so the chickens from big companies are pumped full of steroids and hormones? ill that answer that and say no. first off its illegal and secondly its useless.

when i said cyborg, i meant steroids and growth hormones, nothing to do with genetics.

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The genetics of the breed have been “tampered” with by cross breeding

do these people not realize that when you select an animal to breed for production, you select your best animals? you arent selecting the runts of the flock.

now the welfare of chickens is another story like i said before. i did a presentation years ago to the lsu school of animal sciences on this exact subject. it focused on comparing the welfare of chickens in the US industry and the European Union. The EU is more strict on their husbandry regulations but in the long run it always comes down to money and the big US companies have a ton of it.

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For instance here are some characteristics found in the modern meat chicken. - The chicken goes to processing in 37 days.

Not true. Sounds like they just went around to try and find who has put out a chicken the fastest and just slapped that on as the national average. Even the people that are gung ho against the big companies will say that this number is low

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So it’s not uncommon that these birds have joint problems

this goes back to the welfare. "joint" problems isnt something you can really just point out while looking at a chicken though. think about humans with joint problems. if they didnt tell you they were hurting, you probably wouldnt have any idea about the problem.

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and broken legs. More often than not, they sit!

meh. this might happen to a few birds and ill bet when it does these birds are culled more often than not. a bird that cant move is a bird that cant eat. this costs the grower money

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The short legs and large breasts are a result of the genetic engineering.

once agin this is basically selecting strong words for their argument. not one person in the industry is denying the birds were bred to grow fast and big. using the term engineering is basically trying to put fear into peoples minds.

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- They are nutritionally void and rubbery in taste

their opinion. for something so nutritionally void and rubbery in taste, people seem to like them.

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The bird itself is not nutritionally sound because of a poor diet

for its purpose, the diet and nutrition is top notch

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Source for above text

LINK

First thing I looked at in your post. Before I even clicked I asked myself,"Hmmm what website is this stuff coming from? Would they likely have a reason to skew information to further their point?"

As you can tell, I addressed most of the stuff that you linked already. My major professor and buddy that runs a semi-local chicken facility would probably have a field day with this.

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LINK

im not even bothering with wiki. dont link wiki when discussing a topic like this

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2nd LINK

some things i noticed in here

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But I would be happy to put one of my “barnyard chickens” (slaughtered at about 12 weeks) up against any pastured Cornish broiler in the land in a taste test: They unquestionably have more flavor.

who is denying this in the industry? this is like someone from ruths chris saying ill put my steak up against that steak from outback. yea we know your bird is better, thats why it costs more.

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In the long run, of course, the solution is to breed a better bird. And since no corporate or governmental agency is doing any breeding research relevant to pastured poultry needs, we are going to have to do that job ourselves

well do it. stop relying on the govt to do shite for you. i bet this same person bitches at the welfare system

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We should all start learning about the genetics of breeding. Some of us can contribute by making experimental crosses of our own; or working with one of the standard breeds that were the foundation of the broiler industry before the Cornish Cross, selecting for traits that will maximize both vitality and production on pasture

this guy and the first article should meetup. the first article blasts genetic "engineering" all to hell but this farmer wants to do it as a way to fix the industry. hmmmmmmmmm

EAT: i am in now way trying to say that the industry is perfect or whatever. Im just trying to say that its not anywhere near what some people make it out to be

This post was edited on 2/16/13 at 3:06 pm