In defence of the €16 Organic Chicken!
April 22 2010 at 8:32 pm
By Dr. Oliver Moore, journalist and guest blogger for organicsupermarket.ie
Defending the 16E organic chicken in the middle of a recession isn’t easy. But, as the ad says, its worth it.
Having read what you are about to read, I don’t necessarily expect every single one of you to convert over to the 16 E bird, but maybe, when a decision has to be made, the organic one can at least get a look in.
Price, ethics, environment, and even our weekly food practices all come into the decisions we make around food, including our chicken decisions.
Price really is the biggie with organic chicken. In fact, it is the single most common critique I’ve come across with regard to the price of organic food: if someone just doesn’t like what organic food stands for, they will default to the price of organic chicken in a polemical debate, as thou all organic and conventional food has such a price differential. Which it doesn’t.
Interestingly, kilo for kilo, the price begins to look a bit better. Organic birds are often big, and the per kilo price tends to be about 8E. So that 16E bird is clocking in at 2 kg. Many non-supermarket retailers charge a flat rate of 13-16E, so sometimes you can even get a bigger bird again for your cash – up to 2.5 kg.
Food practices are important too. Yes people are becoming more frugal and creative than in the wasteful days of the Celtic Tiger, but it is still thought that about 1/3 of food purchased is wasted. Research also suggests that people who buy organic food waste less of it, partly because of the cost, partly because of the meanings it carries.
We probably do eat a bit too much meat, for both health and environmental reasons, so buying better meat less often makes meat a more affordable part of the diet again.
In straightforward terms, if you do splash out on the 16 quid beast, you are very likely to make the most of it.
So, maybe once a week, treat yourself to the big organic bird. Cook it really thoughtfully and then make proper chicken sambos and stock the next day.
From the poultry farmers’ perspective, the simple economics of it are that as the organic chicken lives twice as long as the conventional one, it costs twice as much to feed. Plus, the feed is both different and more expensive, and the housing rules limit economies of scale.
Living twice as long, by the way, is only living to about 80 days. This is probably about right for taste reasons, as, all things considered, many feel organic birds do taste better.
Guess what? All of these bits are either good for animal ethics or the environment, and sometimes even both. Living twice as long means that the bird grows at a natural rate, comfortably and without the extreme pressure on their internal frame and organs that the conventional bird faces. They are also naturally leaner because of their lifestyle. Many feel that living twice as long also has a simple ethical dimension too: animals have the right to a reasonably long life, having been born.
Things get more complicated environmentally with this however, as living twice as long and growing slowly means more feed, and more emissions related to the animal. That said, the feed is produced in a lower emissions way, with far better biodiversity implications where the feed is produced than conventional animal feed.
Conventional animal feed, mostly compressed cereal crops, uses up copious amounts of fossil fuels, synthetic fertilizers and biocides. These latter two also use up huge amounts of fossil fuels in their construction and transportation. All of these elements have climate change implications.
Biocides, such as herbicides and pesticides, as the name suggests, are very bad for biodiversity, as they kill target and non target plants and creatures. (About 70 million birds die directly from farming related pesticides in the US each year, and many more again die indirectly, for example, through eating poisoned insects, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.)
The organic feed is also GM free, and the poultry unit also doesn’t rely on antibiotics or vaccines – all benefits.
The biggest organic poultry farm in the Republic of Ireland I’m aware of carries about 500 birds. The farms, in their housing and management arrangements, have to encourage the natural flocking size of about 100 birds. Technically bigger farms would be allowed, but anything over 1000 birds has to make the case specifically for consideration by an organic certification body.
On the farm, pastures have to be rested 2 months of the year, for both animal and soil health. The outdoors should also mimic the birds natural habitat, so it, in simple terms, needs to be an interesting and varied place, with some cover (i.e. trees, shrubs) as they fear overhead predators. Also, there needs to be some outdoor protection from extreme weather conditions.
So its complicated, but organic chicken, in my opinion, fuses animal ethics and environment (from biodiversity on the farm to resource use and climate change) in a reasonable and fair way.
Being a bit brutal about it, chickens aren’t as aware/sentient as some other higher animals, and you probably could take them – that’s kill them by breaking their necks. Of course, the whole process of bringing a bird from field to table is long, tedious, messy and has a definite guk factor: friends of mine who have done it don’t always fancy doing it again. They do, however, have a healthy respect for organic chicken and how much it costs.
Animal ethics in themselves are complex, and can only be done justice in another, longer posting. It may seem a bit cruel to prioritise other animals over the chicken in sentience terms, but really, is one individual chicken somehow intrinsically more important than say a 300 year old oak tree in a native broad leaf forest? I don’t think so. I’m more interested in the blossoming of biodiversity than in emotional connections with single creatures, and the concurrent but ropey notion of individualised animal rights.
But then, as you may have guessed, I only eat organic chicken once a week – its complicated! Its also worth it.
Oliver Moore.
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