $6 lb whole. By the time my own birds are dressed and ready to go, they'll have cost me $13-$14 each to raise & process -- approximately $3.50 lb. For people who can do their own processing, the cost is even less, as it is for those who can raise larger quantities of birds. Knowing what I know now about what goes into commercially grown birds, I'll do what I can to protect my daughter. Arsenic is not an acceptable food supplement for anyone, man or bird.

Much of the same can be said of organic vegetables. They're expensive to buy but can be grown quite economically, with a few extras that can be shared or sold. Once I get my farm fully functioning (and don't have to buy so much), buying that organic milk won't be so daunting.

 

[SisterFlash]

could not agree more. And suing of farmers whe the gmo seed got into their seed was and is horrible.

 

[greginshasta]

Quote:
Exactly - such as Percy Schmeiser http://www.percyschmeiser.com/

 

[SeaChick]

I had breast cancer very badly several years ago. I was young, healthy, and with no family history when I was diagnosed, and my cancer was very aggressive. I didn't know if I would see my daughter graduate from elementary school. My research convinced me that environmental factors were likely to blame, in particular the obscene amounts of brand new, relatively untested chemicals that we're exposed to every day in just about every product we use. For breast cancer in particular, pesticides, herbicides, and growth hormones are the most likely culprits.

I have a daughter who is now at much increased risk of getting cancer, since her mom got it so young, and it was a more unusual, aggressive, hard-to-treat variety. I want to do everything I can to protect her health. Not exposing her to things I believe caused my cancer is a first step.

We also care very much about conserving natural resources and getting the soil and environment back to a place where humans can farm sustainably, rather than depleting the soil till it's dust and then just dumping chemical fertilizer on it, killing all the insects (even beneficials) with pesticides, and genetically modifying food crops so they can spray broad spectrum herbicides over everything. Organic farming practices (which by the way are hardly just the "in thing" as they've been practiced for most of human agricultural history until the industrial revolution..... and "organic" was defined in the 70's, I think, as an alternative to the chemical farming techniques becoming so prevalent then) are much better for everyone, IMHO.

Sheesh, I could rant about this all day--- I feel really strongly that that the use of all the chemical fertilzers, pesticides, and herbicides is so horribly wrong and detrimental to farmers, health, and the environment. Using compost, predator insects, crop rotation, pasturing livestock, and other basic organic practices just makes so much more sense!!!


OK, I'm off the soap box. Sorry.

We feed organic layer pellets, and I am looking for a local source as I prefer to buy local. We also supplement with lots of organic veggie/meat scraps.

If anyone is interested in any of this, I highly recommend reading Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is a FASCINATING account of industrial farming, "industrial organic" , and true organic farming. A really well-written boook. Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is not bad either, a true account of her family's year of trying to eat only what they produce on thier farm (organically) and what they can buy within 60 miles or something.

Stacey