Why We Stand Firm in Our Feed Choice

There’s the saying, “you are what you eat.” And more often than not it is used in a joking sort of manner – however, there is such an underlying layer of truth in the statement that it deserves further attention.

Let’s say you’re having some friends over for a simple meal (or maybe an elaborate one) – a time to gather and enjoy sitting down sharing food and stories around a table.  Where is the food from?  Do you know where the chicken you are eating came from?  Did it travel thousands of miles to get to your kitchen?  Purchasing even “organic” chicken from the major chain grocery stores – probably means its journey to the store was a long one.  But this is not the point I am addressing in this article.  What did the animal eat that you are eating?

Factory farms feed their animals with products from all over the United States – with ingredients such as: Corn Meal, Soybean Meal, Wheat Middlings, Poultry By-Product Meal, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Dried Whey Product, Animal Fat stabilized with B.H.A. (a preservative), Monocalcium Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Ground Limestone… and the list goes on.    The order of ingredients listed is from greatest amount to the least. So corn meal and soybean meal are the largest components – there are many issues with corn and soy, beginning with the fact that they are almost always commercially grown from GMO seeds; that is,  seed that is a genetically modified organism– created in a science lab.  Wikipedia provides a detailed definition: “A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes.” Monsanto, a very large company that spends and makes billions of dollars every year, is the prime manufacturer of GMO seeds.  They have spliced genes creating “franken”seeds that are resistant to their very own chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.  The corn and soybeans that these seeds produce are sprayed with multiple types of chemicals and then placed in a myriad of grain companies feed combinations, which are then fed to livestock all over the world.

The other ingredient that is just as disturbing is “poultry by-product meal.”  This as described by Wikipedia is “made from grinding clean, rendered parts of poultry carcasses and can contain bones, offal and undeveloped eggs, but only contains feathers that are unavoidable in the processing of the poultry parts. Chicken by-product can vary in quality from batch to batch. Chicken by-product costs less than chicken muscle meat and lacks the digestibility of chicken muscle meat.” Essentially, they are feeding chickens to chickens.  Let that sink in for a just a moment.  Poultry cannibalism.

Here, at Four Corners Farm, we stand firm in our feed choice, only purchasing feed that is free of GMO’s and poultry by products, as well as grown sustainably without chemicals or petroleum based fertilizers.  We are grateful that there is a source within 100 miles of our farm that grows, mills, and sells feed of this standard, therefore keeping our farming practices even more sustainable by lessening the total carbon footprint of the grain needed to feed our poultry, which in turn, feed us and you – our customers and friends.  In addition to our chickens getting healthy feed, they absolutely love just being chickens – scratching and foraging for grubs and bugs, worms and grass…A true local cycle of sustainable food.

So, next time you’re eating, ask yourself, “Am I what I eat?”