The $3 Chicken

How can you pay $3.50 a pound for your sun-loving, bug-eating, organic chicken? I get that question a lot (except for the sun-loving, bug-eating part). I ask, how can I afford not to?

Consider that a 3 pound chicken feeds my family at least three times. The roasted meat is a main course for one meal. The leftovers are eaten by Colson for lunch the next day or they are used in a soup, with the broth made from the bones (and sometimes chicken feet if I think to buy them). The broth is then used as the liquid in which to cook lentils or rice, making a third, fourth, and sometimes fifth meal. See Recipes.

That $11 - $12 dollar chicken can feed my family of three up to five times. If you divide $12 by 15 meals, the cost of that chicken becomes $0.80 a meal. What does the 80 cents a meal buy us? Nourishment from a truly organic, free range chicken directly from the farmer (not a “free range” health food store-bought chicken which may have seen the outside one time). The chicken we eat, and particularly the broth, is helping to rebuild my osteopenia-weakened bones and teeth. The broth helps to heal our guts, which have been damaged since birth. See Colson’s Sneezies Return. Ryan, my husband, battled ADHD his entire life and Colson (age 6) and I suffered from seasonal allergies because of our damaged guts. Until now.

In addition to enjoying all of these fantastic health benefits, we are keeping our toxic load to a minimum. Our farmer does not use antibiotics, hormones or any other freaky drug or medication. Further, because her chickens are out in the sun, with plenty of room to roam to eat bugs and do regular chicken things, their body chemistry and stress levels are fantastic compared to the poor corporate chickens that are caged and unable to move. Because of the way their corporate farmer treats them, these chickens display psychotic, aggressive behaviors toward other chickens and themselves, causing their beaks to be cut off. And we think that our lives are stressful?

What to do, what to do? Support a small local farmer or a corporation? If you want healthy chicken, check out the Finding Farmers links in the upper right-hand column of my blog. If you choose to support a corporation, know that in addition to feeding your family terrible “food” you are supporting “farming” practices that help to degrade the planet, making life difficult at best for future generations.

I will continue to shop with the local, ethical farmer. How can I afford not to, especially at 80 cents a meal?

Comments

[Cascia @ Healthy Moms]

I never thought about purchasing a chicken from a local farmer instead of at the grocery store. But this makes complete sense.