Words matter: pastured poultry and it’s knock-offs

The phrase “pastured-poultry” implies chickens with constant access to fresh forage.  Often times this phrase, and others like it, are used only as marketing gimmicks and are not reflective of the farming practices.  Because farming practices are directly connected with the nutritional value of your food, it’s good to know what to look and ask for when it comes to buying chicken. 

“PASTURED-POULTRY”

The consensus amongst pastured-poultry farmers is that the term “pastured-poultry” should only be used with regards to chickens that are regularly moved to fresh pasture.  This requires some kind of moveable set up – whether shelters or netting.  We use shelters that we move each morning to fresh ground. 

There is a twofold importance to this regular movement: First, it means the chickens have constant access to fresh forage (including insects and worms) and second, it protects the soil by not allowing the chickens to overgraze. 

However, sometimes you’ll find chicken that’s labeled as “pastured-poultry” when in reality the chickens only have access to a fixed outdoor space.  What may have been pasture when the chickens arrived very quickly became a dirt pad.  Consequently, the chickens are not consuming a diversity of nutrients from the pasture nor are they benefiting the soil. 

The only way to really know what “pasture-raised” means on a label is to know which practices your farmer is committed to using. 

“FREE RANGE”

You’ll also see chicken labeled as “free range”.  This is a USDA regulated term, and this is what they say is required to use the term: “Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.”  What this almost always means is chickens raised in a huge barn with a small door through which the chickens could conceivably go if they want.  On the other side of that door is not fresh grass but a screened-in concrete or dirt pad. With all the feed and water indoors, most of the chickens rarely, if ever, venture out to the concrete or dirt pad.

“ORGANIC”

The USDA requires little for organic certification.  They must meet the “free range” definition (see above), use only organic feed, and not use medicine on non-sick animals.  Whether an animal is sick enough to receive antibiotics is left to the farmer’s discretion.  (In non-organic production most chickens receive antibiotics daily in their feed).  We would, perhaps unsurprisingly, say that, all other things being equal, using organic feed is better than using conventional feed. But the typical organic chicken is still a far-cry from genuinely pasture-raised chicken.

CONCLUSION

The tricky thing with these terms is that they conjure up images of chickens roaming around happily in lush pastures.  The marketing departments of the big three chicken producers in the US work hard to help create those images.  But what the labels suggest does not always correspond with reality. Labels and systems of certification only provide a starting point, at best. To really know the details about how your food is raised, you have to enter into relationship with the people producing it.