Factory farmed broiler chickens never see the light of day. They are raised in cramped, overcrowded broiler houses with thousands of other birds. Selectively bred and genetically altered, their thighs and breasts grow so large and heavy that their bones cannot support their weight (have you ever noticed how big the individual breasts are in a package of chicken breasts at the grocery store?). Their beaks and toes are also cut off and they usually spend their short, miserable lives in the darkness to prevent fighting among the birds.
Several years ago, our family made a deliberate effort to start thinking about the food we eat: how it’s grown, where it comes from. And in the case of animals that we eat, the manner in which they are raised. This journal is not meant to be an exhaustive exposition on the industrial food system, so I won’t go in to a lot of detail about what we discovered, other than to say that we were truly shocked and horrified the deeper we dug in to the subject. If you have begun to question the motives of the industrial food providers, I might suggest watching a couple of documentaries (Food Inc., Super Size Me, The Future of Food) and reading a couple of books (The Omnivores Dilemma, Fast Food Nation) as a starting point.
Disclaimer: We do not contend to be experts on any subject. The main objective of this journal is to record only one aspect of our journey to disengage from the industrial food system: the raising of pastured poultry for meat for our families’ consumption in an ethical, honorable and humane way.
We are two brothers and their families, who by the grace of God have been given the skills, abilities and desire to provide for ourselves some of the food we eat, and in doing so, to be less reliant upon the factory providers of the Frankenstein food products that have inundated our grocery store shelves.
As of this writing, we are in the process of building, acquiring and purchasing the many parts, supplies and equipment to begin the process of raising batches of meat birds on my brother’s small farm. This journal will hopefully be a collaborative effort with periodic posts, updates, photos and video clips from myself, my brother and our wives to record that process - the good, the bad and the ugly - in hopes that you, the reader, might be encouraged to start your own poultry raising operation, or for you to share what you have done differently if you are already raising meat birds.
Lord willing, we look forward to sharing our adventures (and misadventures) with you.
Brant Fontenot
4 comments:
Brant, Tasha, BIL, SIL- I am so excited for y'all! I will share this with my husband. We have dreams and I look forward to seeing ya'lls come true! God bless the works of your hands, as you keep "plucken" along! : ) Angelia in TX
Thank you Angelia. It will be an exciting time for our families as we learn this process.
Howdy Strangers,
My friends eat these types of chicken, and make casseroles with their chicken broth. They are noticeably better in taste. I would best describe it as a more pure tasting chicken product. An example would be like fresh apple cider compare to apple drink.
Also after eating their food there is a noticeable difference in how you feel. like the opposite feeling of eating a big mac with fries. Great to hear that more of these are hitting the market.
Will you all be writing about the business details on this site? I read Joel Satalins book and chickens would be very interested to know what some practical numbers look like in the Gulf coast region. I too would like to raise some birds. Seeing working budgets, cashflows, maintenance costs etc would be very helpful to current and prospective chicken farmers.
-Coworker of Christopher F living in Clear Lake Texas.
Hello Eric,
As stated in the original post, we will be raising birds for consumption by my family and my brothers family only right now. We are loosely modeling our operation after Joel Salatin's, but we will not be utilizing the pens or "chicken tractors" that he uses. Instead, we will fence off a 41' x 41' square area of pasture with electrified poultry netting to contain the birds. So they will essentially be free range chickens. I will be posting more details in the coming days as we gear up to begin our operation this Spring. I'm sorry I can't help you with cash flow details, but we are tracking start-up and operational expenses, and I will share those in a later post. I will be posting next week about the poultry house (which will be finished this weekend) and the killing cones that we have manufactured. Thanks for commenting.
Brant Fontenot
Post a Comment