What you have to remember is how dangerous the stuff that was put on crops 60 years ago, DDT was used in Canada from 1945 until 1985, so be aware that 60 years ago does not mean safe. One of the huge issues is that people believe that "Organic" means safe but organic does not mean that there are no fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides used, just that some arbitrary group determined what organic farmers area allowed to use on their crops. Natural additives are not regulated as well as synthetic and the dosages are not regulated as highly either, meaning that the possibility for "Organic" crops to have higher doses of the identical chemical as synthetic alternatives is a very real thing. Think back to the controversy around the natural hotdogs from schneiders, they said no preservatives but in tests it was proved that they had higher nitrate and nitrite values of any of the other hot dogs, why might this be? The main ingredient to keep from getting botulism in the hot dogs was an extract of celery, celery stay looking good for a long time but this is due to the extremely high amount of nitrates and nitrites naturally occurring in the celery. Due to the fact that there is so much variation in the celery batches the people are schneiders needed to be sure that their food was safe and did not kill anyone so they put in more celery extract to be sure that enough natural preservatives existed. This exact same thing can and does happen in "organic" foods, higher doses of these naturally occurring chemicals are put on the crops and can lead to higher amounts in our food. Farmers are already screwed when it comes to wages, they work more hours for a lot less pay then anyone else in the work force, they strive to put the least amount of chemicals on the crops as needed as that saves money and keeps them safer. I have family in the cash cropping business, they use rotational planting, this is a way to use the crops themselves to replenish the fields and reduces the amount of spraying needed by far.Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkB
As for chicken, the reason the bones crush from store bought is that the birds are only between 8 and 10 weeks old, they are designed through cross breeding to grow fast and not for long live, this may bring the bleeding hearts screaming but you can afford $5/lb on chicken but you cannot afford $20/lb.
For antibiotics there are standards that need to be kept on what birds can be given and what cannot, we will only give antibiotics when they are stick, not to prevent. This is a point of contention as the media will have us all believe that these animals are pumped full of stuff from day one and it is just not true. Medicated chick starter is used but the withdrawl time on that stuff is just days after that feed is stopped and laying hens are not allowed to be given antibiotics as the eggs would need to be tossed at that point in time. The feed that is used is a crumb, it is a mix of grains, vitamins and minerals ground up and pushed through a die to form a pellet which is broken up into different sizes for use with different sized animals. There are no growing crumbs that I know of available that are medicated and if it is added that would make them illegal for sale for food in Canada without the proper withdrawl time before harvest.
Preserving back in the day was not very good either, people talk about the lack of nitrates and nitrites back in the day but have a read, many of the old recipes (I have a ton of books from the 40s on preserving) use saltpeter, not salt but saltpeter and some use hardwood ash, all of these things have nitrates in them and again and amounts that are not easily measured, which can lead to over dosing the meat.
Like I said, farmers are not trying to kill you, they are trying to feed you and do it at a cost that you will be able to afford.
I have heritage birds, my roosters need to get to about 20 weeks old before there is enough meat on the bones to justify killing them and at that point they are already too tough and stringy for 80% of the city folk who tell me I need to feed only organic and boycott big farms. I know I will be feeding my family healthy food, including canning, sausage making, eggs, poultry and rabbit meat, freezing and smoking and I have no fear of feeding them non-organic, I actually feel like I know what is going into them better when the food does not have a certified organic label, more data on the non-organic than the organic.
