What's the Difference in our Pastured Chicken and what you get at the store?
Here is a comparison put together by Joel Salatin describing the differences between small farm, pasture-raised, hand processed poultry versus "factory" chickens. We follow these same pastured poultry standards.
* means this procedure also applies to nearly all "certified organic" chicken.
| Small Farm, Pasture Raised, Hand Processed Chickens | Conventional Chicken | |
|---|---|---|
| Unvaccinated | Vaccinated (immuno-suppressant) | |
| Full beak (no cannibalism) | Debeaked (cannibalism a problem) | |
| Probiotics (immuno-stimulant) | Anti-biotics (immuno-depressant) | |
| Composting litter in brooder (sanitized through decomposition) | Sterilized litter (sanitized through toxic fumigants and sprays) | |
| Carbon/Nitrogen ratio 30:1 | C/N ration 12:1 | |
| Practically no ammonia vapor (smell) | *Hyper-ammonia toxicity | |
| Brooder skylights | *No skylights | |
| Rest at night--lights off | Artificial lighting 24 hours/day | |
| No medications | Routine medications | |
| No synthetic vitamins | Routine synthetic vitamins | |
| No hormones | Routine hormones | |
| No appetite stimulants | Routine appetite stimulants (arsenic) | |
| Natural trace minerals (kelp) | Manufactured and acidulated trace minerals | |
| Small groups (300 or fewer) | *Huge groups (10,000 or more) | |
| Low stress (group divisions) | *High stress (huge group populations) | |
| Clean air | *Air hazy with fecal particulate (damages respiratory tract and pulls vitamins out of body, overloading liver) | |
| Fresh air and sunshine | *Limited air and practically no sunshine | |
| Plenty of exercise | *Limited exercise | |
| Fresh daily salad bar (pasture) | *No green material or bugs | |
| Short transport to processing | Long transport to processing | |
| Killed by slitting throat (per Biblical directives - see Leviticus | *Killed by electric shock (Inhibits bleeding after throat is slit) | |
| Carefully hand eviscerated | Mechanical eviscerated (prone to breaking intestines and spilling feces over carcass) | |
| Processing uses only 2.5 gal. water/bird | Processing uses 5 gal. water/bird | |
| Guts and feathers composted and used for fertilizer | Guts cooked and rendered, then fed back to chickens | |
| Effluent used for irrigation | *Effluent treated as sewage | |
| Customer inspected | *Government inspected | |
| No injections during processing | Routine injections (anything from tenderizers to dyes) | |
| Low percentage rejected livers or carcasses | High percentage liver rejects or carcasses (breast blisters) | |
| Dead birds fed to buzzards or composted | Dead birds incinerated or buried (possible contamination of water) | |
| Sick birds put in hospital pen for second chance -- most get well | Sick birds destroyed | |
| Manure falls directly on growing forage and active soil for efficient nutrient cycling -- converted to plants | Manure fed to cattle or spread inappropriately (ammonia vaporization -- air pollution; nitrate leaching -- water pollution) | |
| Fresh air and sunshine sanitize processing area | *Toxic germicides to sanitize processing facility | |
| Cooking loss 9% of carcass weight | Cooking loss 20% of carcass weight | |
| Long keepers (freeze more than a year) | Short keepers (freeze only 6 mos. or less) | |
| No drug-resistant diseases | Drug-resistant diseases (R-factor Salmonella) | |
| Low saturated fat | High saturated fat | |
| No chlorine baths | Up to 40 chlorine baths (to kill contaminants) | |
| Environmentally responsible | Environmentally irresponsible (hidden costs) | |
| Promotes family farming | Promotes feudal/serf agriculture | |
| Decentralized (local) food system | Centralized food system (processed one place, shipped to other places to market) | |
| Promotes entrepreneurial spirit | Promotes low wage/time-clock employment | |
| Rural revitalization | Urban expansion | |
| Consumer/producer relationship (you & me) | Consumer/producer alienation (us vs. them) | |
| Rich, delicious taste | Poor, flat taste | |
| Edible | Inedible |