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RE: Taking Back Control of Our Food Production: The Chicken and Egg Problem
For sure one reason we have our own chicken. In my early garden days, I went to a chicken farm to get poop and was so disgusted that I broke up operation poop haul after just a few minutes.
Leghorns are often used as layers and the boys as frying chicken since they don't get so big and cook through faster.
But of course, time is money and heritage chickens just take longer to reach maturity.
Followed you :)
I don't think I could have stomached the chicken farm either!
They sometimes have leghorns and australorp here sold as layers, but they have have been hybridised and aren't the purebreds, so they end up with those same hybrid problems. I think the term they use is commercial leghorns as opposed to purebred leghorns.
Yes, it always comes down to money over ethics. That's why I advocate the multiple income streams to balance things out. Of course for some they'll always want more.
it is hard to make a living from farming. People are so used to buying food cheap and aren't aware of quality and such. Also, we are using so many eggs on a daily basis. The brainwashing that we need tons of animal protein is partly to blame. Don't get me wrong, I do eat animal protein, but not 3 times a day - or even every day for that matter.
To be honest I don't think things are quite as extreme outside of the US on the protein brainwashing side and the extreme differences in the cheap and nasty food verses good food. I recently read an article on how cheap meat can be over there and I was gobsmacked!
When I was in England still, organic food and free range was becoming more available and the price of it wasn't a great deal more than non-organic. When we arrived in Australia I struggled to get organic and when I could it was often double the price of standard. However, cheaper ranges of food were still not as cheap as you'd get in the US, which means we're probably not as averse to paying a bit more for decent food.
We also have a lot more campaigns advocating eating your fruits and veggies. Apart from the odd adverts for meat, the latest of which is advocating pork, meat is not really pushed as necessary. Not that they probably need to in Australia where the BBQ is king!
Yes. Food and meat, in particular, is very much subsidized in the US. But it must be in Europe now as well. We noticed the last few times we visited Germany that food had gotten to be comparable to US prices.
There is a big movement of small farms and permaculture and all of that. But for example, just paying rent in Southern California can be more than a person can make earning minimum wage.
A supermarket chicken costs between $3 and $5. A free-range organic chicken costs at least $25. Of course, people are going for short-term cheap. Longtime consequences -health, pollution, animal rights and such - be damned... Too much to think about if you are in survival mode.
I think $5 would be the cheapest you'd get a small chicken here if there was a special offer on. Free range organic would be $30ish (Australian dollars) and free range is usually about half that. Meat prices are rising rapidly at the moment though. It made me laugh recently when the price of beef shot up because China was buying more, so we were having a shortage. A great example that there is no interest in looking after your own first then selling the excess.
yes. money makes the world turn around......