| The Free Range Myth
Manufacturing Consumer Consent
by Eileen Weintraub
A chicken raised on 53 square inches of space is the corporate factory farm standard. That's far smaller than a standard sheet of copy paper. The United Eggs Producers have recently required increasing cage space for birds from 53 to 67 square inches over six years in order for farmers to achieve the "animal care certified" (ACC) label (Seattle P-I; 8/13/03). This label is so misleading that recently United Poultry Concerns (www.eggscam.com/traderjoes.php) convinced Trader Joe's to stop using it. The Humane Society of the United States has denounced the ACC label, alleging that the guidelines "seem designed more to mollify consumers than to address the extreme animal welfare abuses that have become the norm." Even though chickens can live active lives for up to 15 years commercially raised chickens are killed at around two years. Do "humane" farms do anything different with roosters than "factory" farms? No. In both cases, male chicks--half of the chicks hatched--are left to die or sold to research labs.
Mickey D's solution
McDonald's now requires hens to have at least 72 square inches of cage space to lay eggs (still smaller than the sheet of copy paper). They are also discontinuing "forced molting" and phasing out debeaking. By the end of 2004 they will stop using growth-promoting antibiotics. It is important to understand that McDonald's is banning only one antibiotic use for growth promotion. The ban does not include the medicinal use of antibiotics. Salmonella has evolved new, more virulent strains in response to antibiotic overuse, as has the intestinal bacterium Campylobacter, which infests poultry houses and clings to the birds so effectively that between 42 and 95 percent of chickens sampled in supermarkets in 2002 were reported infected, according to Consumer Reports and the Sierra Club. Each year in the US, between 200 and 800 people die of Campylobacter infections, which sicken two to eight million people. Because of this, the antibiotic Cipro, which can cause the potentially fatal nerve-damage disease Guillain-Barre syndrome in humans, is commonly used in chicken feed. (See www.tinyurl.com/k6rs for a 7/14/03 San Francisco Chronicle article on the subject).
Shopping at the natural food supermarket
Natural food supermarkets are carrying a large assortment of meat and eggs coming from "humanely raised" and "natural" chickens. Unfortunately, consumers are buying on blind faith. There are no laws or government standards at this time regulating the term "free range". It means the chickens can simply stretch their wings and are not housed four to seven to a cage that is the size of a newspaper. Unless they come from a small farm, "free range" chickens are generally housed in large warehouses on concrete floors, indoors all of the time. You can educate yourself and promote animal welfare by asking meat managers questions. Ask that information about the "farm" be posted. The term "natural" is worthless. Perhaps chickens are fed with "natural" feed that has no hormones or antibiotics, but is genetically modified. What conditions are the chickens kept in? Where are they killed? Often even "humanely raised" chickens are transported to the same slaughterhouses as factory farmed ones. Slaughterhouses are notorious for extreme stress and suffering for both the chickens and the workers. Read Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
Go to the farm or go vegetarian
Optimal conditions for chicken meat and eggs may be found at farmers markets. Hens may still live in hen houses and be able to roost, peck and perhaps raise some chicks. Chickens may run freely until they are slaughtered on the property. Ask questions at the farmer's market. Still a host of environmental, moral and health problems remain with using animals for food. In Washington, a vegetarian revolution has been taking place. Many supermarkets are filled with delicious meat substitutes. For a website guide to vegetarian restaurants in Washington, see www.vegeats.com/restaurants/usa/wa/.
Eileen Weintraub is a Seattle-based animal advocate.
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