Monday, November 14, 2011

Chicken Farmers... Lessons from the Wild!

"Chicken farmers too could learn valuable lessons from wild health. Red Jungle fowl live in the forest in small groups of fewer than 20 birds, with one cockerel controlling and protecting a number of hens. They scratch around on the forest floor, finding insects, worms, and fresh greenery to eat. They dust-bathe and sun their feathers to keep them clean and healthy, and when it rains, they preen themselves all over." Wild Health by Cindy Engel

If the above paragraph depicts the ideal life that any "domesticated" fowl could expect to live on whatever farm they call home, then what is being sold in the grocery stores around the country (and world) couldn't be further from ideal...

Due to selective breeding, and in today's world GMO's, it takes only ~42 days for a broiler chicken to grow to weight, this is half the time it took just 20 years ago. For industrial farming to be successful (profitable) quick and cheap must dictate production, at whatever cost necessary!

"This selective breeding means that muscle is being laid down before the circulation and heart have developed sufficiently to support the huge muscle load. As a consequence, the birds suffer circulatory problems and heart failure. On top of this, their bones are not strong enough to support their extra body weight, and lame birds die of thirst or starvation because they are unable to reach the automated food and water supplies. A staggering number of broilers suffer broken bones or other skeletal defects at any one time and thousands die of heart failure each day... The birds are kept indoors in dim lighting lest they get "excited" and attack one another. They trample on their dead companions, blister their feet in the acidity of their own excrement, and damage their lungs in an atmosphere of ammonia fumes, dust, and bacteria." Wild Health by Cindy Engel

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