Thoughts on breeds, ethics and health...

We often have weighty conversations on ethics and faith around our home.  The last several years these conversations have involved both the eating and raising of our food.  The past few weeks we have heavily revisited our thoughts on breeds as we move away from raising the Cornish Cross breed of chicken.  If you are unfamiliar with the common meat bird and it's problems, we encourage you to learn more.  Feel free to write or email for some resources about the Cornish Cross.  

The ethics of raising a breed like the cornish cross are a struggle for many pastured poultry farmers.  Basically, we want to grow chicken in a healthy way, but cannot afford to go so far as to grow a bird other than the industry standard.  It is a real struggle.  As Joel Salatin mentions in regard to rasing chickens, "You can be a nudist. You can be a Buddhist.  But you can't be a nudist Buddhist."  It is just too far and difficult a change to be able to support our families.  Our customers like the idea, but just cannot afford the price jump.

The ethics are not just on the consumer side.  We, too, as farmers cast a vote every time we buy chicks, if we buy chicks, we vote for what the hatcheries will continue to grow; even if it is a small vote.  When we buy the Cornish Cross, we vote.  When we buy "sexed" egg layer chicks and no rooster chicks, we make a vote for the destruction of those unwanted chicks.  These are common discussions in our home and have led to the decisions we are currently making on the farm.

As of late, we have been pondering the correlation between human health and eating breeds of animals, such as the cornish cross, who are bred for confinement settings. They often suffer from heart attacks, leg problems and generally are fairly sedentary-even in a pastured poultry setting- consuming mostly grains.  These chickens are bred specifically for accelerated growth- hatch to table in six to eight weeks- here we have fast food at the genetic level!

Personally, we have had wonderful results with a very few of the common health problems in our Cornish Cross, yet the very nature of the bird makes us wonder...  What health problems may arise from eating such a bird?  What happens when we eat chicken that are genetically predisposed to hypertension and heart disease.  If one had to hunt for his meat and saw in the woods a bird acting as the Cornish Cross, limping or sluggish, he would rightly consider this a sick animal and would not desire to ingest it.

Why are we willing eat such a bird?

A pastured Cornish Cross- the most common breed of meat chicken in the United States.  Notice the outgrowth of feathers and sedentary nature of the bird.

This chicken is the same age as the Cornish Cross above, note, she is active in posture and looks like a healthy bird!

By the way, the Cornish Cross is a hybrid breed and is rarely able to reproduce which is also an issue of sustainability and humane husbandry.

 Now, that we brought that up, are you ready to consider that seedless fruit you buy???  Well, I guess we can save that for another day. ;)