Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Organic Chicken - Benefits to Health and Environment

The beauty of living in the countryside offers the experience of eating organic chicken, but it is also available in the cities in small quantities. Organic chickens usually just roam around to find food. People raising these chickens use rice, corn or any food available to feed them. They simply call the chickens in some distinct way and the chickens come racing as if panicking for the food. They then throw the grains or any food and each chicken picks as many as it can. When the regular meal is over, the chickens roam around and search the ground for any available food which may be plants, insects, seeds, and if the area is coastal, small fish and live small shellfish.

Organic chickens have high beneficial fats that lower cholesterol, and higher amount of Omega-3 Fatty acids and Vitamin A. Their eggs taste much much better than those from commercially-raised chickens which receive regular dose of antibiotics, vaccines and other medications. Though it takes longer cooking time for the meat of most native chickens, its taste is incomparable with 28-day broiler confined in overcrowded poultry houses where they also release their waste.

For organic chicken consumers, eating organic chicken does not only provide health benefits but also better ecosystem. Chickens raised in the open catch insects that may be harmful to the plants, scavenge crop residue and help in fertilizing the soil through its organic manure. By the way, farms using chicken dung as fertilizer do not necessarily produce organic crops. Chicken dung are brought from commercial poultry farms that use chemicals and medications which are proven to be harmful to the body.

Since most suppliers of organic chickens are small farmers, organic chicken consumers also help build the rural economy and the income potential of small farmers. Consumers also indirectly contribute to the protection and conservation of the environment because growing organic chickens does not produce air pollution that is common in poultry farms. There are also no flies to spread germs and organisms that cause diseases to the people.

Organic food is not an alternative because that was the way nature was created. It only becomes an alternative to people who have gone the unnatural way.