AgriCulture bloggers Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week, Peter writes: “A rose is a rose is a rose”, Gertrude Stein (left) once famously said. If she were alive today she would not, however, be able to say: "A chicken is a chicken is a chicken.” Sadly, there are chickens and then there are chickens. When we first started raising chickens (both egg and meat), it was our assumption that if we avoided commercial grain mixes in favor of locally fresh ground grains, gave our birds access to the outdoors and the foraging and exercise that resulted, and avoided the use of antibiotics and growth enhancers that we would be returning chicken to being chicken. Apparently, it's not that simple.
A recent article published in the journal Public Health Nutrition (summarized in the latest American Livestock Breeds ConservancyNews) discussed the results of a study by London Metropolitan University on the nutritional content of chickens past and present. Basing their study on samples of broiler chickens collected from supermarkets and farm shops throughout Southeast and Midwest England, they searched for a representative sample of what the average U.K. consumer buys in the way of chicken. Not surprisingly, they discovered that 90% of the chicken eaten in the U.K. comes from the industrial system, where chickens are reared in uniform conditions based on supermarket demands. I think that similar results would be found in this country.
Gathering samples and comparing what they found with what they unearthed researching records going back to the 1870’s, the researchers did a number of comparisons of nutritional content. Overall, the study determined that eating the same serving weight of chicken today compared to 30 years ago means you eat 100 more calories and three to eight times less omega 3-fatty acids. We all know what the extra calories mean, but what is less well known are the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which include promoting heart health, lowering triglycerides and increasing the right kind of cholesterol in the blood stream. It is also posited by some that the decline in dietary omega-3 fatty acids is one factor in the rise in mental illness. More specifically, the fat calorie content of broiler chicken, the researchers discovered, has increased to about four times that of protein—in other words the consumer is getting many more calories from fat than protein. Chicken now has 100 more calories and fourfold calorie fat to protein ratio as compared to three decades ago. According to 1870 records, standard chicken portions had about 118 total calories. By 2004, the amount of calories in the same size serving had climbed to 271. Additionally, Omega-3 fatty acid has decreased significantly, replaced by linoleic acid (also known as omega-6 fatty acid). Chicken eggs, it should be pointed out, used to be one of the primary land based sources of omega-3 fatty acids. The researchers determined four primary reasons for the rise in the fat content of domestic poultry: •The practice of confining livestock to enclosures beginning in the 18th century. •The selective breeding of those that gained weight the fastest. •The development of high-energy food and growth promoters. •The restriction and denial of exercise, resulting from keeping animals in an enclosed space with food permanently available.
Some of the factors have to do with the manner in which poultry has been raised, but some also have to do with the nature of the birds themselves, which brings us to heritage breeds—the breeds that dominated American farmyards prior to World War II. These older breeds, compared to the modern breeds that now dominate the market are slow growing, naturally mating, and have a long productive outdoor life When we first began committing ourselves to heritage breeds it was primarily because of a desire to help preserve valuable livestock breeds from extinction, and to protect the available gene pool. Only gradually, through our experience with heritage turkey breeds over the past ten years, did we begin to appreciate that another major value of these breeds was in the superior flavor and texture of the meat. Now we are beginning to realize that there is also a superior nutritional value in heritage breeds. This past year, a team at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in Lindsbor, Kansas worked with Kansas State University to determine if there are nutritional benefits that come from heritage breed chickens. Accordingly, five different heritage breeds of chickens and three non heritage breeds labeled: ‘Store Brand”, “Company A”, and “Company B” were studied and compared for their nutritional content. The chart they produced, which I’ve partially reproduced here speaks for itself:
The results in calorie and fat content corroborate the findings of the British study. While the British study is an historical one and the Kansas study is focused on chicken breeds, the two mesh in that the further back in time one goes, the more one is dealing with heritage breeds raised in the conditions these breeds demand. Both studies highlight, one indirectly and the other directly, the nutritional value of the heritage bird versus the industrial bird. As we are realizing at Turkana Farms, reversing the changes in poultry production that have been evolving for over a century is not easy. And worse, as some of our customers point out, it is not cheap.
Apparently, producing chickens cheaply enough and in such large quantities that it is now an every day meal (I can remember when it was chicken every Sunday) has been accomplished at the cost not only of flavor and texture but also at the serious cost of nutritional deficiencies. Sadly, reversing the industrial mode of chicken raising means returning to a much more expensive bird. The question to be answered is how much of the American public is willing or able to get over consuming huge portions of cheap food in favor of, perhaps, a more modest portion of superior food with high nutritional value. When, we might ask, will a chicken be a chicken be a $chicken$? For the complete archive of past AgriCulture blogs, click here.
