Not so fast! -- More on pastured poultry
"Cage free" is a trick. I only learned this recently. I have been buying "cage free" eggs and poultry for years. Only to find that it's another agribusiness inside joke.
JUST LOOK at this photo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/us/12eggs.html?ei=5070&en=0eb31962f04ee376&ex=1187582400&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1194412364-x0kTs0fwTyz9IEGEzvTUwA
Truly disgusting. They can say they are cage free -- but this is what it looks like.
The term "free range" is not any better.
Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" describes it like this:
Free-range chickens -- I did go visit a large organic chicken producer here in California, and if you look at their label, there’s a farmstead with a little silo and a farm house and a farmyard and chickens running around, but if you go to the farm, the chickens are grown in these huge barracks as long as a football field. They’re indoors, there are 20,000 of them in a house, and running along this barrack is what looks like a little front lawn-mowed, maybe 15 or 20 feet deep.
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/page2/20060411_michael_pollan_interview/
Here's a video from Mary's...
http://www.maryschickens.com/farmvideo.htm
I don't think it looks so bad. Of course that is a marketing video.
The advertising copy for Mary's says that the chickens have four times the amount of space as other "cage free" chickens (who have about the size of a laptop computer).
Not ideal. Not truly outdoors and "free range". But better than those stacking cages in the conventional farms. It's a step in the right direction.
However, I have changed my mind. I'm not buying my turkey from Mary's. I just read that they feed their turkeys soy bean milk and soy bean oil. Ick! WHY? Why would a turkey eat soy? It's not natural.
Ah... here you go: http://www.soybest.com/soyoil/
Improves production. ARGH! Not natural, not good for the turkeys. But it makes money.
I guess I'm going to be spending $100 or more on an organic, free-range, PASTURED turkey. Not sure where I'll get it from. I'll keep you posted.
You know what, though? I really don't think spending $100 on a turkey is such a bad thing. Back in the old days, people didn't eat meat every single day. They couldn't afford it. Why do we think we should be able to eat meat every day? It's just like gasoline. We think it should be dirt cheap. But it isn't. It costs money to run a car. It costs money to eat meat. In Europe, they understand this. I remember the first time I went to Europe when I was in my mid-20s, I was shocked that they were paying $5/gallon for gas. We are not even paying that now and we complain about the price.
We'd rather have cheap oil at the cost of lots of dead young soldiers -- our sons and our brothers and our friends. And we'd rather have cheap meat at the cost of inhumane, despicible conditions for the animals. We just don't want to know about it.
I'm going to bed now.
JUST LOOK at this photo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/us/12eggs.html?ei=5070&en=0eb31962f04ee376&ex=1187582400&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1194412364-x0kTs0fwTyz9IEGEzvTUwA
Truly disgusting. They can say they are cage free -- but this is what it looks like.
The term "free range" is not any better.
Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" describes it like this:
Free-range chickens -- I did go visit a large organic chicken producer here in California, and if you look at their label, there’s a farmstead with a little silo and a farm house and a farmyard and chickens running around, but if you go to the farm, the chickens are grown in these huge barracks as long as a football field. They’re indoors, there are 20,000 of them in a house, and running along this barrack is what looks like a little front lawn-mowed, maybe 15 or 20 feet deep.
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/page2/20060411_michael_pollan_interview/
Here's a video from Mary's...
http://www.maryschickens.com/farmvideo.htm
I don't think it looks so bad. Of course that is a marketing video.
The advertising copy for Mary's says that the chickens have four times the amount of space as other "cage free" chickens (who have about the size of a laptop computer).
Not ideal. Not truly outdoors and "free range". But better than those stacking cages in the conventional farms. It's a step in the right direction.
However, I have changed my mind. I'm not buying my turkey from Mary's. I just read that they feed their turkeys soy bean milk and soy bean oil. Ick! WHY? Why would a turkey eat soy? It's not natural.
Ah... here you go: http://www.soybest.com/soyoil/
Improves production. ARGH! Not natural, not good for the turkeys. But it makes money.
I guess I'm going to be spending $100 or more on an organic, free-range, PASTURED turkey. Not sure where I'll get it from. I'll keep you posted.
You know what, though? I really don't think spending $100 on a turkey is such a bad thing. Back in the old days, people didn't eat meat every single day. They couldn't afford it. Why do we think we should be able to eat meat every day? It's just like gasoline. We think it should be dirt cheap. But it isn't. It costs money to run a car. It costs money to eat meat. In Europe, they understand this. I remember the first time I went to Europe when I was in my mid-20s, I was shocked that they were paying $5/gallon for gas. We are not even paying that now and we complain about the price.
We'd rather have cheap oil at the cost of lots of dead young soldiers -- our sons and our brothers and our friends. And we'd rather have cheap meat at the cost of inhumane, despicible conditions for the animals. We just don't want to know about it.
I'm going to bed now.