Re: free range eggs - more nutritious

donberry wrote:
> As you live in Scotland, your country probably takes much more
> precautions in their food supply, in the U.S., the land of plenty, all
> that counts is the bottom line.

> In our country, the chickens are kept
> in cages which they can not move in.

That happens all around the world. Battery units were developed in the late
1800's and if you look at really old history you can find plenty of evidence
for bird baskets and houses which confined individual birds.
Chickens are not nice to each other and are unpredictable - and early man
worked out early on that to get the best for themselves in the way of eggs,
controlling feeding and controlling where the birds were at any time it was
easiest to confine them sometimes.
There are SO many people now we need good available food at a price the
poorest can afford. What we have to do as a population is try to ensure that
the welfare within units such as this is the best it can be. Unfortunately
in the US there seems to be rather an all or nothing approach - the only
people shouting about welfare want no intensive at all. This means little
gets done about the intensive units and the farming ethos in them. In Europe
more has been done to recognise their place in the world that humans have
created and trying to make sure things are controlled and improved.

> They can now get a chicken to market in 8 weeks.

Yup - thats done mostly by breeding. Nothing wrong with that per se -- the
meat is pretty tasteless, as long as the birds are kept in good conditions
and as long as no one tries to raise them into adult hood its simply a quirk
of genetics that has been exploited.
We certainly have more controls on chemical use in stock here. But then alot
of chicken portion meat is imported from Asia and the like. That applies to
the US too - so there are even fewer controls there
Much of the chicken meat is water "enhanced" as well as other processes that
enhance the profit without improving the taste. !!

> One company in our country started testing every single head of beef
> they sold for mad cow. The federal government came in and shut them
> down. They are only allowed to inspect 1 out of every 20,000 head of
> cattle.

Maybe if the poopulation became more genuinely aware and interested in their
food and were then realistic you would have a reat political pressure for
good food production.
Its far from perfect over here or any country as far as I can see but what
proportion of the population are really interested and I do not include the
PETA types.

> Corporations now own our country and do as they please. Our government
> is owned by the corporations and passes laws that only help
> themselves.

Well maybe its time your population started to do something about it.
:~))

>
> I am guessing a chicken in Scotland is a very different chicken then
> in the U.S.

Not really -- but there is a different animal welfare take on things. As I
have said this is not perfect -- far from it. But its different

> In the new America, safety and nourishment are not the concern, it is
> only how much money can you make.

It has been people power that has changed things in Europe.
The fact that the general population understand very little about
agriculture and the country means that we have illogical and daft things
happening here too.

> Restaurants in our country, Frazoli's for example, now advertise that
> they have hormone and antibiotic free chickens.
> Free Range organic chicken eggs go for 4.00 a dozen in the
> supermarkets (a regular dozen of eggs is 79 cents)

It is very easy to change what a supermarket stocks --- really really easy.
All it takes is for there to be no free range eggs or chicken on the shelf
at the end of each day and for there to be lots of the intensive food left.
It would take the "corporations" less than 6 months to turn the production
around. Mostly it would be sourced outwith the US to start with but the
production at home would change very quickly
Its up to the consumer to change things -- they have the ultimate power.
BUT -- can you see that actually happening -- ordinary folks in the US
paying more for their food for welfare issues [ it tastes better too]
You can have eggs that are described as caged on the box --- and most people
will still buy them in preference to free range or barn etc.
In the UK 85% of people want all hens free range but 75% of them buy battery
produced eggs. -- go figure

Nowhere is perfect -- the people with the greatest power is in fact the
consumer but in teh western world they are spending decreasing percentages
on their food with each decade
:~(((

--
regards
Jill Bowis AI news reports: http://poultryreports.blogspot.com/

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk

.

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