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So, I cooked a locally raised, organic chicken tonight...

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chusteczka said:
The gentically monsterfied food from California is artificial and tasteless. The ground is California is desert yet they are somehow able to grow strawberries and peaches from it. Strawberries and peaches require rich, black soil. Such soil is nowhere to be found in California. Instead you get "white" tasteless peaches. The strawberries from Watsonville, California are too large, without taste, and watered with artificial sweetener mixed in.

Unfortunately, California food is replacing all the quality food from the rest of the country. I am unable to find good quality strawberries anymore and tasty deep golden Georgia peaches are not sold in this area anymore. I am lucky when I can find fruit from Michigan. I curse California everytime I go grocery shopping and try to find good fruit.

California is great only in its own mind. Mexican avocados are far better than California avocados. California wine is bitter and acidic. The ground in California is not suitable for growing any kind of food product. The genetic monsterfication and artificial sweetening just make it worse.

California as a dairy capital? Come on now. I have lived my whole life close to Wisconsin and am lucky to know and enjoy the true taste of milk.
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LOL..

While I agree with your sentiment, you have no idea what you're talking about.

For one, you cannot artificially sweeten a plants' fruit by watering it with artificial sweeteners. Roots don't work like that.

Second, do you realize how big California is? To say that the whole state is a desert wasteland with no fertile soil is absolutely insane.

Stop spreading FUD.
 
I think what others are trying to say is that there are other variables involved that affect the taste of the chicken: age, freshness, etc.

The locally raised, organic chicken may be better overall. I'd buy and eat a few more before you officially declare it better solely because it's organic.
 
child of wonder said:
I think what others are trying to say is that there are other variables involved that affect the taste of the chicken: age, freshness, etc.

The locally raised, organic chicken may be better overall. I'd buy and eat a few more before you officially declare it better solely because it's organic.
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I'm not much for the "organic" moniker but free-range, yea. No animal can be healthy when it's crammed in a pen so tight it cant even turn around.
 
BUTCH1 said:
Commercially grown chickens do not contain hormones, USDA law forbids any hormones in chicken feed. That being said it's a shame how most are raised, jammed into pens so tight and conditions so deplorable the birds start to peck the crap out of one another so antibiotics are commonly used. Years ago most chickens were "free range" and you never heard of salmonella contamination..
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Well, at least you corrected him on the hormones. That's not the reason for antibiotics though. And, if using antibiotics, for (nearly?) every antibiotic, there is a required span of time between when the antibiotic is given and when the animal can legally be butchered. Nearly any locally farm raised chickens will have had antibiotics for the first 2 or 3 weeks of their lives, with about the only exception being on organic farms. I haven't even seen non-medicated chick starter in any of the feed stores around here. Also, if pecking is a problem, they just clip off part of the bird's beaks. (Replacing one evil with another.)

As far as flavor and quality of the chicken, there are a variety of considerations: feed, age of chicken, and quite importantly, breed of chicken. Almost every chicken you purchase in the grocery stores is a cornish cross. They don't need hormones. They eat. and eat. And eat; just leave the lights on. Within the first month, they're your cornish game hens. What a great way to save money! If there are birds that need to be culled - cornish game hens! This strategy is suggested for small farms in several of the books I have on raising chickens; I don't know if it's a strategy that major agribusinesses use. But, these birds grow so fast that often, their legs cannot keep up & can no longer support their weight. Your grocery store chickens are generally no older than 8 weeks. They grow that fast.

Now, no one would argue that all beef tastes the same - be it wagyu cattle (Kobe beef), Simmental cattle, Black Angus, Brown Swiss, etc. Yet with the 100's of common varieties of chickens, most of the store chicken is the same breed, selected for its incredibly rapid growth rate & for its conformation - huge breasts & large thighs. That's simply what the market (and OP) demands. Plus, other breeds take considerably longer to reach butchering size - 14-16 weeks instead of 6-8 weeks? Which would you raise if you were seeking to profit?

And lastly, feed. I suppose it goes without saying - grass fed cattle, or corn fed cattle. Ditto, chickens.
 
BUTCH1 said:
I'm not much for the "organic" moniker but free-range, yea. No animal can be healthy when it's crammed in a pen so tight it cant even turn around.
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Actually, they're not crammed into pens so tight that they can't even turn around. They need to be able to move to get to feeders and waterers. And, it's amusing to see that you bought into the "free-range" moniker. All it means is that the chickens are able to get outside, not that they're actually raised outside. The method by which they are fed can be identical. Their feed can be identical.
 
DrPizza said:
Actually, they're not crammed into pens so tight that they can't even turn around. They need to be able to move to get to feeders and waterers. And, it's amusing to see that you bought into the "free-range" moniker. All it means is that the chickens are able to get outside, not that they're actually raised outside. The method by which they are fed can be identical. Their feed can be identical.
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There is a difference though because chickens are omnivores. If they can't get outside they are strictly vegetarian.

Many of the grow houses now don't even allow light to enter...the chickens literally never see the light of day. :thumbsdown:
 
If you guys can't tell the difference between good, locally obtained meat and foster farms I feel fuckin sorry for you.
 
Many of you guys are proper in correcting me since I do not know much of California and my statements are merely my impression. When food tastes good, I tend not to question where it is from. However, the strawberries from Watsonville have no flavor and have displaced better quality strawberries in my area. I have driven through California once and stopped in the southeast desert to purchase fresh white peaches. The whole bag was thrown away because they were tasteless and empty. The California peaches in my area grocery stores are no better. At least now I know why the peaches are "white". The ground where these peaches are grown is infertile and without the necessary nutrients for better flavor.

It is unfortunate these tasteless California peaches have also displaced good Georgia peaches in my area. It makes no sense to me and upsets me each time I look for fruit in the grocery stores in my area. Even the Illinois peaches from the local farmers markets are better than California peaches and Illinois is not known for its peaches. California's reputation is built entirely on its own marketing and belief in itself but the rest of the country does not agree.

The California wine I have tasted is without deep flavor or body. In my unqualified but personal taste, it is also bitter and acidic. Red wines from Chile, Spain, France, and Italy possess far more complex and enjoyable tastes than California wines.

I can only comment on my experiences and when I see California on a label for fresh produce at the grocery store, I put that item back.

Comments that have been said about the midwest are also true. Our GM corn is a problem. So many pesticides and fertilizers are used that it seems crops are no longer rotated like they used to be. The ground appears to be wearing out. This is also not good. It appears we have so much food available but little of it is good to eat.
 
Fresh butchered chicken for dinner last night here. Chicken Caesar wraps for dinner tomorrow night.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
in the science world that is one definition. that is not the definition in the food industry.
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It's also the definition in the dictionary, the first 4 or 5 definitions ...
Food industry should come up with new term rather than redefine an existing word.
 
SP33Demon said:
Racist! 😉
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paulas-black-silkie-2-294x300.jpg
 
I was watching one of those episodes of Penn and Teller's Bullshit! where they took a taco salad from Taco Bell and served it to two groups of similar dinners. The first they told it was from taco bell and they pretty much didn't like the salad at all...the average rating was in the 3-5/10 range.

The second group they fed the exact same salad to with the exact same presentation were told that it was from some fancy fresh and healthy restaurant. The second group of diner raved about how good and light and fresh the salad was, giving it scores in the 8-10/10 range.

The experiment just goes to show you that expectations have a lot to do with how much you enjoy your food. The guy who hates California is going to hate any products from there. The person who worships organic will love anything labeled so. If you hate agribusiness then you absolutely must have your chicken raised in a hippie's back yard with love and compassion or you don't feel good about eating it.
 
Paladin3 said:
I was watching one of those episodes of Penn and Teller's Bullshit! where they took a taco salad from Taco Bell and served it to two groups of similar dinners. The first they told it was from taco bell and they pretty much didn't like the salad at all...the average rating was in the 3-5/10 range.

The second group they fed the exact same salad to with the exact same presentation were told that it was from some fancy fresh and healthy restaurant. The second group of diner raved about how good and light and fresh the salad was, giving it scores in the 8-10/10 range.

The experiment just goes to show you that expectations have a lot to do with how much you enjoy your food. The guy who hates California is going to hate any products from there. The person who worships organic will love anything labeled so. If you hate agribusiness then you absolutely must have your chicken raised in a hippie's back yard with love and compassion or you don't feel good about eating it.
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I have had chicken breast in the USA (Hooters at Phoenix to be exact, with GWB's motorcade in the background, true story) and I have to say it was the worst piece of chicken I ever ate. It was huge, but it really didn't taste like chicken. I even stopped the boobs, I mean the waitress, and asked if I got turkey breast instead of chicken breast and she said it was chicken...
 
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DrPizza said:
And, if using antibiotics, for (nearly?) every antibiotic, there is a required span of time between when the antibiotic is given and when the animal can legally be butchered. Nearly any locally farm raised chickens will have had antibiotics for the first 2 or 3 weeks of their lives, with about the only exception being on organic farms. I haven't even seen non-medicated chick starter in any of the feed stores around here.
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Very good breakdown of information in your post, but you glossed over the main problem with antibiotic use in the commercial side of the business. Antibiotic use, commercially, is an issue beacuse of its prevalence and reliance by commercial farms in order to produce a more profitable bird (bigger with less feed in less time). As you stated though, if this is to change, the market demanding it is going to be the most effective (regulation can only provide a framework).

Folks shouldn't be concerned about eating birds fed antibiotics. They should be concerned about the overuse of those antibiotics (amount of antibiotics produced for livestock far outweighs that produced for humans) creating entirely new resistant strains of bacteria that can pose a threat to humans. All of the major classes of antibiotics commonly used in human medicine, are approved by the FDA for use in chickens and turkeys.

Also, as you stated, not only are hormones not used for chicken, there would be little benefit in doing so. Their physiology has already been taken to the limit by breeding and how they're raised.
 
what breed of chicken was it? Taste varies from breed to breed, fyi. My buff orpingtons taste different than the barred rocks and cornish crosses.
 
BurnItDwn said:
It's also the definition in the dictionary, the first 4 or 5 definitions ...
Food industry should come up with new term rather than redefine an existing word.
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this is pretty commonplace in the english language, surprised you aren't used to it by now. its really not that difficult to understand for most native speakers.
 
DrPizza said:
Well, at least you corrected him on the hormones. That's not the reason for antibiotics though. And, if using antibiotics, for (nearly?) every antibiotic, there is a required span of time between when the antibiotic is given and when the animal can legally be butchered. Nearly any locally farm raised chickens will have had antibiotics for the first 2 or 3 weeks of their lives, with about the only exception being on organic farms. I haven't even seen non-medicated chick starter in any of the feed stores around here. Also, if pecking is a problem, they just clip off part of the bird's beaks. (Replacing one evil with another.)
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It should be plainly obvious by now that the major players across all industries do not care about legalities. They "self regulate" , and anything that isn't in compliance must have been a fluke that "slipped through the cracks", and most importantly their lobbyists own congress. They have nothing to fear.

And if its a big mistake they put on a dog and pony show for a couple months then its back to business as usual.
 
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