What does a "Free Range Chicken" really mean?
The term "Free Range" conjures up images of birds roaming freely, but in fact this is often far from reality. The only requirement the USDA has for birds or livestock labeled free-range is that they are not kept in pens. There are no requirements pertaining to the size of the area, the number of birds per square foot, or the type of feed. Meat from these animals often costs considerably more than that of their conventinally raised counterparts. Some would argue that the improvement in nutritional value, flavor, and texture is worth cost. What are your thoughts?
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14 Comments:
My thoughts? I'm wondering (a) why you asked a question only to answer it with an essay on the topic, and (b) why you didn't give your opinion.
dbcurrie at 5:12PM on 03/31/09
And your point is?
izatryt at 5:19PM on 03/31/09
Perhaps I should have been clearer in my post. With the USDA definition of free range chicken does it really matter to anyone on their purchasing decision. To me it doesn't. My preference on purchasing a chicken is that my bird does not have the antibiotics, hormones and solutions they inject into the animal.
idontwanttocook at 5:25PM on 03/31/09
That is why I buy certified humane.
sadiepix at 6:30PM on 03/31/09
Let's get serious and find out what an "organic" chicken is. "Free Range", "certified humanely raised", "hormone free", even "organic" itself is just so much labeling bullshit. I quit eating chicken for many years because it all tasted foul (pun intended). It was only when I discovered an independent grower who raised birds that were treated humanely, that were hormone free, that were free to roam, that were fed on organic feed and the goodies that they could scavenge from their "range" that I found a chicken that was worth eating. Its meat did not smell like a chemical bath nor a mud pie. Its color was almost white rather than fatty yellow. The breasts were firm rather than mushy, and the day-old legs and thighs did not smell rancid or funky. In fact, it was the chicken that we raised when I was a kid. I suggest to anyone who would like to taste a real chicken to raise them themselves, but, barring that, to spend some time on line finding a local grower who does just that. The price will be high, but the chicken will be worth paying money for.
fewteeth at 7:10PM on 03/31/09
@fewteeth- I agree, we had chickens growing up and they really did have a marked taste difference from store-bought. The eggs too, which SE-ers have discussed before.
I eat very little meat anymore, but I buy my humanely raised chicken from a local market vendor who farms and processes them himself.
For me, my decision to stop eating most meat is not because I don't think humans should be carnivorous, but because of the treatment of the farm animals, so I take buying humane meats very seriously. I am not just buying the cute label at my local giant supermarket.
sadiepix at 7:32PM on 03/31/09
the taste of a really fresh, farm chicken is indescribable..... we raise chickens and they are outside roaming free from 7am until dark. they eat bugs, grass, scraps, a little feed corn -- they have their fun, if you know what i mean. these are happy chickens. we have them mainly for eggs, but when there are way too many roosters (sorry boys) we have to pack them up and take them to be butchered. yeah, i know, life sucks.... but they at least had a decent one.
apart from the taste - the energy of the meat is really REAL. it's electric. and hard to explain. if anyone out there has experienced this, please let me know.
i once walked into my chicken coop to collect eggs and found a fox who had just killed a chicken.... well, i screamed - the fox ran out and i ran in and got the chicken..... it was the best chicken and dumplings i had ever eaten....
pooch at 9:49PM on 03/31/09
Labels can be confusing. However, the Animal Welfare Approved program is a third-party label that certifies family farmers who raise their animals outdoors, on pasture or range. The World Society for the Protection of Animals rated its standards the most stringent of all the labels. The standards are freely available on its website for both farmers and consumers to view. And it's free to farmers.
Animal Welfare Approved keeps a searchable state-by-state database of farmers and products. Check it out at www.animalwelfareapproved.org. It's true that "free range" doesn't mean a chicken ever gets outdoors, but Animal Welfare Approved farms really do have the happy, contented animals you see on supermarket labels!
awaacr21 at 9:55AM on 04/01/09
I moved to an area with a gorgeous farmer's market that has a farmer who rears hormone free, grain fed, chickens that are 'cage-free'. I don't know exactly what that means. What I do know is that I can no longer eat grocery store chicken--not even professionally prepared. The taste of these chickens is indescribably better. They taste like chickens, not meat globules. I haven't had quite the same eureka moment with organic or hormone free beef, so I have to think that the chickens moving about more freely makes some of the difference.
There's a new show called 'better of Ted' I believe, where they had a scene in which they were trying to grow beef in a lab...beef without cows. THeir taste tester described the taste as 'despair'. I laughed out loud.
Bonus? It's at par or cheaper than factory chickens when bought in bulk.
BananaMonkey at 3:26PM on 04/01/09
"Cage-Free" means chickens aren't in what are known as battery cages. You can always ask if the chickens are pasture-raised, which means they are outdoors on grass. "Cage-free" doesn't mean a chicken is outside. A chicken can be cage-free and spend its life indoors.
For beef, try 100% grassfed.
awaacr21 at 5:05PM on 04/01/09
Growing up on a farm in the rural south that's all we had. Our chickens were never pinned up and were allowed to go wherever they wished. They lived off the scratch food we put out and supplemented their diet with anything they caught and decided was edible. Chickens love anything small that crawls.
After getting home from church on Sunday my mother would "sic" our collie on one and after she rung it's neck would dress and fry the bird in less than an hour. If it was a hen it's undeveloped eggs went into the giblet gravy. Amazing to think how fresh and unadulterated that meat was by today's standards.
My job as a small boy was to locate a "sitting" hen's nest and gather the eggs, but always leaving one in the nest so she would keep laying. We encouraged our hens to use the wooden boxes on the barn walls but sometimes they would nest in some strange places. I suppose we were eating free range eggs as well. We never ate the "blood eggs"(fertilized embryo) but cooked them for our cats.
A disadvantage of raising free range chickens is that you have to always look where you're stepping :)
Poultrygeist at 5:06PM on 04/01/09
quote from author:: My preference on purchasing a chicken is that my bird does not have the antibiotics, hormones and solutions they inject into the animal.
well, your in luck because this is illegal. some chicken producers use this as a marketing scheme, that they never, ever do this, but it's illegal anyway. I dont pay more for free range chicken.
delilah at 2:15PM on 04/02/09
sadie pix has the right idea.
"free range" used to mean something; but (of course) manufacturers have found a way to cut corners.
If I lived in the USA (and concerned) I would suggest finding a local egg/chicken farmer to guarantee humane products.
hungrychristel at 2:39PM on 04/02/09
We keep chickens for eggs, not meat (and because we like them). They have a huge garden to explore, but at first light they start making noise because they know it's food time. And before dusk, they tuck themselves back into bed. They keep your garden free of pests as well.
NotAmerican at 2:16AM on 04/03/09