By James Milnes Gaskell
The courageous Anthony Jones has put that terrible car accident, in which he lost a leg, behind him, and, as many know, is now operating a chicken farm at New River. This is factory farming Nevis style. However it is far removed from the industrial chicken production, slaughtering, packaging, and adulteration, which takes place in some countries.
In the UK most specialised chicken farms have over 100,000 birds, crammed into sheds of 30,000-50,000 birds. They grow better at a constant temperature in the half light so their only experience of daylight is the occasion they are crated up and sent for slaughter. The only object of the ‘farmer’ is to make a profit. Time is money. The modern genetically improved bird can be brought to a 2 kilo weight from a day-old chick in about 40 days. Fifty years ago it might have taken 60 days. One and a half (1.5) kilos of food will convert to 1 kilo of bird. The less space you need per bird, the less capital to invest in sheds. By the time a chicken is ready for slaughter the space available to it will be about 11 inches by 8.5 inches. Mr. Jones’ farm is in its early stages. He hopes to have 4000 birds in a 6000 sq. ft. shed. This provides a minimum space for the pre-slaughtered birds of 18” x 12”. This is more than twice the UK allowance. At present he has only 1000 birds so they are not cramped. The walls of his sheds are mostly mesh wire, so, unlike the UK there is plenty of light, air, and breeze. In a hurricane I guess that the birds would be blown against the mesh, but the shed should stand.
It is a fact of life that birds and animals, including humans become subject to infectious diseases if they live in close confinement. The human diseases of the 19th Century, cholera, typhoid, measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, etc. were rife in the cities. Twentieth Century antibiotics controlled them although the bugs/germs have now become resistant to many antibiotics. So it is with chickens reared in these huge units. Factory farming is dependent on the use of drugs to control disease. These will be administered by injection or will be added to their food and water. Even this is no guarantee of health. There is a mortality rate of about 1% per week. This is insignificant in comparison to what happens if there is an epidemic. In 2003, Avian ‘flu swept through the flocks in Holland and Belgium. Thirty million birds were destroyed.
I asked Mr. Jones about antibiotics in the food. He said that there would be none after the first two weeks. I asked how he would prevent disease. The chicks were vaccinated against the common diseases he told me. I don’t think it is correct to describe his broilers as ‘organic’. To merit that description the feed should be organic, there should be no antibiotics added at any stage and they should be free range. To qualify as ‘free range’ the density must be no greater than 1000 birds per acre. This gives each bird about 44 sq. ft. of space.
Mr. Jones buys day old chicks from Florida, so his birds are the same as those to be found in the factory sheds of America, but the conditions under which they are kept are superior. And that is not all. Those who buy foreign frozen chicken may be disturbed to learn what follows. There are two main headings ‘slaughtering’ and ‘adulteration’.
I have not witnessed the slaughtering process used by Mr. Jones. He showed me an empty building and told me what the layout would be. There would be four funnels. The birds go in upside down. Their heads and necks protrude at the bottom. Throats would be cut and after a short time for bleeding they would be immersed in the scalding pan. This loosens the feathers before the plucking machine. After that, by hand, they are degutted, the liver and gizzard are removed, they are washed at room temperature, given another wash, this time in ice cold water to render the bacteria inactive, and then unless they are sold fresh, they go to the freezer.
Contrast this with the procedure at a large slaughterhouse abroad. Chickens are delivered in stacked crates. The birds are frightened. Their bowels have opened. Those in the lower crates cannot avoid the faeces of those above. They start on the conveyor belt suspended by the feet, their heads go through an electrocution bath, their throats are cut and they are dipped in the scald tank. Speed and volume are what matter. Maybe 200 birds go through per minute. The water will be clean at first, but will be changed only once a day. Imagine what it is like after several hours. There are two pathogenic organisms commonly found in chickens – campylobacter and salmonella. They survive at the temperature of the scald tank and so if one bird is infected cross contamination will occur. Campylobacter causes an unpleasant food poisoning with diarrhoea. Apparently, half the chicken in UK supermarkets is contaminated with campylobacter. Fortunately, the organism can be killed by thorough cooking. Salmonella can be dangerous. Chicken is the commonest source of food poisoning in the UK.
If you buy Mr. Jones’ chicken, that is what you will get, chicken pure and simple. Frozen chicken from abroad. Where does it come from? Difficult to say! In these days of globalisation it may be that several countries are involved. Brazil and Thailand are large exporters of chicken. Holland is where chicken is bulked up. The cheapest substance to sell is water. Don’t think that all technological advances are for the benefit of the consumer. The latest scientific methods are used to get water into chicken flesh, so that it stays there and does not run out on cooking. Usually, phosphates and gums are used to secure water in the chicken flesh. The mix is tumbled in a vertical hopper. Imagine rows of Lefco like cement mixers churning chicken and you have the picture. Ten years or so ago a new process began. Instead of phosphates etc. certain hydrolysed proteins from cattle waste were added. Using these, even more water could be retained, and because pig meat was cheaper, the Dutch processors started injecting and tumbling chicken with pork proteins. In 2001 The UK Food Standard Agency (FSA) announced the results of DNA testing of Dutch catering chicken. Some of what was being sold as chicken breast was only 54% chicken! The FSA and local authorities do not have big budgets with which to discover and prove the latest techniques developed by the multi million dollar processing industry. It is probable that that industry is now able to break down the DNA of cattle proteins so that tests cannot determine it.
Here in Nevis we are at the end of the sales line. We have no skills or budget to test what we are getting, indeed we have no means of knowing how long something has been frozen before we buy it. And if we buy made up chicken products, nuggets or franks, we are really asking for trouble. There is no pretence about these made up products. For Chicken Franks, you can read on the label:
Mechanically separated chicken.
Water - the cheapest item to make a profit on.
Corn Syrup - the cheapest form of sweetener.
Salt
Dextrose - another sugar
Flavourings – possibly monosodium glutamate, a taste enhancer
Sodium Phosphate – keeps the water in
Paprika – a spice made from peppers
Sodium Erythorbate - a preservative
Sodium Nitrite – a preservative, retains the colour
Mechanically separated chicken is a factory product made by pushing through giant sieve filters what remains of a chicken after the popular cuts have been removed. Skin, bones, gristle come out as brown slurry. This is then bound together with the addition of gums. It is ten times cheaper than real chicken meat.
So that is your chicken frank, otherwise unsellable remains, the cheapest of the cheap, watered, flavoured and preserved. You are welcome to it. The label also tells you that each frank gives you 80 calories, of which 60 are from fat. What do you expect? Chicken fat lies under the skin. Skin is the main left over. Franks are, in comparison to the real thing, industrial rubbish.
The genuine article is that produced by Anthony Jones. I hope his birds are sell outs. But one word of advice, if they are, as I hope they will be, to be used in the school lunch programme, I would hope that the vet does stringent tests of hygiene and that the health authorities satisfy themselves at every slaughtering that there is no risk of food poisoning through cross contamination. Where children are concerned one cannot be too cautious.
I neglected to mention that Mr. Jones has a separate flock for egg production. For some of the facts I am indebted to Felicity Lawrence and her book ‘Not on the label’.
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