Why Eat Organic Chicken?
When it comes to food and escalating food costs, the idea of going organic sounds nice but isn't quite feasible for everyone. While companies may paint a pretty picture through a great marketing campaign, when it comes to our food production, the reality is that sometimes it's not so great.
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Essential Differences
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So what's the deal about "organic" versus "battery" or "free-range" chickens? It has to do with our poultry practices and food safety. The lowest on the ladder are battery chickens (the cheapest). These factory-farmed chickens are inhumanely raised in substandard living conditions and are force-fed or injected with growth hormones. Next up the rung are free-range chickens. As the names implies, these chickens have freedom to move about; but, they too are sometimes subjected to growth hormones. Organic chickens (the most expensive), the top rung, are humanely raised and fed natural foods sans the growth hormones.
Confinement
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Factory-farmed chickens are quite literally confined, unable to properly move about, eat, drink and defecate freely as they should. Disease becomes more common among battery chickens as a result of this confinement. This poultry practice in turn creates a greater need for antibiotics. Increased use of antibiotics eventually leads to bacteria mutating over time, becoming antibiotic resistant. When people are infected with the antibiotic strain, fewer medications are able to effectively treat the bacteria. We may shudder at the cost difference of a battery and an organic chicken, but the organic chicken is clearly the better option.
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Baytril
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Baytril, which was produced by Bayer to treat bacterial infection in chickens was finally banned by the FDA in 2005. Bayer was asked to halt Baytril production but argued against it (as did veterinarians) saying current poultry methods used by battery chicken farms required Baytril. The FDA eventually banned Baytril as a means to preventing drug-resistance problems to Cipro (used to treat Campylobacter, which causes severe food poisoning in humans). While this drug was banned, others like it are given to our poultry. This should be food for thought before buying battery chicken and thereby supporting these practices.
Increasing Resistance to Antibiotics
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The large amounts of antibiotics given to battery chicken accumulates in their tissues, which we end up ingesting. In light of this, NEJM performed a study randomly pulling 407 chickens from several state stores. More than half were tainted with an antibiotic-resistant strain. NEJM confirmed a low level presence of the bacteria in human stool samples in its October 2001 report. While the amount wasn't enough to any adverse problems, NEJM noted that human resistance to antibiotic drugs could change with increased usage of animal antibiotic drugs.
Is Organic Chicken Worth It
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Organic everything is thrown at us from every direction these days. As preferable as organic chicken is for many consumers, for many it's still too costly. Some naturally question whether or not organic products are a scam to further gouge peoples' pockets. Regardless of where you stand, do your own research to be better informed consumer about the production practices of what you're consuming and if going organic is worth it. In the very least, it should be an eye-opener when the FDA bans an animal drug out of concerns people will becoming drug-resistant.
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- Photo Credit chicken image by Henryk Olszewski from Fotolia.com
