Scratching Chickens
June 11, 2009 – 4:10 pmI recently went on a farm tour with my girlfriend as a way of taking the next step in my personal food exploration. We visited Marin Sun Farms, which is one of the farms that I have decided to purchase pasture-raised eggs and meat from. Reading books and even making the change to organic/pasture-raised foods still keeps you one step away from the food that ends up on your plate.
Visiting Marin Sun Farms was my first opportunity to see the source of some of the food I eat, in living, breathing color. And it was incredible! Just incredible!
For three-four hours we heard about the history of both the land that the farm is on and of the farm itself, and about the philosophy behind the farm as it stands today. The one word that kept coming up was grass. Everything on the farm depends on grass.
The operations manager for the farm described grassland in a way I had never thought about before. According to him, the acres upon acres of grass spread out before us were the same as a forest, at least underground. What he meant was that the grass had the same extensive root system and capacity to extract carbon out of the air. It’s only above-ground that there is a visible difference- no trees!
In fact, he said that an analysis had been done on the effects of transforming all of our country’s farmland back to a pasture model (meaning grass!). The results showed that we could be back to pre-industrial levels of carbon within one year! Whether or not this is entirely accurate, I was blown away. I had never thought of grass as having this power. The same power that most of us now understand a forest as having.
It also makes me wonder about the burgeoning green movement, with its push for sustainable energy and reduction of fossil fuels as a way to reduce global warming. Don’t get me wrong, I am of course completely behind this movement. But if grass truly has the power described above, then maybe we ought to also be focusing on increasing grass-land, which could have much more of an immediate impact on our world. Just a thought…
Back to the farm. They have goats, chickens, and cattle. We spent most of our time with the chickens. Our first stop was to see the egg-layers. There are no fences keeping these hens (and a few roosters!) from staying. As they described it, if they don’t keep the chickens happy they’ll leave! But these chickens are definitely, definitely happy! And because they have tons of grass to scratch in and find grubs, as well as a chicken house to lay their eggs in and to provide them with a place to roost at night, they are content to stay.
Seeing the hens gave me a very tangible image of where my scrambled eggs come from! There were no cages to be scene, these chickens hadn’t been de-beaked, and they weren’t crammed together by the thousands. I couldn’t stop smiling! Just ask my girlfriend!
The operations manager then said something that really clicked with me and made me proud of the changes I’ve made in my diet. “Taking scratching away from a chicken is a terrible atrocity.” Scratching is simply a part of a chicken’s identity. The eggs that are on sale at your local supermarket for $1.99 a dozen certainly don’t come from happy chickens, let alone scratching chickens. It’s something to think about the next time you reach for them! Shopping according to the “bottom line” may in fact not be the best way to shop after all.
We also visited the broiler chickens (the meat birds). They live in movable chicken coops and are moved to fresh grass a couple of times each day. One of the workers at the farm actually moved the coops to demonstrate how excited the chickens were for the fresh grass and the new source of bugs to scratch for. It was great to see these chickens living a nice life, especially considering that the lunch we had at the end of the tour consisted of barbecue chicken!
I could go on about my visit to Marin Sun Farms, but I think I’ve said enough for now. Even if you aren’t into eating organic/pasture-raised, I highly recommend visiting a local farm to close the current gap that exists for most of us from our food sources. Make food something tangible again and not just something you buy at the store or something that is concocted in a food lab somewhere.
And you might just have a good time while you’re at it!
One Response to “Scratching Chickens”
It’s true, he couldn’t stop smiling. I loved the chickens but I think the guard dogs and the guard-dogs-in-training (their puppies) were my favorite part. Not only were they cute but it was just another sign that this is a real farm – not a feedlot!
By Aliza on Jun 15, 2009