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Watching several documentation and seeing chicken farms, I Never buy USD 5 chickens anymore. I buy only organic (more time to grow) and if available from my pre

• yegle 8y ago
  Why would you say organic chicken takes more time to grow? Organic has nothing to do with how long it takes to grow the chicken right?
  • msrpotus 8y ago
    The antibiotics fed to non-organic animals cause them to grow faster.
    • balls187 8y ago
      Are you sure about that?
      • brilee 8y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock
      • cloverich 8y ago
        Surprisingly, growth promotion is the original reason they were popularized: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/riots-rage-and-resistance-a-brief-history-of-how-antibiotics-arrived-on-the-farm/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/riots-rage-a...
    • mlindner 8y ago
      Antibiotics don't cause animals to grow faster.... Please stop stating fake information as fact.
• hjek 8y ago
  If you get tofurkey or mock duck instead, you'll never have to worry whether it was battery chicken from a factory farm. Yes, it may taste slightly different, but it's a tiny cost to pay to prevent a long time of extreme suffering. For me, it has helped my mental well being, to not (even subconsciously) have to think about the life of the being whose flesh I've been eating.
  • pstuart 8y ago
    Beyond Meat is doing "chicken strips" now and is going full tilt boogie on other meats: bratwurst, steak, and bacon! https://www.livekindly.co/beyond-meat-expands-to-develop-vegan-bacon-steak-pork-and-chicken/ https://www.livekindly.co/beyond-meat-expands-to-develop-veg...
  • GordonS 8y ago
    > it may taste slightly different Slightly different? I like vegetables and tofu as much as they next person, but 'textured protein' meat alternatives taste nothing like the real thing. I prefer just to spend a little more on a non-battery chicken.
  • lancesells 8y ago
    Most of those meat alternatives are either soy or wheat based and not necessarily the healthiest kind of food. IMO if you don't want to eat meat learn how to cook vegetables in a tasty way. There's some pretty amazing dishes you can make from fresh(and not processed) vegetables.
• qrbLPHiKpiux 8y ago
  Said this to myself recently - I think I buy too much food. Or is it just the packaging... As of lately, I've been patronizing this local farmer's market, they're only open two days a week and I'm buying what I need for the week. I am making a conscious effort to stay out of big-box grocery.
• magic_beans 8y ago
  When I do eat meat, I'll buy pastured meat only from the farmer's market or ethical butchers. Pastured chicken is $16 a pound. This is definitely not feasible for the average shopper. But then again -- people don't need to be eating chicken every single day.
  • nocobot 8y ago
    I'm a low income student (in a first world country so still far from poor) and it is totally doable for me to only buy animal products from ethical sources. It just means I eat a lot less of it. I don't think everyone needs to be able to afford to eat meat every day.
    • mfoy_ 8y ago
      >I don't think everyone needs to be able to afford to eat meat every day. I think you mean not everyone needs to eat meat every day... the way you phrase it makes it sound like an argument for lowering the minimum wage.
  • ArrayList 8y ago
    > ethical butchers No such thing. Nice buzzword/oxymoron.
    • freedomben 8y ago
      Not sure if you're just trolling or not, but I'm genuinely interested in understanding your perspective more. Although I don't expect you to take my word for it, I'm very open minded on this subject. I went vegan at one point. However, is it really less ethical to raise animals (in humane circumstances, open pasture, etc) and butcher them quickly than to either: a. Cause them to never exist and never experience life at all (presupposes that one places higher value on existence than non-existence, which is philosophically debatable of course) b. Cause them to die a natural death at the hands of either predators that will mangle and mutilate them, or to disease which is a slow and terrible way to go? I've never seen such cruelty as is found in nature. Even just seeing what the neighborhood cats do to the birds makes my stomach turn. I think if I were mangled and blinded, I'd be begging for somebody to kill me quickly.
• henryl 8y ago
  To be honest, although I prefer organic chicken for health and ethical reasons, mass produced chicken tastes juicier and better.
  • deleted 8y ago
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  • throwaway5752 8y ago
    You might want to brine it. Commercial does brine injection and depending on organic, that might not be the case.
  • onetimemanytime 8y ago
    >>mass produced chicken tastes juicier and better. You might be referring to the "gamy" part of it. That's valid for super wild chickens, but a little walk only makes them a lot better. There's no comparison in taste between a 50 day old chicken raised in mass-produced conditions and a 6-7 month one that roams in someone's backyard.
    • Spooky23 8y ago
      Also, remember that most chicken has added saline as well. If you eat more natural white meat, it’s drier because there is less fat and no added fluid.
      • AmVess 8y ago
        Often, just water. Chicken is sold by the pound. If you increase its weight by 5%, then you just got a close to free way of boosting profits by that amount. They don't even hide the fact that they do it; most of them print it right on the packaging. I quit buying supermarket chicken a long time ago because the quality is very poor. I trim the excess fat off chicken, and supermarket stuff has so much waste it was shocking.
    • darkarmani 8y ago
      In 20 years, I can see gamy meats being a delicacy. The trick is they have to be 5x the price before people want to eat it on purpose. Chickens have been bred to be tasteless in the US just like commercial pork.
• mrnobody_67 8y ago
  Yeah... it's indentured servitude... chicken farmers take on millions in debt, and walk out with wages of $20-30K for 18 hour days x 7 days per week..
  • bertjk 8y ago
    That doesn't make much sense. Someone in a position to invest millions (or take out millions in loans) would more likely be paying someone else wages to do the work, whether 18 hours or whatever. From what I hear contract poultry farming has become almost a turnkey sort of business. You contract with one of the poultry majors, they supply you with a lot of the supplies you need for whichever niche you occupy, and then basically guarantee buying your entire output.
  • pathseeker 8y ago
    >Yeah... it's indentured servitude That phrase doesn't mean what you think it means. If you can declare bankruptcy, you can't be an indentured servant.
    • zeofig 8y ago
      So you can get out at any time if you don't mind ruining your life in the process? I think the phrase is apt enough.
• patrickg_zill 8y ago
  In the Philippines there is a chain of restaurants called Chicken Bacolod. The chicken is a bit smaller than the US but the taste is much better. I think that the chickens are allowed to eat bugs and root around in the dirt.
  • dbancajas 8y ago
    are you filipino?
• burtonator 8y ago
  I've always thought that we need some sort of consumer 'geiger counter' where the user can scan a product and have some sort of objective criteria they can use to determine if they should buy/eat something.
  • rusk 8y ago
    They’ve been trying to bring in this kind of thing for years but industry having none of it
    • shittyadmin 8y ago
      Mainly because there's no good way to do it... attempts have been made, but they're pretty dire devices that can barely achieve a surface level scan. If you don't mind watching a YouTube video, this guy does a good job summing up the problems some have had: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHjmlQdzpW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHjmlQdzpW4
      • rusk 8y ago
        There are plenty of good ways to do it, but the problem is there’s always going to be somebody that looses out. Of course none of those approaches are ”perfect” but even if somebody did come up with a perfect approach you can be certain that a bunch of issues will be manufactured overnight
        • shittyadmin 8y ago
          Check the video out - those aren't "manufactured" issues - the reality is that such devices can only perform a surface level check at best - and even then, telling close things apart gets challenging. If you think you can do better, please explain how such a device could work?
          • rusk 8y ago
            It's quite simple: Coca Cola, Crisps, Mars Bars, Bacon, White Bread ... all these things you assign a red. Broccoli, Carrots, Nuts and Beans get a green. Everything in between gets orange. Pretty much all meats and dairy will end up in the orange segment which will upset this very powerful sector. The pork guys want you eating pork at every meal if possible.
• hinkley 8y ago
  I have several friends who claim to be socially and environmentally conscious but still get sucked in by the cheap baked chickens at the grocery store. It's $5-6 bucks, seasoned, cooked, in a plastic container. You know there's no way that's a fair price, right?
  • novaleaf 8y ago
    Rotisserie chickens are often used as loss-leader. Here's one of many articles on the subject: https://www.wsj.com/articles/rotisserie-chickens-the-nineties-gift-to-supermarkets-that-keeps-on-giving-1515061801 https://www.wsj.com/articles/rotisserie-chickens-the-ninetie...
    • nathancahill 8y ago
      And the classic Priceonomics article: https://priceonomics.com/are-rotisserie-chickens-a-bargain/ https://priceonomics.com/are-rotisserie-chickens-a-bargain/
  • ivl 8y ago
    Those are a loss leader, though. Those are chickens typically past the sell by date. Grocery stores actually take a loss on those, but they're appealing and convenient. People will pick them up during normal grocery shopping and have an easy meal.
    • fencepost 8y ago
      They're probably not a loss leader at all, and they're unlikely to be part of what the grocery store normally stocks in terms of chickens. If you look at most of the grocery store rotisserie chickens, they're roughly 2 pounds - 3 pounds at Costco, which is one of their selling points. At $5, you're paying $1.67-2.50/pound for the bird, a few cents worth of seasoning and oil, a plastic shell, labor and depreciation on the rotisserie equipment. The store is probably not paying even $1/pound for those small birds. As for them being ones that the store was selling that were past their date, go look at whole chickens in the store some time. If you find any 2 pound birds I'd be very surprised - you're more likely going to see a minimum of 3.5 pounds, at least in the US. The store also wouldn't be cooking random-weight birds because it's going to be much harder to control for even cooking - you can't just throw a 4 pound bird that's approaching its sell by date into the oven with your 2 pound birds, it'll be raw inside when you pull the rest of the birds out.
• rixrax 8y ago
  All the ethical and taste concerns aside, is that $5 chicken worse, better or about the same for feeding a hungry person? I am thinking of calories intake, potential medium/long term health advantages/disadvantages? edit: was pointed to this Reuters[0] article which seems like a reasonable starting point. [0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-money-chicken-organic/is-organic-chicken-worth-the-price-idUSKBN0FM24Q20140717 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-money-chicken-organic/is-...
  • ChristianBundy 8y ago
    If you're optimizing for caloric intake and health advantages, I'd recommend looking into eating plants (and fungi). Plants are always more efficient than animals for caloric and nutrient intake because animals burn the calories they eat before you eat the animals. You may be interested in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio
    • porpoisely 8y ago
      This is simply not true and one of the many lies vegan activists tell. If you are optimizing for calorie and health, you eat a mix of meat, vegetables, fruits, etc ( aka a balanced diet ). Plants require far more effort for the same amount of energy. http://time.com/4252373/meat-eating-veganism-evolution/ http://time.com/4252373/meat-eating-veganism-evolution/ If plant diet was optimizing for caloric intake and health advantages, most human societies would have been vegan. But no human society throughout human existence and pre-human existence were vegan because plant diet isn't optimal. It's also why vegans tend to be lethargic, lose bone mass, teeth rot, joint pains, have trouble concentrating, etc. It's why vegans have to take tons of supplements to even stay alive and while doing so do long term damage to their bodies. Balanced diet folks. It's something humans have been designed to eat since human existence. Not only does your body need it, it also helps with your gut biodiversity which helps prevent anxiety, depression, etc. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/anxiety-head-gut/story?id=20229136 https://abcnews.go.com/Health/anxiety-head-gut/story?id=2022...
      • 8y ago
• makewavesnotwar 8y ago
  Yeah I personally stopped buy chicken years ago for mostly ethical reasons but I think Costco getting into the chicken game will probably be a net positive. Reason being that for one, Costco was one of the first grocers to start replacing items with Organic alternatives, and in general, they usually demands higher quality goods than other grocers. For example, compare the ingredient list for Delimex taquitos from Costco to your supermarket and it's basically half the size... or Campbell's "Simply" Chicken Noodle soup to what's sold at the grocer - again about half the ingredients. Even those $5 chickens Costco sells are antibiotic/hormone/steroid-free humane-certified Foster-Farms chickens. Then there's employee treatment. Costco has a long history of being one of the better employers in the country. They pay their employees well, pay for people to attend college, don't require a lot of interaction with irate customers thanks to their no deadline any reason return policy and generally promote internally rather than hiring outsiders to leadership roles. Compare that to the average chicken farmer who has to buy all of their own equipment that the big companies are constantly requiring them to update at their own expense, raise chickens they don't own like a horrific daycare center at very low return, all while being exposed to chemicals/drugs they're being forced to use and it's kind of a nightmare. Costco cares about their brand image, their customers and their employees... I expect this will end up being a good thing.
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  • ethbro 8y ago
    If you eat meat, the most ethical thing you can do is eat Perdue chicken (assuming you're not going sustainable aquaculture seafood). Not organic, just regular. Because long before everyone else, they decided to do what they could to weed antibiotics out of their entire production chain. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/05/perdue-antibiotic-free-chicken-meat-resistance/ https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/05/perdue-antib... As someone who grew up in the poultry pathology industry, there are three important metrics for commercial chicken meat production: (1) mortality rate (how many chickens die), (2) feed conversion ratio (how efficiently incoming feed is turned into usable meat), & (3) time to slaughter. Everything else (price, environment impact) is a consequence of those figures or optimizations made to target them. Perdue, long before it was trendy (~2002) decided for market and moral reasons they were going to reorganize their operations, and those of their suppliers, to apply pre-antibiotic husbandry best practices and limit antibiotic use. It didn't save them money. Pre-emptive dosing with antibiotics is done precisely because it makes money (by decreasing loss / all cause mortality) -- if it didn't, no one would do it in the first place. They didn't have to do this. Hell, most people didn't even care about antibiotics in animal production then. But they did it because they thought there would be a market for it, because they thought it was possible, and because they thought it was the right thing to do. Costco may be an ethical company, and they may be doing this for the right reasons, but they're following. I'd rather reward someone who chose to lead in making the world a better place. PS: There are other ecological reasons to prefer chicken if you're eating terrestrial meat, but I didn't want to ramble on. Suffice to say, the feed conversion ratio on chicken is incredible.
• paulcole 8y ago
  Even the happy chickens get their heads cut off.
• mlindner 8y ago
  You should watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PmM6SUn7Es https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PmM6SUn7Es
• wyldfire 8y ago
  > My nephew from the US came over and was shocked at the taste Shocked -- because it was surprisingly superior?
• stmfreak 8y ago
  Virtue signal much?