Peter Davies and Mark Scherzer are the owners of Turkana Farms in Germantown, NY. This week Mark writes: I promised a couple of weeks ago to come back to the issue of chicken. I love the taste and texture of the plump Cornish cross chickens we raise, and attribute these qualities to the very healthy and beautiful chicks we received from the Giese Family's Northeast Pastured Poultry Association Hatchery, and to the grass and the Lightning Tree Farm organic grain they are raised on. Many of you have expressed similar enthusiasm. Raising these chickens, however, is the one way we deviate from our “heritage breed” principles. Peter has often commented, regretfully, on their lack of personality and sociability. Their voracious appetite (he calls them feathered pigs) seems to be their predominant character trait. He swears that if he were to accidentally fall into their pen, close enough so they didn’t have to walk too far, he might very well be gobbled up in a matter of minutes. I’ve resisted moving away from these easily managed and fast-growing chickens because they take relatively little work, compared to all our other animals, and the product is tasty. But reading The End of Food has made me think again about raising these perfectly round—indeed zaftig—incredibly efficient birds. As Roberts points out, beef cattle convert grain to protein with the same efficiency as a Hummer converts gasoline to forward motion. Chickens far outperform them, and our Cornish cross breed is up there with the most efficient varieties, a sort of Prius of grain-to-protein conversion. Roberts calls these genetically refined birds “walking meat machines”—some grow so fat, they can barely walk and occasionally a number will die of heart failure. They are twice as big as the typical bird raised in 1975, with huge breasts that reach "this sumo-like stature with freakish speed.” He makes them sound like the industrial turkeys we have long disdained. Roberts also points out that these birds were bred this way to process easily in massive numbers (slaughterhouses must process 1.25 million birds a week in order to break even). All to satisfy America’s insatiable desire for white breast meat. Not that our birds suffer from all the problems that industrially-raised chickens do. Perhaps it is because they live outdoors and move to fresh pasture every day. But we have not encountered “pale, soft, exudative (PSE) meat,” which makes the bird crumble when cooked and leads many producers to pump the meat full of salt and phosphates to make it retain water. This water "enhancement" can make up 10 to 30% of an industrial bird’s weight. Nonetheless, we have begun to debate whether we shouldn’t at least try a slower growing (10 to 12 weeks vs. 7), older breed, with a more even distribution of light and dark meat and a more sociable, less eating-machine personality—one that actually takes advantage of and enjoys the pasture we provide. A bird that we will enjoy being around. Some fellow farmers have mentioned a number of other varieties that may fit this profile, such as French Freedom Rangers or Kosher Kings, and they swear by the taste. Can we afford to jump with both feet in that direction, when we and so many of our customers quite like the birds we are growing now? Or should we do a controlled experiment, half and half, so that we can all compare the results? Are there varieties that you suggest we try? Let us hear from you.
A note of sadness: Those of you in the Hudson Valley undoubtedly heard of the death this week by suicide of Dean Pierson, a respected Copake dairy farmer who, before he took his own life, shot and killed each of his 51 milking cows. You can link to the article in the local newspaper, The Register Star or the New York Times. We did not know Mr. Pierson, and would not presume to pronounce on his motivations. But those who spoke to the Register Star and to the Times invariably commented on the tough times currently facing dairy farmers, with wholesale milk sales early in 2009 fetching 1970s prices and farmers having to spend $1.50 to produce every dollar’s worth of milk they sold. Even after government supports were increased later in the year, milk producers continued to operate at a loss. News reports alluded to Mr Pierson’s personal problems. We can be sure that the pressures on a farmer running a losing operation, apparently carrying the entire burden of the work himself, could not have helped. The aspect of the story that drew even some national press attention was the killing of the cows. Because he killed only the milking cows and not the calves and heifers, the assumption has been that Mr. Pierson wanted the milking cows to be spared the pain of going unmilked in his absence. To those who would suggest that there were less extreme and destructive means of sparing them that suffering, including distributing them to fellow dairy farmers, it must be pointed out that a man who sees suicide as the only way to overcome his problems may not be making the most rational judgments. No matter how distorted his decision-making, one has to see it ultimately as an act of mercy and caring for the animals in his charge, founded perhaps in a perception that he and these animals were alone with each other in this world. With sadness, one must appreciate that these deaths were infused with a sort of love. A note of correction: Two weeks ago, I misquoted The End of Food as saying that the average American eats 220 pounds of beef a year. Eagle-eyed Rural Intelligence editor Marilyn Bethany questioned this mind-boggling figure, and she was right to do so. We each eat just about 220 pounds of meat a year, including not just beef, but also pork, lamb and poultry. Still, by world standards, an incredible quantity of meat. A note of caution: Following up on the issue of e-coli in beef, Tom Levine of Longmeadow Farm in West Cornwall, CT, sought reactions to a more recent article by a Texas history professor citing studies to suggest that that no matter what environment it might have originated in, the O156:H7 strain of e-coli could as readily be found in grass-fed beef as in the grain-fed product. Whether this represents agribusiness disinformation (Peter’s opinion) or is an unbiased report on credible research requires further investigation. We’re not opting for well-done beef, but each person must establish his/her own risk-benefit balance. Stay tuned. —Mark Scherzer
