According to the USDA guidelines, poultry may be labeled “natural” if it doesn’t contain any additions to its natural state, such as artificial flavoring, coloring, chemical preservatives, growth hormones, or stimulants. Organic goes well beyond those restrictions.
Organic chickens must be fed a diet of organically grown and nongenetically modified feed, free of any animal by-products or fat, and be raised without antibiotics. These birds must not be permanently confined and must have access to sunlight, fresh air, and a scratch yard. In addition, they must have eight hours of darkness at night. They are also slaughtered at a somewhat older age than conventional broilers.
Contrast this with the common conventional situation where chickens are raised two birds to the square foot, up to 40,000 birds in an intensive chicken house. The building often is windowless, with almost constant lighting to speed growth. Stress levels are high, and antibiotics are used to keep the birds alive.
Growth-promoting drugs and stimulants force such a rapid rate of growth that their legs often can’t support their bodies. Fans exhaust the ammonia-laden air. At six weeks of age, they are slaughtered— and inhumane practices at conventional slaughter-houses don’t bear repeating.
Ducks and geese are waterfowl, of course, and become depressed and dirty if they can’t swim and play in the water every day. So organic duck and goose production, which requires a water source, is an expensive method of raising these animals. Organic waterfowl farming is still in its infancy, or it is being done in small scale on mixed organic farms. Slow Food U.S.A. is involved in preserving two rare breeds of heritage geese—the American Buff Goose and the Pilgrim Goose.
Of the 400 million turkeys consumed in the United States each year, all but 10,000 are one variety, the Broad Breasted White. Raised conventionally, these birds are overbred for white breast meat and have lost the ability to run, fly, or breed naturally. According to Slow Food U.S.A., many are unhealthy, never see natural sunlight, and have their beaks shaved off so they don’t injure one another in their cramped and stressed environment. Organic turkeys, by contrast, have the same rights to fresh air, sunlight, and pasture as chickens.
Other small scale organic poultry operations include the farming of Coturnix quail for eggs and meat. These quail are very efficient producers of eggs, requiring only two pounds of feed to make a pound of eggs, as contrasted with chickens, which require three pounds.
Pheasant, squab, and guinea fowl are available, but their organic provenance is usually from a local rather than national organic farmer.
TYPES
The most efficient meat-producing chickens are crosses between the Plymouth Rocks and Cornish breeds, known as Rock-Cornish. ....read more
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