Chicken Fit to Eat

1. Chicken Fit to Eat Presented by John Quimby Dunn Creek Farm PEI

2. “In the mid-1900s Prince Edward Island farmers were practicing predominately grassland agriculture, with over 60% of the land in hay or pasture” David Weale, Pride in Small Places

3. “During the last 15 years, the time it takes to get a broiler to a 5 lb. live weight has decreased by more than a week. Birds get to target weights 16.3% sooner than they did in 1992. The industry continues to see another day of improvement every two years. The benefit of better growth rate is improved feed conversion. The sooner birds get to desired market size, the higher the percentage of feed consumed goes to muscle development instead of body maintenance.” Mike Donohue, Feb 2009

4. “For feed conversion and quick cash turnaround, it is unprecedented. Consumer acceptance is tremendous and processing is much easier because the hair has been bred off these birds and they do not require singeing after feather picking. Joel Salatin, Pastured Poultry Profits

5. “Twenty years ago the industry grew a chicken to a 4.3 lb. live weight at processing. By 2007 the average live weight at processing increased by 37% to 5.9 lb., as more and more chickens were used for further processing using big birds.” Mike Donohue, Feb 2009

6. “We in the pastured poultry movement have turned our rhetorical guns on the Tyson’s and the Frank Perdue’s of the broiler industry. We have blasted the waste, the pollution, the lack of sustainability, the inhumanity, and the contamination of both our groundwater and our food supply that flow from a debased production system. Striving for a model which both protects natural and agricultural resources and offers our customers poultry fit to eat, we have rejected all that - all, that is, except the very heart of the industry’s flawed system: the Cornish Cross chicken. Harvey Ussery, “The Cornish Cross: What’s Wrong with This Picture?”

7. “Chickens are then moved onto the grass which is at optimal height for them. They clean up any parasite eggs and pulverise the herbivore manure which, when combined with chicken droppings, is the ideal pasture fertiliser. To use that dreadful modern phrase – a ‘win-win situation’.” Gundaroo Tiller

8. “I think it’s unfortunate that we have created a chicken that is so far removed from a normal chicken’s ability to forage and fend for itself in the barnyard. There ought to be some middle ground. But the fact is that we are dealing with a chicken that was bred to eat high calorie, low vitamin and mineral feed, without fresh air and sunlight, on antibiotics and hormones. We can do many things to make this bird worth eating, but there is a limit to what we can do.” Joe Salatin, Pastured Poultry Profits, 1993

9. Broilers: Up to 13 weeks Silver Laced Wyandotte Fryers: 13-20 weeks of age About 2-1/2 pounds Orpingtons and Barred Rocks Roasters: 5-10 months old About 3-1/2 pounds Cook in moist heat at 325 degrees for 25 min/pound Black Jersey Giants Stewers: Cast iron pot on the wood stove

10. “…whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it’s actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their attention. Then I explain that , with our food, all of the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water - of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. No thinking person will tell you they don’t care about all that. I tell them the choice is simple: You can buy honestly priced food or you can buy irresponsibly priced food.” Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm

11. dunncreekfarm.blogspot.com