Since I started raising and selling chickens, I've become more and more 
aware of the so-called "industrial food system" in the U.S.  While I don't 
really want to use this forum as a place to opine on the nature (and 
horrors) of factory farms in the U.S., I do believe that there is a 
difference in the quality of the food produced.  Most of the people that buy 
chickens from us (we raised 300 chickens this year), do it because they also 
believe there is a difference.  Honestly, not too long ago, I was probably 
among those who thought "chicken is chicken and only hippies and 
tree-huggers believe in organics."  Ok, perhaps much of the organic food 
market is hippies and tree-huggers, but that doesn't necessarily mean they 
are wrong.

Nevertheless, "Organic" is not actually a term that we are allowed to use, 
and it's really not a term that I truly believe in, anyway.  The definition 
is too broad in many cases, and in others, it's way too narrow.  It's rife 
with the same sort of factory farming that it pretends to rally against. 
But that's a whole other issue.  As much as I hate to admit it, France, and 
much or Europe, is WAY ahead of the U.S. on these issues.  First off, the 
U.S. tries to commoditize everything.  Every chicken and every piece of corn 
is supposed just that, and no more.  Reading about the "Label Rouge" program 
in France, as it relates to chickens, and I discovered that I'm following 
almost all of their guidelines.  In fact, in the last batch, we grew-out 150 
"alternative" (non-white) chickens.  They grow slower, have fewer health 
problems, and are much tastier.  These have only been available in the US 
for a couple years now, but they have been in France since the 1960's.  Even 
so, the breeding stock is still very limited here, so we're only getting a 
very small percentage of the available breeds (technically "genetics").

But my chickens cost more to grow-out.  We sold them (bagged whole) for 
$2.10/lb, which is more than twice the price of what you'd pay at Walmart 
for "chicken".  I can't sell chickens for 99 cents per pound and break even. 
My costs on 150 chickens is about $1300, and that's just the cost of the 
chicks, feed, and processing.  150 chickens is about 900 lbs of meat, so 
doing the math, that's $1.44/lb.  In France, the Label Rouge chickens 
generally sell for more than I'm charging, so I mention that, and in that 
sense, our customers are getting a bargain.  I believe it's a superior 
product, and so do they.  :-)

So then we started buying our pork (we don't eat a lot of beef) from other 
local farmers, and discovered that it was also far superior.  Yes, we still 
buy meat from Walmart and Kroger and a local meat store (my favorite place), 
but we now understand that there is a real difference.

It's sad that our food system has become so commoditized that most people 
can't believe that there could be such a difference in quality. 
Furthermore, from what I've read, the U.S. mostly seems to be behind other 
countries in that regard.  I suppose the French have always eaten better, 
and always will, as long as we continue down the road of "cheaper is 
better".  I'm glad to be one of a few people offerring a real alternative.

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