I recently read an expose on production methods in the battery chicken and egg industries. I'm sure most of us have been aware of this issue for years. Maybe I had forgotten the specifics, or subconsciously buried them, but I shocked to be confronted with them again in vivid detail. It made last weekend's shopping trip to buy a chicken for Sunday lunch even more poignant.
Tesco were selling their basic range birds for £4, poor, pathetic, scrawny creatures that would to feed three people. Similarly sized organic birds were £8, albeit with a better covering of meat, and would probably feed four. My interest in Tesco chicken was purely academic, for I was heading for a local farm shop, where a large organic chicken was purchased for £12. That splendid fowl yielded Sunday lunch for three people, repeated again on Monday night with leftovers, two chicken sandwiches for pack lunches on Wednesday, chicken fajitas for supper on Thursday, and some scraps left over for the dogs. That's £1.20 per portion. The Tesco value chicken that would struggle to feed three was £4. Do the maths, as they say. So when I see someone with a battery chicken in their shopping trolley I do feel a certain urge to beat them over the head with it - an attempt to dislodge the misguided "affordability" argument that props up a cruel and barbaric food production industry.
One of the biggest problems our 'blue marble' planet faces is human over population. Birth control began to show up in the 70s, but you rarely hear about it these days. Even the pro-life/abortion issues have dwindled from the spot light. Intelligent people, concerned about their finances practice some control over limiting their progenation and so world population increases fastest among the poor and uneducated. Famines, social hardships and genocidal wars are the results. And genocidal warfare is in my mind a precursor to wars of global attrition. We have bigger things to worry about than chicken farming which appears to be a necessary evil to feed our burgeoning populations.
On the other hand, I have an appreciation for wild foods, venison, alligator, ocean, lake and river fish, turtle, crab, etc., etc. They now farm prawns, tilapia and other things and I am disappointed in the flavor. Free range chicken might in this respect be worth the price.
The other issue with farmed livestock, fruits, vegetables and grains is the introduction of hormones, pesticides and other chemical, enzyme and pesticide tinkering. Kids get asthma from strawberry fields. Diabetes is out of control. Child obesity? And we all remember mad cow disease. Psychologically, many people engage in self-abuse with alcohol, cigarettes, dope and other narcotics and their socializing has turned unhealthy in the form of social commiseration. We specialize in our work and careers and are often unable to choose healthy activities for our lifestyles after work. Kids commit suicide because both parents abandon them to school or their own doings, while both work to afford what they think makes their lives livable. Quality is sacrificed to quantity.
Honestly folks, we need to exercise good mental discipline and spiritual health in this world. You don't have to be religious. Self awareness is the heart of spiritual awareness. If you choose foods to preserve your health, take it further and discipline your minds to find quality and virtue in life and avoid succumbing to self abuse and commiseration.
We can't entirely avoid farmed foods and mass processing of chickens and turkeys will happen. I am reminded of the story of a woman who came up with a method of humanely treating cattle as they were processed for slaughter. I can't recall her name, but her methods were at first rejected by the beef industry, especially because she was a woman. But when finally put to action, those methods not only were more humane, but allowed easier processing, savings in time and labor and improvements in quality.
Intellectual application to solving problems is important, perhaps more so to future generations, than our own.
