Might just be the question of the decade...
 

I was at the market last night and saw a label on a package of Chicken Breast that said "Corn Fed, free range". Um, HOW? the body does not digest corn, so how did the chicken get any nutrition when it only ate corn? Or maybe chickens can eat corn, I know when I do, I could see it the next morning if I looked in the toilet. :) (sorry for the kinda gross visual).

SO, THE question is, if you eat ONLY corn, would you starve to death?

Not if I were a chicken!!!:rolleyes: Idiot!!

People, however, do not live by corn alone..
:D

Are they fed the corn that is edible or the genetically modified corn that is so full of pesticides that it isnot fit for human consumption? How does that make this chicken better than the other chicken?

either way its still a dead chicken with no head feet or feathers. But I bet you this one costs more. Must be golden corn. lol

feeding corn to chickens is a cheap option for the chicken factory. I believe the US still have a lot of excess corn sitting around (mostly because they still subsidize corn farmers).

As the product you saw said 'free range', which means its out in the sunshine, able to have a wander about and is in its semi natural environment. In feeding corn (which is essentially a vegetarian diet) to chickens this results in the colour of both the flesh and the skin to be a yellow hue and its meat will be plumper.

whether this is a healthier option.. i dunno.. i think the best package labelling to look for is pastured or pasture-raised. Pastured suggests that the birds lived on pasture and got some of their food from the pasture environment. For poultry, this usually means that the bird get about 20% of its food from pasture source (grass, seeds and bugs) and 80% from grain/grasses feed mixes (corn, oats, soybeans alfalfa, clover, etc.).

Free-range conjours up such nice images doesn't it? But (sorry to be a "Debbie Downer"......


.“Free-Range” Birds Raised for Meat
Birds raised for meat may be sold as “free-range” if they have government certified access to the outdoors. The door may be open for only five minutes and the farm still qualifies as “free-range.” Apart from the “open door,” no other criteria such as environmental quality, number of birds, or space per bird, are included in the term “free-range.” A government official said: “Places I’ve visited may have just a gravel yard with no alfalfa or other vegetation.”

A visitor to Polyface Farm in Virginia wrote: “I toured Polyface on a sweltering day. Chickens were in tiny cages with tin roofs in the beating sun, panting like mad. The cages were located over manure piles the birds were supposed to eat larvae from. Rabbits were kept in factory-farm conditions in suspended, barren wire cages. There was no sign of freedom or compassion for these animals.”

Visitors to Springfield Farm in Sparks, Maryland reported: “The ‘free-range’ turkeys we saw were housed in a field in the freezing cold with no shelter except a small wooden tarp-covered structure only big enough for half of them. The others huddled together shivering in the weather. The farmer roughly grabbed the turkeys by their legs and held them upside down while they flapped their wings desperately to upright themselves. That is how he carried them.




Man, such a cruddy life, then they kill you. Dead on a plate, doesn't sound so "free-range" to me. Other than going vegetarian (I like meat myself, in moderation), sometimes you buy things you think for the right reasons cause the labels make it sound better and healthier but it just costs more. Know what you're doing. Educate yourselves. (the computer and Google are a good start.)

If we feed "grain fed" cows a diet of our modified corn stuff for 30 days they become VERY sick. they MUST go on antibiotics to prevent or cure the stomach rot that occurs from the highly process stuff that ferments in their tummy and rots holes in the wall. on it for 60 days, boy does that steak looked great with all the marbling, and boy of boy those hamburgers taste better wtih fat on them, but the cow at 60 days is considered poisined with only a grain fed diet. they are NOT meant to consume grain like modified corn.

Same for that chicken. They are fed corn until their breasts become so large that they can no longer stand up. The breasts are so heavy they stay tipped forward with their breast dragging the ground if they are cage free. Most of them are not cage free, and the stacks and stacks of cages mean that the chicken cages up above them leak urine, and feces on them which scalds the skin, blinds the eye, and completely ruins their feathers, but we dont eat feathers, and we demand larger and larger breasts on our meat chickens so they are fed the stuff that will plump them up the fastest.

Many are labled as "raised antibiotic free" but as embroys the eggs are injected with antibiotic solutions that will mix with the amnio fluid and bathe this chick in antibiotics as a "unborn" and there fore doesnt count as a "antiboitic free" chicken. They can only. Chickens can withstand normal grain (unmodified by monsanto) for long peroids of time and do great! but the minute they start feeding them the stuff that has been modified it starts rotting the chickens tummy, and liver.

So, grain fed isnt always a bad thing, as long as the grain is "non modified" or regular corn. Its when we start messing with mother nature that we mess with ourselves.

I have only bought local chickens that are locally fed with home grown food for a while now. Our food chain has become so scary. its worth the extra money to get a chicken that was humanely raised.

Im so proud of you for reading the labels. :hug:

Store bought meat and poultry is scary. I don't eat meat that often. I eat chicken and turkey more frequently. I found a local farm right here in my city that I purchase from. Since it's mostly just me I cook for I can make a little go a long way. It's comforting to know the source of my meat and poultry. Even my eggs. It's worth the extra effort to make the visit once every couple of months.

This is grossing me out!!!! :eek::eek: Good thing my stomach does not like chicken. :p I can only tolerate a little bit of chicken.

Earl, to answer your question, I don't think we could survive on just corn.

It's grossing me out too and leaving me quite perturbed..:eek: :mad:

I wonder where Schwans gets their chickens? I eat mostly chicken breast meat, so I'm afraid to ask.:confused:

Sally, unless your chicken is specifically labeled you can safely bet it's full of antibiotics and growth hormones. I'd write to the company and ask them for their source for the chicken they use.

I remember the Tyson chicken breasts in the meat department being HUGE. And a golden yellow color. Typical for chickens being fed a mostly (GMO) corn diet with added growth hormones/antibiotics. I can only imagine what that combo does to our human bodies. :(