Monster chicken

Odds are, the chicken that winds up on your table today is quite a
different beast than it was 50 years ago. Thanks to careful genetic
selection, Canada’s commercial chickens have enormous breasts, twice as
big as the ones they had in the ’70s. Comercial white broiler chickens,
often called Meat Kings, can grow twice as large and as quickly as the
’50s chicken, reaching slaughter size in six weeks. They’re a cross
between White Plymouth Rock or New Hampshire hens and Cornish roosters.
When farmed commercially, these top-heavy creatures are prone to
falling over and getting stuck on their backs. Sometimes their legs
snap under the bulk of their bodies. They’re also prone to cannibalism
when cooped closely together in factory farms.

Some Nova Scotians feel we’re trading quality for quantity.

“I personally find purebred poultry to be healthier and hardier than
commercial strains of poultry,” says Shannon Doane, treasurer and
secretary of the Nova Scotia Purebred Poultry Association. “They live
longer, are not as prone to temperature changes and tend to be tougher
all round,” explains Doane, an Elmsdale local who has been raising
purebred Rosecombs for nearly 20 years.

While in the past, chicken coops were full of heritage breeds such
as Buff Cochins, Silver Spangled Hamburgs and Silver Gray Dorkings,
you’d have to visit a family or a hobby farm to find those breeds
today.

“Unfortunately, with the decline of the family farm, many of the
purebred breeds of poultry from the past are regrettably declining as
well,” Doane laments.

Michael Howell, chef and owner of Tempest Restaurant in Wolfville
and active member of Slow Food Nova Scotia, hopes there will be an
“appropriate over-reaction” on the part of the organic/free-range
movement to commercial poutry farming. Howell is organizing the Slow
Motion Food Fest in Wolfville (November 6-8), screening documentaries
such as Food Inc, which he hopes will help “share knowledge”
about the realities of factory farming and “turn people around.”

Several vendors at the Halifax Farmers’ Market (including Little
Dorset Farm and Pasture Hill Farm) carry a good selection of free-range
chickens, but surprisingly, the majority, if not all, of the poultry at
the Farmers’ Market is Meat King birds. According to Angela Patterson,
who represents the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network, an
organization promoting organic agriculture and eating organic, “breed
is not the concern.” For Patterson, the concern is what chickens are
fed and whether or not they have space to roam around. When Meat Kings
get excercise, Patterson says they can grow to be healthy. Still, she
prefers to eat heritage birds herself.

There’s value in preserving bio-diversity for poultry. Today’s
broilers lack genetic diversity and have difficulty fighting diseases
like H1N1, according to an international research team led by Hans
Cheng of the US Department of Agriculture. In other words, one virus
could take out a whole flock.

As well, commercial Canadian turkeys are genetically predisposed to
have health problems. Their breasts grow so rapidly that their heart
and lung development can’t quite keep up. They experience sudden death
syndrome, skeletal disorders and degradation of the pectoral muscles,
causing breast meat to turn a gross greenish colour. The hefty birds
also have difficulty mating naturally.

Our food is not the only thing getting fatter and coupling clumsily.
Around 10 percent more Canadians are overweight today than they were in
1979. Over half of Nova Scotians report being obese or overweight,
according to Statistics Canada. It appears to be a vicious cycle, in
which we force our food to grow unhealthy with us.

This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2009.