A distinguished dignitary dubbed dubiously the “Duchess“, desires a deduction during dashes to the local dead digestible meat department (just down the aisle from the delectable dairy department). The Duchess demands to know if she should dole out extra dough for organic chicken. A downright daring discussion, I do declare.
That was fun.
Is it cost effective to buy natural or organic chicken? Well, quite simply, if you have half a brain and the use of at least one of your arms, yes. First, let’s talk about the difference between the mass produced “un-natural” chickens and the natural, or organic, ones.
Here is a look at what is mostly available in stores…
These birds don’t have any room to move, they get covered with and often eat their own feces and they are pumped up with antibiotics to help their bodies deal with the horrible conditions and all sorts of growth accelerators to make them huge and go to market faster. Yum! I’m no PETA member, I love me some meat, but this is just disgusting and more proof that money means more than quality.
Often the birds grow faster and bigger than their legs can support…
Yep, pretty shocking. The industry can’t be completely blamed. We as consumers are part of the problem, too. We are gluttonous and demanding. “Give us more! Charge us less!” We should change our mantra to “Give us quality! We’ll eat less because we’re tired of being fat slobs and if we eat less, we’ll spend about the same because even though the price of the better quality chicken is higher, we’ll be buying less because we’ll be eating less because we won’t be fat slobs anymore!” But, that wouldn’t fit on our T-shirts because we’ll all be thin, right?
Back on track now. Organically or naturally raised chickens are alotted more space, better living conditions, proper food, and no antibiotics or growth hormones. Just chicken.
Don’t they look happy and tasty?!
So, should the Duchess purchase the organic or natural chicken? Of course.
The next business at hand is a way to actually save money buying organic. Stay with me here. This week at Giant Eagle, fresh, boneless chicken breasts from the doomsday chicken farms are $3.79 per pound in the value pack, $3.99 in smaller portions. (You can also get the frozen variety for $2.49 per pound. These are “enhanced with 15% chicken broth.” You’re paying for the broth per pound, but it evaporates during cooking, so you lose. Do I need to go on?) So, $3.79 per pound. The natural, antibiotic, free range boneless skinless chicken breasts are $5.29 per pound, Whoa! Calm down.
Here’s some free advice. The naturally produced, bone-in, split chicken breasts are only $3.29 per pound.
“But FV, they have bones!”
“Yes, my friends, chickens have bones.”
“But, FV, aren’t I paying for those bones, per pound?”
“Yes, you are, but you can use those bones.”
“But, FV, how do I use them, they’re attached to the meat.”
Alright, enough. First, you could just bake, bread, fry or boil your chicken with the bones intact. Easy way out. You can dry the bones and toss ‘em in your compost pile. Next choice would be to debone your chicken. Don’t worry, it’s not hard. I’ll show you. Once the bones are removed you can boil them along with the skin and make some great stock for soup or other recipes. The bones can make their way to the compost pile just the same. This saves even more money because you won’t be buying the stock or bullion cubes at the store.
Check this out…
There, you can do it! So, yes Duchess, it is more economical, healthier, and better for the environment to purchase the naturally produced fowl.
Report back to me when you have tried this.
Don’t cut yourself,
FV
Eat This NY
The Duchess of Amboy
Hey, I saw a program on TV about a guy who ate so much until he weighed around 600+ pounds and his own legs couldn’t hold him up anymore either, just like that chicken. So: man feeds chicken until it’s so fat it can’t walk, and then man eats chicken until he’s so fat he can’t walk. Cute, huh?
Ok. Your probably right about the “organic Clucker” versus the non organic version. But as my wise late father-n-law would say” How do you know its organic?” Seeing is believing and the corporate slicksters are great in trying to fool us consumers. Perhaps they are just labeled organic and are actually the other variety. There was a fellow co-worker of mine who moonlighted as a butcher.An individual asked him one day if he was the guy who worked at local market. He said that he did. The individual said that he always bought “fresh” turkeys from him for Thanksgiving. To his amazement the ex-butcher replied that they were fresh;fresh after he thawed them out and peeled off the labels! So not that I’m a Doubting Thomas but if they taste as good as those live ones look then great. But if they are as tasteless as the non-organic I’ll bet they were thawed and stripped of their labels!
Very astute, UB. It is difficult to be sure of what your buying at the grocery stores. It is best to make a relationship with a local butcher or farmer and know exactly what you are buying. In the coming weeks and months, I will be visiting some local farms and doing some research on this very issue. I’ll keep you all posted on my findings. The Duchess also tells me that your late father-in-law (her grandfather) would ask “bullshit or no bullshit?”. I’ll try to get to the bottom of it!