Standered or organic chicken?

Question

after watching hugh fearnley whittingstalls programme on intensive chicken farming i wasnt put off by "cheap" chicken,it all comes down to what we can afford indivdually do you agree or disagree.

Answer 1

One of the reasons I prefer organic chicken because of bioaccumulation/biomagnification. It's the idea that contaminants get "magnified" up the food chain! By the time you get to chickens, they're way more concentrated and by the time you get to us, they're even MORE concentrated.

I work in pesticide regulation and I've just noticed how we're really careful of bioaccumulation in fish, but it occured to me that it probably happens in chickens/beef as well. I did read about a study where vegetarian mothers had fewer pesticides in their breast milk than non-vegetarian mothers. I believe the study was done when organic veggies and fruit weren't widely available either.

Additionally, I've found that eating at home cuts down on costs regardless of whether I eat organic chicken or not. I have a tricky diet due to health stuff, so I eat at home a lot, but it's still cheaper. *shrug*.

Saying that, I don't always buy organic chicken, but try to at LEAST stick with sustainable....

Answer 2

neither, vegetarian.

Answer 3

organic! as said by someone else, all those who claim not to be able to afford organic probably own cars/tv/laptop/etc. as a country we're simply just used to the cheapo prices in supermarkets even though we should be paying more (to the extent that organic seems expensive - it isn't). we pay far less for our food than our ancestors did, and somewhere along the way, someone's losing out. b) do you really want to eat chicken with that many chemicals in? and finally, think about the lives or the poor chickens! did you know that most battery-farmed ducks never see a pond in their short lives, and suffer from all sorts of water-shortage diseases by the time they die? and that battery farmed chickens have never fully opened their wings in their lives (imagine being stuck in a box and never opening your arms). organic farming is just so much nicer for the animals. we kill so many each year for food, we could at least give them a decent life first.

if you really can't afford it, then i won't judge you, but please, please, just think about the poor chickens!

rachel

Answer 4

Go on and treat yourself. Better taste, better nutritional qualities (after all thats why we eat stuff). Organic, organic, organic for body, soul and mind. Yours aswell as the animals. Happy animals are tasty animals. Battery hens have more drugs over a few weeks than most Junkies, then YOU eat them? Wow your too brave. Cheap chicken is false economy, highly proffitable to the farmer but of little benefit to the consumer. Choose Organic whenever possible.

Answer 5

The organic chickens would work out allot cheaper if every one started to buy them as anything else the cost is linked to the demand for the product.  The more you buy the cheaper it gets.  The cheap supermarket ones are kept in horrible conditions, but the cost is cheap.  At the end of the day you end up with your mind saying what you should buy and you pocket making the actual decision

Answer 6

You get what you pay for. Cheap industrial chicken is low quality. the animals are fed a poor ration of feed (the cheapest feed sources they can find), they are crammed together in unhealthy conditions, they never get in sunlight, and they are stressed. All this makes for bad quality food that has a bad ration of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids. Also ever noticed how industrial chicken stinks like sewage out of the bag?

Organic and pastured chickens are fed much better food, are not caged or crammed together are allowed outdoors so get sunlight. these animals lead a far less stressful life and it shows in the quality of meat. the meat has better texture, taste and never smells like sewage.

Answer 7

Raising animals to kill and eat them is what the majority of humans have done since before civilisation started.  I'm bound to ask myself if the conditions of their lives are so very important when they are going to be strangled, garroted, bled, shot or whatever so they can be eaten.  Anyone who wants to be very kind to edible animals can just stop eating them.

For myself, I'll eat the most convenient animal protein I can get my hands on and, if that means cheap, then I go for cheap as well.

For many years, I ran a delightful self-sufficiency smallholding including free-running poultry.  I would go out some mornings and pick a meaty looking bird, often a cockerell, and snap its neck.  Then I'd quickly pluck most of the feathers and leave it to cool off and relax during the day, for roasting in the evening for dinner.  The children were told not to give names to hens because one day they would all die or be killed for eating, and they understood that.  I honesty never gave a moment's thought to the conditions of its life or the suddenness of its death.  Humans eat hens - not the other way round.

My most serious worry is that someone will take away my choice of animal protein so that I have to eat only what Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says is acceptable.  Or if not him, then some other rich and well-connected ex-public schoolboy who sees himself as a protein policeman.  No one is forcing him and his friends to eat battery hens so he'd better not try to force me to eat so-called free range hens.  If I make a big lottery or premium bonds win, then I may change my view but I don't think I will anyway, so don't hold your breath.

So there.

Answer 8

disagree. i bet all of the people that cant afford  to buy decently reared chicken, have cars,  and have  tvs, laptops  x-boxes etc  in their homes.

Answer 9

Yes I agree......

Answer 10

My chicken is outside my front door on the porch complaining about another chick on her nest....So dispite the controversy over organic or not I believe that my chickens are the best for eggs and I can't eat any of my girls....they lay the best eggs because they free range and I feed them Purina flock raiser/Layer pellets/Scratch and worms for special treats....they will eat  frogs and egg shells too...so even horse manure is a favorite....so if you get beyond the foods chickens recycle then organic is safer by far because medicated foods pass onto you and I think chickens that are happily running around hunting and arguing are better off and make better meat...but then as I said I don't eat my girls because they each have personality and character....their eggs are better than the store bought organic eggs at $5.00/dozen...and when I do eat chicken I find range fed from walnut orchards....no added water or hormones...

Answer 11

AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

Answer 12

i have both. if i want a nice roast chicken for Sunday dinner or grilled chicken breast or something else nice its got to be organic/free range. if I'm doing a curry or barbie i use the cheep chicken. i think there is room for both and we all have a choice, if we get rid of the cheep chicken its gone and we have no choice. we would all have to buy free range and there wouldn't be enough to go round therefore the price would rocket..just my opinion but i like to have a choice.