The Blighted Chicken

As our first week came to a close and I was searching for project inspiration there was one upcoming event that I could not get out of my mind. Gaining Ground's chickens! They are to be ordered in the next few weeks and I want to be a fundamental part of their rearing. Once I decided that this HAD to be what I focused my project on I struck up a conversation with Mike - one of our farmers - about how I can contribute my knowledge and work force to these chickens. Through our conversations about his process of raising the chickens I was able to sense that the poultry business is much harder than it may seem - as well as a bit more unrewarding.
I never have pictured myself as being one to raise animals for any reason other than to give and receive love from one another. I think that this is one of the main reasons why I have this sudden desire to care for these meat chickens - so that they can experience the best possible life up until their slaughter. The conventional chicken farm as we have seen in Food Inc. is disregarding the fact that these animals have purposes other than to feed human mouths. Though the chickens in industrial farms were literally bred to be eaten by humans it does not mean that their personal purpose - as a living organism - is to become a nugget. This is getting further into animal rights but when it comes down to it one of the most unsustainable functions of our food system at this point in time is meat processing. Getting into the logistics of this is incredibly valuable but it will be covered very extensively by T. Love tomorrow. However, it is written on the wall that stockyards have the highest rate of methane and CO2 emissions than any other human-made structure on earth. This is unhealthy for the animals in these environments but it is also incredibly detrimental to groundwater, watersheds, soil health, air quality and the quality and health of the meat that comes off that lot. All of these plus the enormous amounts of fuel used to ship these creatures from the lot to the slaughterhouse to the processing plant to the packaging plant and then to the store that was built on farmland that collects thousands of cars to come buy these items. The amount of fuel that is required from the beginning of the meats' life to the shelf is incredible.
Coming back to why I want to be involved with this process - is so that I can see where a small organic farm can make a difference. One of the primary differences between small organic chicken farms and industrial farms is the middle man. When you are getting your chicken from a small farmer you are in contact with the farmer directly either through phone calls or visits to the market in town. There is likely an individual that does the slaughter and butchering of the chicken that is not the farmer but it is someone that can be identified fairly easily. Without this middle man, there is exponentially less fuel being added to the cost of the chicken. Because the use of fuel becomes strictly the responsibility of the farmer getting to the market and the customer meeting them halfway - the price of the chicken is actually going toward the tangible chicken rather than external costs that could only be tracked with intense investigation. With the purchase of the chicken from a farmer that is trusted to be organic and local it is also their responsibility to take into account the well-being of the chicken so it is a superior product. At Gaining Ground there is a really fantastic opportunity to make sure these chickens are of high quality for the consumers but also are given a high quality life as well. These are some of the main reasons that I want to be involved in raising the chickens at Gaining Ground.