Chickens and Evolving Agriculture

Our neighbor's chickens like to come across to our place on their never-ending hunt for bugs.  They do a great job of reducing the grasshopper population in the area where they forage.  There are multiple varieties of the chickens, but I thought these two Plymouth Rock hens made a great photo because of how they blend into the grass.  When they sit still they are difficult to see.

One of the popular movements around the country is for "free-range" chickens.  These definitely fit the category -- at least the survivors.  They like to roam onto the county road occasionally where they sometimes fall victim to an automobile.  They also sometimes succumb to a less-than-totally-domesticated canine that prowls the area.  I'm sure their nests are visited by skunks and other egg-loving predators -- often there is the faint odor of Mephitis mephitis (striped skunk) drifting gently on the breeze.

Free-range, at least for the chickens, isn't all it's made out to be.

I remember as a small child my grandmother raising chickens.  A couple of them usually fell to her hunting skills and became Sunday Dinner (that's what we called a big family lunch in the country).  She could catch, kill, pluck and clean a chicken faster than you would realize what was going on.  It was part of her persona that you didn't want to mess with her.

Chickens have traditionally been woven into the everyday fabric of farm life.  They once graced the yards and barnyards of nearly every farm in the country.  They were a source of eggs, meat and even feathers to be used in stuffing mattresses and pillows.  They also carried tiny little critters (lice) that sometimes infested the heads of youngsters who played in those same yards and barns.  They helped to control insects and snakes and they served as an alarm clock.

I suppose I became "burned out" on chicken when I was growing up.  It was an inexpensive meat then, just as it is now.  Then, because they foraged on their own and required little expense for maintenance.  Now, chicken is inexpensive due to its rapid and very efficient growth in controlled environments.  Carefully selected genetics and modern production practices have made chicken one of the most pervasive sources of protein available in this country.  It just isn't my protein of choice.

I prefer beef.  When asked if I want chicken for a meal, I sometimes find myself involuntarily commenting, "No, thank you.  That stuff is just fowl." -- the double meaning being clear that "fowl" equates to "foul."  I have a friend who is also in the beef business.  The first time I recall giving him a hard time about ordering chicken in a restaurant rather than steak he informed me he occasionally had to do "competitive meat research."  I have to give him credit for a good comeback.

We are blessed in this country to have abundant supplies of meat -- whether chicken, pork or beef.  Modern production practices make it available at an affordable price to virtually everyone.  Can you imagine what it would be like if every home had to raise its own food?  We sometimes hear, or see, chickens in our community, but they aren't pervasive.  What would it be like if every household had a couple of dozen chickens, a milk cow, a hog pen and maybe even a calf being raised for beef along with an acre, or more, of garden to supply vegetables?  When you think about it, there is no way it works so that a large population can be supported.  Modern agricultural methods are necessary to feed the masses.  The back-to-small-mother-earth methods cannot possibly feed enough people.  The "footprint" would be completely unsustainable.  It would require much more land than is currently employed to produce our food.

I certainly understand the sentiment of those who wish for the "more natural" methods of farming used in days long ago, but the numbers just don't work.  I don't have those numbers in front of me but, I have enough exposure to and experience of those methods to know that they are much more labor intensive, require a larger "footprint" and are far less efficient.  Expense and efficiency are inversely related.  Low efficiency equals greater expense.  If cheap and abundant food is desired to feed the masses, modern agricultural methods are the answer.

Now, are there better ways to do things?  Most likely, yes.  Innovation is needed in many areas of food production, but going backward isn't the answer.