The beauty of living in the country offers the experience of eating organic chicken, but it is also available in the cities in small quantities. Organic chickens usually just roam around to find food. The people who raise these chickens use rice, corn, or whatever food is available to feed them. They just call the chickens something different and the chickens come running like they are panicking for the food. Then they drop the grains or whatever food and each chicken picks up as many as it can. When the regular meal is over, the chickens wander off and search the ground for any available food which may be live plants, insects, seeds, and if the area is coastal, small fish and small shellfish.
Organic chickens are high in beneficial cholesterol-lowering fats and higher in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin A. Their eggs taste much better than those from commercially raised chickens that receive regular doses of antibiotics, vaccines and other medications . Although the meat of most native chickens takes longer to cook, its flavor is unmatched by 28-day-old broilers confined to overcrowded coops where they also release their waste.
Native organic chickens are much smaller and grow much slower. While it only takes 28 days to harvest a broiler, native chicken generally needs at least six months. This is why native chickens cannot be farmed commercially. Since the supply cannot meet the demand requirements of the chicken meat consuming population, no large poultry farmer is interested in venturing into this type of poultry farming. Organic chicken vendors typically rely on small farmer groups for their supply and, at this time, were unable to meet the growing consumer demand for organic chicken.
For organic chicken consumers, eating organic chicken not only provides health benefits but also a better ecosystem. Free-range chickens catch insects that can be harmful to plants, collect crop debris, and help fertilize the soil through their compost. By the way, farms that use chicken manure as fertilizer don’t necessarily grow organic crops. Chicken manure is purchased from commercial poultry farms that use chemicals and drugs that have been shown to be harmful to the human body.
Since the majority of organic chicken suppliers are small farmers, organic chicken consumers also help develop the rural economy and the income potential of small farmers. Consumers also indirectly contribute to the protection and conservation of the environment because organic chicken farming does not produce the air pollution that is common on poultry farms. There are also no flies to spread germs and organisms that make people sick.
