Dr Oz exposes what's in factory chicken!

[tortoise]

I totally agree with you guys, BUT I do have to say that I had city chickens that spent 1/2 time indoors - 3 (smallish) chickens in a 2x2 cage. I put in big bamboo pieces from a destroyed papasan chair for perches. They loved it.

Multiply times 250,000. Eww!

 

[Dunkopf]

I agree it's horrible the way they do it. I never realized how many eggs are produced here. I was blown away by the number of eggs they destroyed in that last salmonella outbreak. Wasn't it in the millions. How could they possibly produce that many eggs under the conditions we adhere to? As much as I hate raising meatie monsters, we are doing another 50 right now.

I bet if Americans paid attention they would start buying a lot more homegrown chickens than they do now.

I think that leftover stuff is used like a glue to hold the pieces of chicken together in the chicken nuts. I bet a lot goes to dog and cat food too as well as chicken stock in a can and about 1 billion other uses.

 

[Beekissed]

What amazes me is the number of people in my agriculture community and especially the folks on BYC who consistently ask, "How do you live with yourself after eating the chickens you raised?"

Where do they spend their time? With their heads in the sand or some other hole where the sunlight doesn't reach?

These supposed animal lovers who only love their own.

What about the millions of other cute chickens with their noses cut off, living in that cage who provide them with pancake mixes, cake mixes, egg McMuffins, Bob Evan's breakfast platter, Hostess Twinkies, etc.?

My question is "How in the world do you NOT raise and eat your own?"

 

[bibliophile birds]

I never realized how many eggs are produced here. I was blown away by the number of eggs they destroyed in that last salmonella outbreak. Wasn't it in the millions.

half a billion.

great video here.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

'mornin Bibbird!

the only thing i didnt like about this piece is that we dont feed medicated chow to our meats.. and they grow just about as fast. i'm not entirely convinced they use antibi's to stimulate growth as much as they are used to reduce disease

to be fair.. you cant easily/cheaply grow as much food as this country needs without big farm. i'm all for a flock in every yard tho.... but would hate for this info to be twisted into over-regulation to the point where we'd be getting even more food from china. yikes!

also i had someone blow apart when i was talking about my meats - they said that they arent "genetically engineered" to grow fast but "selective bred" to do so.... um.. ok we could quibble over semantics and just b/c they dont have splied beet genes.. doenst mean they are arent right. any creature that cant stand up under its own weight just isnt natural.

speaking of.. i gotta go check those meats. this morning they were like piranhas when i fed them... yikes!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Realistically though, I've thought about what was said that you can't feed this nation without big farms.

I know I'm here on my few little acres, and by next year I expect I will be able to produce most if not all of my meat. I COULD do it now with beef, but I don't want to go that route.

But. There is NO WAY, that I can see at least, that I can produce enough veggies, grain, etc to feed myself AND the livestock on this little farm. I know there is room for improvement and I'm just starting out, but I doubt I can be 100% self sufficient. Though if you add in bartering, that helps.

If we look to the cities though, teeming with people, and little to no space to produce food, that drags the overall ratio down. I just don't think there is enough small-farm space in this country to feed EVERYone?

Much as I hate the practices of big farms. There are times I am economically forced to rely on them, even if mostly for animal feed. I'm just trying to work my way away from that reliance as steadily as I can. Starting with eggs, milk, and meat and working on fruits and veggies and nuts. I don't know if grains or 100% of animal feed is ever in my future.

I'm glad to be eating a lot more home-raised rabbit and hopefully next year will produce enough chicken that I won't buy ANY.

 

[bibliophile birds]

i'm very realistic in knowing that everyone can't homestead. it's just not possible, even if they wanted to, which they don't. but i DO believe in small-scale agriculture. as much as i want to be SS in most ways, community/cultural sustainability is very important to me too, and that is served by local economies (like bartering and farmers' markets).

the thing we have to remember when we start thinking about whether smaller farms can support our population is that it would be a MASSIVE upheaval in product. that means that, instead of growing 10 billion bushels of corn- which was used as animal feed, HFCS, Doritos, CAT LITTER, and fuel- we'd be growing actual food crops on MOST of that land. if we don't have to grow corn for all those fake foods anymore, which would HAVE to go, then we have instantly rebalanced the system and the land-to-population ratio.

of course it would take some figuring out. and some things would still have to be brought in from far away: i'm not one of those local foodies who is happy to never eat a banana again just because i live in the wrong climate. but the bulk of our everyday needs/wants should be feasibly sourceable in our own area.

 

[bibliophile birds]

Realistically though, I've thought about what was said that you can't feed this nation without big farms.

i think it's also important to realize that size doesn't always equal bad. when we say "small farms" we really mean privately (usually family) owned, diversified, serves the local community, sustainable, etc etc. so a farm might be several thousand acres and still fit into that category. that's ok.

what we think of as "large farms" are those that are usually monocropping on thousands of acres to sell their crops to those big bad fake food companies.

 

[Wifezilla]

Joel Salatin seems to think that we can continue to feed ourselves without nasty factory farming. I don't think we can feed ourselves as long as laws are passing making it almost impossible for people to have some chickens and grow veggies.

Remember this story??
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/04/man-faces-30000-in-f.html

 

[tortoise]

Realistically though, I've thought about what was said that you can't feed this nation without big farms.
...

If we look to the cities though, teeming with people, and little to no space to produce food, that drags the overall ratio down. I just don't think there is enough small-farm space in this country to feed EVERYone?

Have you ever noticed how much WASTE there is? How many beef cattle could be fed on with grasses from road and highway ditches?! Think about it. How many ACRES of grassy ditches and medians are in your county?

How many seeds and grubs are in these same spaces that could feed chickens. How many rabbits could this wasted space support? How many fish-bait worms could be found in these spaces.

The amount of wasted biomass overwhelms me. I cut long grass out of ditches to feed my rabbits some days. I stuff a bag full and it barely makes a "dent" in how much is still there.