Fat chickens raised for Perdue spend brief lives sitting in feces

Editor's note: Two magazine articles caught my eye, one from Consumer Reports on whether Perdue chickens are raised humanely, and the other from AARP The Magazine, which recommends seniors gorge on ham, cheese, fried eggs and beef meatballs on vacation in Holland.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One of the most shocking images in a YouTube farm video are overweight chickens that have grown too big to stand and spend much of their brief lives sitting in feces, rubbing themselves raw in some cases.

The March 2015 issue of Consumer Reports says Craig Watts, a chicken farmer in Fairmount, N.C., objected to Perdue's claims of humane treatment, and invited an animal welfare group to film inside his chicken house.

"Watts is familiar with the standards of the country's fourth-largest chicken producer," the magazine reports. "He raises about 720,000 birds for it each year in facilities approved by Perdue and the USDA Processing Verified program.

"The result is a video that shows what appear to be thousands of birds crammed in the dark, gasping for air and weighed down by unnaturally large breasts [from the antibiotics administered to the chicks supplied by Perdue, this after only 37 days]."

The litter they sit in, according to the video, contains the accumulated feces of tens of thousands of chickens, and isn't changed between flocks.

The video went live on Dec. 3, and has reached more than 1.5 million viewers.

Eating your way to poor health

The December 2014/January 2015 issue of AARP The Magazine has an upbeat feature on a young couple who produce EatYourWorld.com, a guide to eating around the world.

But the Dutch food the couple sample in Amsterdam is filled with the calories and artery clogging cholesterol many of the seniors who read the magazine are trying mightily to avoid.

They might want to rename their Web site, Eat Your Way Into a Hospital.

First, Laura Siciliano-Rosen and photographer Scott B. Rosen recommend a cure for jet lag: A "massive open-face ham, cheese and fried-egg sandwich."   

Then, they suggest a Gouda cheese sandwich on crusty bread "slathered in butter."

They finally sample some healthy herring, but then finish with "gravy-doused beef meatballs."

The headline for the article on Page 68 is "Our Dutch Treat."

It could be, "Trick or Treat."

I can't imagine what the editors were thinking when they picked this article for AARP The Magazine.

Certainly, not the health of their aging readers.

A 'better chicken' from Perdue?

Editor's note: Today, I discuss Perdue chicken, Korean pears and Fairway Market in Paramus.

I came across a coupon for a Perdue Oven Ready Chicken or Turkey Roast that shows a smiling Jim Perdue, chairman of Perdue Farms, under a slogan: "We believe in a better chicken."

Image via Wikipedia

Who doesn't? But believing in a better chicken and actually raising one are miles apart, and Perdue isn't ready to make the journey.


The coupon page also has a photo of an enormous cooked breast that looks dry. What you can't see are all the antibiotics used to raise the bird.


The "roast" comes in its own cooking bag, which is likely made of plastic. I wonder if there is any transfer of chemicals from the plastic bag to the all-white-meat poultry during the cooking.


Don't waste your money.

Image by FotoosVanRobin via Flickr

Korean pears


H Mart in Little Ferry had a display of large Korean pears near the entrance on Friday -- in a package of three for $6.99 or a box of nine or 10 for about $22.50.


The crisp, juicy Korean-grown pears are a cross between an apple and a pear, and they are carefully wrapped inside the package (see photo).


I also found Kabocha or Kabucha squash for 99 cents a pound, and a 2-pound box of blanched Greenshell Mussels from New Zealand for $6.99.


Bok choy tips were on sale for 88 cents a pound, and plantains were two for a dollar.


'Shock prices'


Fairway Market in Paramus continues its "shock prices" promotion through Jan. 26.

Perdue speaks out on its use of antibiotics

Image via Wikipedia

Perdue Farms founder Frank Perdue.

After my last post, How most chicken and beef are raised, a Perdue spokesman commented on whether the company uses antibiotics to promote growth. Here is Perdue's position statement on antibiotics from its Web site:

"We recognize concerns about the use of antibiotics in animal production, even though the science linking antibiotic use in animal production is still under debate.

"Perdue does not use antibiotics for growth promotion and administers them only when necessary for the health of our birds.

"As a result of our emphasis on providing a healthy environment for our birds, we do not need to rely on the continuous use of antibiotics to keep our birds healthy. However, in keeping with our commitment to poultry welfare and to providing wholesome products, our company's team of veterinarians, who are board-certified by the American College of Poultry Veterinarians, may prescribe antibiotics when medically appropriate. These antibiotics are used in stringent accordance with FDA and USDA guidelines and only under the guidance of one of our veterinarians.

"To treat intestinal illness in chickens, we may also administer ionophores when medically appropriate. Ionophores are a type of antibiotic not used in human medicine and are not linked to concerns over antibiotic resistance in humans. The FDA and USDA have approved this use of ionophores."

The key phrase here is "continuous use of antibiotics."

That's why you don't see an antibiotics-free claim on Perdue packaging. But other producers, including Readington Farms, a brand sold at ShopRite, state explicitly that no antibiotics are used to raise its chickens.

How most chicken and beef are raised

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Verde Farms imports organic beef from Australia and other countries.

My wife went to ShopRite in Englewood looking for antibiotic-free Readington Farms chicken legs and thighs she planned to prepare for a church member, but the store only had breast meat. So she came home with "jumbo" drumsticks, wings and thighs from Perdue.

I took a look at the words on the Perdue package, claiming the chicken is all natural and "fresh from family farms." Nowhere does it say how the chickens got to be "jumbo."

Perdue says its chickens are raised on an all-vegetarian diet and are "cage free." They receive no animal by-products (bits of dead animals, kitchen scraps and so forth), the package says.

But the package and Perdue's TV ads are silent on antibiotics, which prevent the chickens from getting sick in crowded conditions. Some get too heavy for their legs, and fall over in the chicken houses. The Perdue pieces are noticeably bigger than Readington Farms' chicken parts.

A human who eats a steady diet of meat and poultry raised with antibiotics will be more resistant to prescribed antibiotics.

The Perdue chicken my wife bought on Wednesday was on sale. It's typical for ShopRite to put Perdue on sale, while rarely cutting the price on Readington Farms or organic chicken.

Turning to beef, the Web site of Costco supplier Verde Farms compares how its organic beef is raised to how most other beef is raised. Chef Martin C. Chai explains how he founded the company:

"Verde Farms was conceived at an estancia, or ranch, in the pampas while living in Argentina. Watching the cows roam in the open countryside, I rode alongside a gaucho on horseback experiencing a world so different than my life in the States. After the ride, when we sat down to eat a traditional meal of beef, red wine, more beef, and more wine, I realized that not only did the cattle grazing on the open pasture create a picturesque setting but it also resulted in scrumptious, flavorful beef.

"My interest had been piqued. Upon returning to the States, I began to educate myself about the cattle industry in the US. Unfortunately, the more I learned, the more dismayed I became about the conditions in which the majority of the cattle were raised. Cattle, after a quick stint on the open-range, are quickly relocated into massive feedlots of 50,000-100,000 cattle. Rushed from birth to slaughter in factory-based feedlot systems using government-subsidized corn, pesticides, artificial fertilizers, growth hormones, and antibiotics results in cheap, mass-produced fatty meat that has little inherent flavor. There had to be consumers, like myself, who demanded better. Fortunately, the stars of the Southern Hemisphere aligned. My familiarity with South America and my passion for food soon intersected, and I launched Verde Farms, the premiere brand of free-range organic beef.

"Verde Farm's commitment to importing beef from Uruguay [and other countries] has created the opportunity for American consumers to eat a great-tasting product while also supporting small farmers from a developing economy. When you purchase a product from Verde Farms, you are directly supporting a traditional way of life that has existed for generations and that, with your support, will continue to thrive."

Web site of Costco supplier Verde Farms

Unexpected buy on organic chicken

Image via Wikipedia

I went to ShopRite in Hackensack this morning to buy Readington Farms chicken for my wife and son, who have resumed eating meat. But I bought Coleman organic chicken instead, because it was nearly half the price.

There was nothing in the sales circular about the organic chicken, and I figured it was a misprint. And there were only skin-on legs available. But at 99 cents a pound, a tray of four legs came to around $1.50 or less, so I bought seven trays, most for the freezer.

Readington Farms legs were selling for the usual $1.89 a pound. And the store was having a 40%-off sale on crappy Perdue chicken. ShopRite rarely has a sale on drug-free chicken.

Both Readington Farms and Coleman raise their chickens on vegetarian feed and without antibiotics. All bets are off on how Perdue chickens are raised, but the parts are much bigger than their naturally raised cousins -- likely as a result of the antibiotics they receive.

My wife likes to rub drug-free chicken legs with Grace-brand jerk sauce (hot), put them in the refrigerator for several hours, then roast them in the oven. We use a meat thermometer, because they take less time to cook than conventional legs.

 

First-time sale on ShopRite's drug-free chicken

The ShopRite in Paramus looks old and the parking lot is cramped. When I shopped there last week, a large piece of land across from the store was being cleared and my stomach sank as I wondered if all of this had been trees.

The store's sales circular, which arrived with the newspaper, has a nugget buried in the back pages: the first sale I have ever seen on Readington Farms chicken, the ShopRite brand that is antibiotic-free and raised on vegetarian feed. The sale starts Sunday and runs through Oct. 24 at the Paramus store.

The discount is 25%, or $1.11 to $4.49 a pound, compared with the 50% sale ShopRite stores recently had on inferior, drug-filled Perdue chicken. My wife prefers the taste of Readington Farms chicken over Murray's free-roaming chicken, the drug-free brand sold by Fairway Market.

More on industrial farms' use of antibiotics

Check out the following link to The Pew Charitable Trusts' Web site on the use of antibiotics in industrial farm animals:

http://www.saveantibiotics.org/

One point it makes is that "70 percent of U.S. antibiotics go to animals raised on industrial farms that aren't sick, to offset crowding and poor sanitation. This practice promotes the development of deadly strains of drug-resistant bacteria that can spread to humans."

Something to keep in mind the next time you are shopping for chicken, pork or any other meat in your favorite supermarket and are drawn by the low prices on products from Perdue and Tyson, and meat producers you can't identify because of a store-labeled package.

What's on sale at ShopRite, Fairway Market

When I open supermarket sale circulars, I notice what's not on sale. Usually, antibiotic- and hormone-free foods are never discounted by ShopRite and Fairway Market, although Whole Foods Markets do a much better job in this regard.

The ShopRite circular for Aug. 9-15 prominently features that lousy Perdue chicken, for as little as 59 cents a pound. This is a case of getting what you pay for: flaccid chicken pumped full of antibiotics to make it grow faster and fatten the wallets of the owners. Packages are invariably marked "All Natural," a cruel joke on consumers. I'm still waiting for a sale on drug-free Readington Farms chicken, which is raised on a vegetarian diet.

At Fairway, USDA Prime shell steak, also known as New York strip, is on sale for $8.99 a pound from Aug. 8-14. Prime is the USDA's top grade, assigned that distinction because it has more fat than Choice or Select ("abundant marbling" is the way the USDA puts it). But the producer is not identified in the circular, so it's safe to assume the animals were confined in a feed-lot and pumped full of grain and hormones to get them to grow faster and get them to market faster. How appetizing is that?

Whole Foods often sells its drug- and hormone-free steaks for a discounted price of $9.99 a pound. And it stocks beef from New Jersey that is 100% grass-fed, considered the most natural way to raise the animals. Naturally raised chicken, pork, lamb -- all of it is on sale regularly -- and Whole Foods has the biggest selection, too.

U.S. seeks ban on antibiotics in farm animals

http://www.organicvalley.coop/newsroom/organics-in-the-news/browse_news/1/

Check out this Organic Valley Web site (above), which reviews news about organic food, the use of antibiotics in farm animals and related subjects.

One item, taken from The Washington Post on July 13, 2009, reports that the Obama administration wants to ban antibiotics given to farm animals to make them grow rapidly, in a bid to reduce the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans. The bacteria are resistant to many treatments. Hooray for the Obama administration!

If antibiotics are banned, chicken producers such as Perdue will no longer be lying when they put the words "All Natural" on their product. (Revised Saturday, Aug. 8.)

Eat at home after you see this movie

"Food Inc.," a new documentary in limited release, sounds like a real stomach-turner, a "horrifying dissection of the U.S. food industry, where corporate-owned, massed-produced and chemically enhanced edibles can be unhealthy at best and deadly at worst," according to The Associated Press review.

Here's only one of the sickening images mentioned in the review: Chickens "so puffed up with antibiotics, they collapse under the weight of their breasts and die before they can be slaughtered." Food industry behemoths like Tyson and Perdue, which feed their chickens antibiotics, wouldn't speak for the film.

The film review appears today in the entertainment section of the local daily newspaper, a half-dozen pages or so from coverage of restaurant openings and closings, reviews and health inspections. I wonder how many readers will notice that those reports rarely discuss the origin and quality of the food, including the use of antibiotics, growth hormones and other additives in meat and poultry.

Does the good stuff go on sale?

The free-range, grass-fed Australian beef I bought the other day for $2.99 a pound at ShopRite is the rare instance where meat or poultry that is raised naturally sells for less than the ordinary stuff (see earlier post, "Fire sale on free-range beef") .

You always see Perdue or Tyson chicken on sale, but except for an occasional, in-store "manager's special," you won't see lower prices for drug-free Readington Farms poultry. Whole Foods puts its drug- and hormone-free steaks on sale for $9.99 a pound (this week, it's rib eye), compared to $12.99 normally. But Fairway's sale price for ordinary rib eye is about half that.

ShopRite does cut prices for free-range Australian beef and lamb, so those producers may feel that's the only way they can get and keep a foothold in the U.S. But most people seem to judge poultry on price alone. Deceptive TV advertising doesn't help. The chicken listed in the local daily newspaper's Marketbasket survey is Perdue. In fact, the newspaper's survey completely omits organic and antibiotic-free foods.