Free range chicken - does it really taste better?

[Patrick S]

For me it's the cleanliness issue, I think to have a healthy bird you're gonna need more space. First, though, I'm getting worried about hormones.

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What's worrying you about hormones? Were you aware that in the US no poultry, organic or otherwise, are given growth hormones? Eggs do have high levels of some hormones --higher than beef raised with hormones-- but they are present naturally, not as a result of supplementation.

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I was apparently under the wrong impression that chickens were given hormones to develop those oversized breast....or maybe I have the wrong species!

Why do the 'organic' chickens make a point of saying NO HORMONES, if they arn't added commercially?

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Federal regs prohibit the use of hormones in poultry for the past 35 years.

As to why someone would label their chickens with a 'NO HORMONES' label, I can only assume that the intention is to mislead you into believing that their product is safer. Maybe there's a more innocent explanation, but I'm not imaginative enough to think of what that explanation might be. This is exactly why USDA regs prohibit this label, unless it is accompnaied by the statement "Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones." Unfortanately, it is not entirely obvious to consumers that the label is saying, in effect, "This chicken [turkey, goose, etc] has no more or less hormones than any other."

[highchef]

Maybe no hormnes, but chock full of antibiotics, GM soybeans, animal derived protein (chicken feathers and waste)  and who knows what else;

I believe its still legal to feed chicken derivatives to chickens. It was feeding of protein derived from the same species that  was the cause of BSE in cows.

NUTRENA (reg.): Chick Starter (STK) w/Amprolium Medicated

For replacement pullets from day-old to 6 weeks of age.

As an aid in the prevention of coccidiosis.

Feed as directed.

Active Drug Ingredients Amprolium .... 0.0125%

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein Min 20.0%

Lysine Min 1.0%

Methionine Min 0.32%

Crude Fat Min 2.5%

Crude Fiber Max. 5.0%

Ash Max 8.0%

Added Minerals Max 4.0%

Calcium Min. 0.75% Max 1.25%

Phosphorus Min 0.70%

Salt Min 0.15% Max 0.5%

Sodium Min 0.15% Max 0.30%

INGREDIENTS:

Ground Corn, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Rice Bran, Wheat Middlings, Dried Bakery Product, Hydrolyzed Poultry Feathers, Whole Pressed Safflower Meal, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosaphate, Salt, L-Lysine, Vitamin A Supplement, Choline Chloride, Methionine Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Zinc Oxide, Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Copper Oxide, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Mineral Oil, Ehtylenediamine Dihydriodide, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite.

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Well, that's enough for me to try and establish a regular supply of organic chickens, even if I have to take up all my freezer room to buy in bulk. Thanks for the ingredient info..I take it that organic poultry food would be the first 5 ingredients...

[Patrick S]

Maybe no hormnes, but chock full of antibiotics,

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'Chock-full' of antibiotics? Does a few nanograms per serving qualify as chock-full? Can you point me to some analytical data showing how much AB is in poultry. Is it enough to produce a clinical effect? I promise, I'm ready and willing to be swayed by evidence!

GM soybeans,

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What's the problem with GM soybeans? I've studied the issue a bit, and can't see any reason to prefer traditional to GM soybeans. Some GM crops do concern me, but this isnt one of them. And at any rate, GM soybean is fed to poultry, its not actually an ingredients in the meat. The soybeans and its proteins are broken down when the chicken eats it.

animal derived protein  (chicken feathers and waste)  and who knows what else;

I believe its still legal to feed chicken derivatives to chickens. It was feeding of protein derived from the same species that  was the cause of BSE in cows.

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What's wrong with feeding chicken animal-derived protein, from a human health standpoint? There's nothing I love better than animal-derived protein, though I prefer mine in the form of steak or breast meat rather than chicken feathers. I dont see how bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which is specific to cows, constitutes an argument against using poultry-derived feeds with poultry. But I'm more than willing to be educated on the subject!

Edited February 24, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[Ben Hong]

"animal derived proteins" are somehow bad?

Anybody ever see what the REAL free range chickens eat? I mean those that are scratching around someone's farmyard, the only free range chicken there is, strictly speaking. What they eat is a smorgasbord of creepy crawlies, live and dead, all manner of garbage including animal products, the odd seed out of a cow pattie or horse bun, water from a fetid mud puddle on the drive way, etc. ad nauseam.I'll take a supermarket chicken anyday, thanks ever so much.

I absolutely believe that a REAL free range chicken has better flavour and, what's more important to my Chinese trained palate, better texture and mouth feel. But, it'll be a cold day in Hell before I'll let myself be gouged by the people who claim "free range" status when all they're doing is making the pens slightly larger and letting in more daylight to satisfy the PETAphiles. Most of them feed the same commercial feeds as the non-free range producers. (I am not talking "organic" chickens, which is another topic altogether).

[jackal10]

The problem is cannibalism, feeding possibly insufficiently sterilised meat from one species to itself,and brains can help incubate and spread disease, and notably prions. It could be that a chicken equivalent to BSE would develop and be spread this way, as it did in cattle, where it was previously only known in only in sheep.

[battlepanda]

Sigh. I know that this is a food site, but I am still depressed by how people will be willing to pay more for a fractional difference in mouthfeel or skin crispiness, but dismiss the increase in the welfare of the bird as something only a PETAphile can care about. When you're at the supermarket and picking out out a chicken to roast or a dozen eggs, what is most tangible to you, of course, is how tasty it will be, how yellow the yolk. But what is equally real is the reduction in distress in the life of a fellow creature if you choose to pick the free-range bird.

I despise the insane, destructive, self-righteous, hypocritical group of dangerous loonies that is PETA. But I also believe that modern factory farms are cruel in a way that is unconscionable to anyone unless they don't think that animals suffer pain. The problem is, because those the suffering takes place out of sight, we think we can ignore it. For most of history, the argument that theres' nothing wrong with eating a chicken because if it weren't bred to be eaten, it would not even have existed might have been sound. But now, the short and brutish life of a chicken in a factory farm is a fate worth than death. I say this without hyperbole.

I'm not throwing stones, here. I do not always make the most ethical choices myself, out of economic considerations. But when it comes to something like paying more to give the chicken I am eating enough space to turn around, walk a short distance and occasionally scratch a little, I don't think I can live with myself if I did otherwise. I don't want to sound like I'm attacking anyone who does not do so. That is not my intention at all. It is one of the distressing costs of living in a global consumeristic society. We see the price tag on our purchases in dollars and cents, but not in terms of human and animal suffering, or environmental cost. I think I would go crazy if I considered the consequences of every act from throwing away a newspaper to driving my car to the store. I'm sure I have many blind spots that are egregious.

I know I cannot live the perfect life. But what I refuse to do is look away instead. I believe in the basic goodness of people. If we can all see the cruelty that goes on in a factory farm, I believe most of us if not all of us, will opt for free range. The more of us we are, the more economy of scale will work in our favor, thus lowering the price of the ethical choice and encouraging yet more people to join us.