Well thought out and well written expose' on USDA Chicken labeling. As a food safety consultant to USDA regulated meat and poultry slaughter and processing establishments I believe you hit most of the nails squarely, including the unseen but likely "relationships" between USDA and some 3rd party certification organizations. However, iy is rather important for all of to learn a little something more about the our country and its economic system. We haven't had anything close to capitalism for probably 100 years or so. It has tinges of capitalism with a heavy overburden of crony corporatism, or as some that have studied the system even longer than I, communitarianism, which is the marriage of big business and big government. We must always stay vigilant and be careful of bright shiny objects. Currently, while a large majority of Americans voted for smaller, more efficient, more responsive, and less obtrusive government, there are some real powerful people who are offering that carrot. While the carrot may be temporarily be tasty we must be aware and watchful for the first sign of solving the problem and making carrots with technology. That is the calling card of Technocrats and Transhumanists, and currently they have sidled up to our populist movement.
We must stay vigilant and be not afraid to call out our federal, state, and local leaders when we see them straying towards the technological "fix", for it is addictive and dangerous, and force them down the right path. True free-market capitalism may not be achievable in the short term and may take many decades to achieve, but it is there where we will find that honesty by the marketer leads to reasonable profits without over-regulation or over-taxation and reasonable wages for the marketer's employees, skilled and un-skilled. The rest of what WE THE PEOPLE are living on today is nothing more than BIG GOVERNMENT hand-outs stolen from those that have labored you the honest marketer and your employees. Remember, money is not the root of all evil, it is the love (greed) of money that is evil.
May Your Creator Bless your labor and newfound skills so that you will begin to reap what you are sowing.
This perfectly summarizes what I've recently been discovering as we are peeling back the onion of where our family's food is coming from. We are raising chickens for meat and eggs with "non-GMO" feed on our newly established homestead and hope to eventually start marketing our excess. As I started looking at the economics, I realized I couldn't possibly compete with the prices of the "free range" and "organic" meat/eggs at the local grocery store. The feed costs alone drive our production cost-per-pound higher than the retail price of the "organic whole chicken" at the local warehouse store; and this doesn't even consider the capital/labor/time investment. Your article is encouraging in that it highlights the fact that these labels aren't always what they seem and there is hope for those of us that aim to produce real quality food for ourselves and our communities. What we really need is better consumer education to bring many of these deceptive labeling practices to light. Thank you for putting this together!
You nailed it Kyson. It is 100% an education problem and that our labels are legally allowed to be so vague. I have been in sales for close to 14 years and education is and always will be key to selling a better product. My next post is going to be on marketing, and I hope it will benefit you in your endeavors. Thank you for the comment too, it's nice hearing from you man!
This is a phenomenally informative article, very enlightening and thought-provoking re store-bought "organic" chickens! But I wonder, how does pastured but modified hybrid (not as nature makes them) chickens with abnormally large breasts or thighs fit into the as close to nature as possible?
That's a great question Robyn. For myself the question has to be "can they live a normal life and behave like heritage breed chickens do?" For Cornish Cross that is absolutely out of the question. For the red broilers and freedom rangers, I have seen online that they are able to reproduce eventually, and with a controlled diet they are able to live for several years, but still not as long as a heritage breed. Raising them to 14 weeks the difference between them and CC are night and day in terms of normal chicken behavior.
We vote for the red broilers and have REALLY enjoyed the several we.ve bought, Andrew, keep 'em coming! Much better than store-bought. (Love the Looney Tunes references, my all-time favorite cartoons, too, growing up in the 60's!)
Thanks, Andrew, for revealing facts that the PTB would like to keep hidden. It is astounding, frustrating, and sad how easy it is to mislead the consumer. Also sad that most people have no viable options.
Absolutely right Mom! The math is staggering. 9bil chickens processed a year, 99% of them non organic = bottom of the barrel garbage food for 99% of Americans.
I'm just glad to be able to supply ya'll and my local community. Finding stuff out like what I wrote about just adds fuel to my fire to yell louder.
Thank you for this eye opening information, Andrew.
Raw Milk Mamma is serious advocate ate for food freedom and access to humanely treated every thing. Hope yu are on her substack dear man.
I am now!
It is time for all of us to unite and place our strengths and skills in one bucket. I believe that.
Andrew,
Well thought out and well written expose' on USDA Chicken labeling. As a food safety consultant to USDA regulated meat and poultry slaughter and processing establishments I believe you hit most of the nails squarely, including the unseen but likely "relationships" between USDA and some 3rd party certification organizations. However, iy is rather important for all of to learn a little something more about the our country and its economic system. We haven't had anything close to capitalism for probably 100 years or so. It has tinges of capitalism with a heavy overburden of crony corporatism, or as some that have studied the system even longer than I, communitarianism, which is the marriage of big business and big government. We must always stay vigilant and be careful of bright shiny objects. Currently, while a large majority of Americans voted for smaller, more efficient, more responsive, and less obtrusive government, there are some real powerful people who are offering that carrot. While the carrot may be temporarily be tasty we must be aware and watchful for the first sign of solving the problem and making carrots with technology. That is the calling card of Technocrats and Transhumanists, and currently they have sidled up to our populist movement.
We must stay vigilant and be not afraid to call out our federal, state, and local leaders when we see them straying towards the technological "fix", for it is addictive and dangerous, and force them down the right path. True free-market capitalism may not be achievable in the short term and may take many decades to achieve, but it is there where we will find that honesty by the marketer leads to reasonable profits without over-regulation or over-taxation and reasonable wages for the marketer's employees, skilled and un-skilled. The rest of what WE THE PEOPLE are living on today is nothing more than BIG GOVERNMENT hand-outs stolen from those that have labored you the honest marketer and your employees. Remember, money is not the root of all evil, it is the love (greed) of money that is evil.
May Your Creator Bless your labor and newfound skills so that you will begin to reap what you are sowing.
This perfectly summarizes what I've recently been discovering as we are peeling back the onion of where our family's food is coming from. We are raising chickens for meat and eggs with "non-GMO" feed on our newly established homestead and hope to eventually start marketing our excess. As I started looking at the economics, I realized I couldn't possibly compete with the prices of the "free range" and "organic" meat/eggs at the local grocery store. The feed costs alone drive our production cost-per-pound higher than the retail price of the "organic whole chicken" at the local warehouse store; and this doesn't even consider the capital/labor/time investment. Your article is encouraging in that it highlights the fact that these labels aren't always what they seem and there is hope for those of us that aim to produce real quality food for ourselves and our communities. What we really need is better consumer education to bring many of these deceptive labeling practices to light. Thank you for putting this together!
You nailed it Kyson. It is 100% an education problem and that our labels are legally allowed to be so vague. I have been in sales for close to 14 years and education is and always will be key to selling a better product. My next post is going to be on marketing, and I hope it will benefit you in your endeavors. Thank you for the comment too, it's nice hearing from you man!
That's great! I'll keep an eye out for that one for sure!
This is a phenomenally informative article, very enlightening and thought-provoking re store-bought "organic" chickens! But I wonder, how does pastured but modified hybrid (not as nature makes them) chickens with abnormally large breasts or thighs fit into the as close to nature as possible?
That's a great question Robyn. For myself the question has to be "can they live a normal life and behave like heritage breed chickens do?" For Cornish Cross that is absolutely out of the question. For the red broilers and freedom rangers, I have seen online that they are able to reproduce eventually, and with a controlled diet they are able to live for several years, but still not as long as a heritage breed. Raising them to 14 weeks the difference between them and CC are night and day in terms of normal chicken behavior.
We vote for the red broilers and have REALLY enjoyed the several we.ve bought, Andrew, keep 'em coming! Much better than store-bought. (Love the Looney Tunes references, my all-time favorite cartoons, too, growing up in the 60's!)
Thanks, Andrew, for revealing facts that the PTB would like to keep hidden. It is astounding, frustrating, and sad how easy it is to mislead the consumer. Also sad that most people have no viable options.
Absolutely right Mom! The math is staggering. 9bil chickens processed a year, 99% of them non organic = bottom of the barrel garbage food for 99% of Americans.
I'm just glad to be able to supply ya'll and my local community. Finding stuff out like what I wrote about just adds fuel to my fire to yell louder.
Keep yelling! Every person that becomes more aware is a win, if only for that person.