A couple of years ago, I wrote an article for the National Post (print edition) as part of a series on shopping neurosis. My contribution obviously had to do with food shopping and how the more health conscious I became, the more stores and markets were added to my list of places I needed to frequent in order to appease my dietary requirements and holistic principals. The article was called “Chicken Dinner Decoded” and in it I discussed the challenges that come when we begin to ask where our food comes from.
“Oh those blissful days of ignorance. Those days when I would buy precooked roasted chickens from the supermarket, a plastic container of mixed organic greens, a bottle of salad dressing, a few veggies to steam and perhaps some strawberries for dessert. And I thought I was eating well and by most standards I was. A lot has changed…
Wanting to know what I am eating is not as simple a notion as it might seem. I know it doesn’t sound like such a complicated desire, but what I have to do in order to achieve this, is far from what most would consider normal. Grocery shopping has become increasingly challenging for me. That same pre-roasted chicken dinner would now leave me stressing about what it was exactly, that I was eating.
I would now stress over where that chicken came from, what it was fed, whether it played outdoors, how it was slaughtered, and how it was transported to the supermarket. I would worry about what it was seasoned with and how long it had been sitting under those heat lamps. I might even wonder about what kind of pan it was cooked in…”
Though it is often assumed I am a vegetarian, and I suppose I am for 19 out of the 21 meals I eat in a week, when I choose to eat animal foods, I simply like to know where they come from and that they lead a happy and ethically supportive life.
Recently, this blog was brought to my attention. It forces us to see the difference between ethical and unethical growing of chickens, and it is no secret that I (heart) Chicken. Conventionally raised chicken gets just 39 days from hatching to slaughter and this website documents the difference between a free-run little chickee and the life of a factory farmed one. We are now on Day 17.
The peeps behind this blog “believe switching to free-range can make a huge impact on the life of thousands of chickens. Normally the public do not get the opportunity to see into the broiler sheds which can contain up to 40,000 birds”.
If you can stomach it- watch the videos starting at Day 1 and get yourself caught up. I’m dreading day 39, how about you?
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Don’t think I could watch it!