I'm here to tell you that not all chickens are created equal .... or rather raised, fed, processed, stored, or prepared the same way.
This is not something that I grew up knowing, or ever even caring about honestly, but in the spirit of homesteading and self-sustainability over the last few years we've started learning about raising chickens and decided to give it a try.
Last year in July we received our first shipment of 85 freedom ranger meat birds, and jumped head first into the challenge. I've raised chickens all my life, but never for the specific purpose of processing for the freezer, and never 85 at a time.
Honestly, the whole process ended up going much smoother than we'd expected. There weren't tons of hiccups and we are excited to continue the process for ourselves as well as for friends and family. The real lesson was learned just recently following a scary respiratory attack our daughter had after eating chicken at a restaurant.
Are you ready for the story?
I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but I do want you to understand the timeline of this scenario, and realize the importance of knowing where your food comes from after we had to go through this scary episode.
The short version of the back story is that our youngest daughter had RSV and was hospitalized as an infant. Unfortunately the virus weakened her little baby lungs and since then she has struggled with any kind of respiratory illnesses more than an average person might. We are normally what I would consider a fairly "crunchi" family, but I will also tell you we have a standing prescription for albuterol, and I'd put money down to say that we have singlehandedly kept the dollar general in our little town in business by the number of boxes of Allegra we've been through over the last 6 years.
Long story short, the issue still rears it's ugly head about once every few months, and even after removing toxins, fragrances, commercial laundry detergents and household cleaners from our home, we still have to be extremely, extremely careful... Careful to the point of not going into our best friends' house last week because her daughter had sprayed perfume in the bathroom and we knew it would cause an attack. It's not a fun part of life, but it's ours, and it's her little body that we're protecting and if you've ever seen a child gasping for air in the middle of a respiratory attack, then you know it's worth the extra caution.
How does any of this relate to chicken?
Funny you should ask... We had no clue. Last night in the middle of the night Noel woke up like so many nights before covered in hives, sweaty, and gasping for air. It's a heart wrenching sight that usually ends with us both in tears.
Like so many times before, she came down the stairs, we turned on the shower, Ryan got her a glass of water with Allernest (natural/holistic allergy relief), and I went for my essential oil shelf. We'd done this a million times, but for whatever reason, this time it didn't seem to be working. We couldn't figure out what was happening?! We went through the list: her sheets were fresh, pajamas newly from a folded basket of clothes, the barn cat hadn't snuck in to snuggle, and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary... so we thought.
The night went on in slow motion like usual. She moved to our bed to avoid whatever allergen had caused the attack, she coughed every twenty seconds for hours until the coughing was so violent she threw up, and we then start the whole escapade over again. Shower, Water, Allernest, Oils, Breathing treatment, back to bed to cough some more. Finally at ten till five she went to sleep.
Here's Where it comes full circle.
Per usual, the morning after these attacks is slow. I call our naturopath Dr. and we go in. Normally I have a pretty good idea of what has onset the issue, he treats her and we come home, she rests, and life goes back to normal. This time I answered all of his questions and we were all stumped. Until he tested her body against regular known allergens in vials and she failed the chicken test. WHAT? He says, "did you have weird chicken yesterday? Or cheap chicken?"
My jaw dropped. I had completely forgotten. Last night in the rush of getting to tumbling and juggling life I had a moment of lack in judgement and we ate at Arby's for dinner. Now, I'm not going to go on a tangent about food chains, or even bad mouth Arby's for that mater. However, I will say that we do not frequently eat out in general, and when we do it is rarely ever fast food. He went on to say that he sees multiple cases of reactions coming from families like ours after consuming "cheap chicken" when our bodies are so used to eating Real Food. I was stunned. All this over a 6 piece chicken nugget meal?
He went on to ask if we regularly ate chicken at home. My answer was, "not until the last 6 months because store bought chicken freaked me out." Now that we have raised our own meat birds and know where they've lived, trust their surroundings, and have poured into their nutrients, it's an easy choice to say that we will never be without home grown chicken again if at all possible.
It hadn't occurred to me that prior to us butchering our own, we've never had "good chicken". Our bodies didn't know what that even was, and now that it does, her little body didn't know what to do with something else.
Because of her history, no matter what illness or allergen she comes in contact with, usually it presents itself by way of respiratory distress, and because she'd already been fighting off a cold, her immune system wasn't strong enough to fight back which is what caused our normal treatments do be not as effective.
Here's why it matters?
Our bodies were never meant to digest proteins that weren't raised on God's green earth. Unfortunately, the reality of commercial chicken farming often looks like gigantic buildings full of millions of birds, living in tight quarters, walking on top of one another, literally never seeing the light of day. Chickens were't designed by God to be bred to have the largest breasts, the most tender meat, or the juiciest thighs. While I do believe He gave us authority over birds as well as all other animals, I don't think the intention was for us to breed everything bigger, faster, and better like the American food industry seems to push for.
Just like our bodies thrive in nature, their's do too. They aren't absorbing the benefits from sun exposure, fresh grass and bugs, or honestly even proper nutrition from feed. Spending time and money to focus on such things is not profitable which unfortunately translates to: It's not worth it.
Why am I telling you any of this?
This information doesn't have to make the top headlines in a fancy magazine to create a movement. If this one drop of water can create a ripple effect that can educate others on the options they have, then it's worth it. When we don't take the time to dig deep and ask questions about why our bodies are responding the way that they are, we miss a valuable opportunity to learn so that in the future there may be a better outcome. Today we learned that it's not worth it to us for Noel to eat "cheap chicken" if it means repeating nights like last night.
Here's the hard truth.
The small town farmer population is completely un-equipped to fulfill the mass need for meat, or food in general, to the amount of people in America, let alone at the standard at which we personally prefer. That being said, there's no hard rule here saying that you have to agree with everything I'm saying. These are my opinions that I have gathered from years of farming and multiple food related illnesses and reactions. Inevitably there will be people who read this and think I'm on some high horse. That's ok. The beauty in that is that they can continue to purchase their preference of poultry, while I do the same.
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