Chicken At It's Best And Worst

It has only been since the 1960s that chicken has become a "cheap meat". Before then, roast chickens were saved for special occasions and families would gather around to enjoy their rich flavour. The industry has evolved from "the backyard" to a major food category. Within this broad category there are three distinct segments of chicken available to Australian consumers today.

Industrial Chicken
Industrial chicken is supplied by the conventional industry and is dominated by big firms such as Inghams and Barter/Steggles. It is produced as a low-cost option with the focus on scale, intensity, efficiency and early turnoff of birds.
Big, factory-style sheds are used to provide an artificially controlled environment. They are densely populated, with up to 60,000 birds kept in a single shed. Disease in these intensive livestock production systems is kept at bay by routine vaccination and medication programmes. While factory-farmed chicken is very efficient, some would say the animal welfare implications are unacceptable.

Free-Range Chicken
Certified free-range chicken is supplied by individual farmers as well as big companies such as Inghams and Biada. This system involves some efficiency compromises to provide a better environment for the birds. They are allowed to forage outside in a more natural environment that is better from an animal welfare perspective.

Organic Chicken
Certified organic chicken is supplied by individual farmers. Organic production comes from a holistic system which actively manages the linkage between healthy soils, plants, animals, food and people and promotes environmental sustainability and animal welfare.

http://www.mtbarkerchicken.com.au
Mt Barker Free Range Chicken produces the best tasting chicken in Western Australia.
The Mt Barker brand guarantees that you are buying a quality, naturally grown chicken that is completely free of artificial hormones and antibiotic growth promotants.
The clean, green and traditional production of Mt Barker Free Range chicken produces a full-flavoured chicken that is lower in fat and incredibly succulent and tender.
Mt Barker Free Range chickens are fed a wholesome diet that includes the best natural pastures and grains Western Australia has to offer. The chickens are able to roam freely on home-grown pastures during the day, and spend their nights indoors where they are kept safe and warm and sheltered from inclement weather. This natural lifestyle ensures our chickens grow naturally in a stress-free environment.
At Mt Barker we believe that our humane, environmentally-friendly method of production really does provide you with a healthier and better tasting chicken.

http://www.frepa.com.au
http://www.chicken.org.au

As a leading source of protein, chicken plays an important part in the Australian diet and is one of the widely eaten meats in the Australian culture - whether it be family meals, take away, gourmet cuisine or a rich selection of international dishes.

If you cook or eat chicken, work in the chicken meat industry, or are someone who wants to know more about it, this site is for you. Here's where you can find out about meat chickens - from how we breed them for meat, to handling and cooking chicken for your table - please explore this site and get behind the scenes of this fascinating and valuable industry.

Every year in Australia more than 320 million chickens are raised and killed for their meat, these are known as broilers. The vast majority of chicken meat comes from chickens raised in crowded sheds. These sheds house 10,000-20,000 birds at one time. Describing a broiler shed, The Poultry Digest 1998 quotes from the findings of a Melbourne University report "to enter a chicken shed is to enter an atmosphere full of contaminants: dust, gases, micro-organisms, chemicals".

Free Chickens from Cages
What does it mean to be one of the 10.5 million battery-caged hens in Australia?
Battery hens are kept on average for a year in wire mesh cages 40 cm high with a floor area per bird of 450 cm2 - about three-quarters of the size of an A4 piece of paper. Battery cages do not allow the hens to stand properly, preen their feathers, stretch out or flap their wings.
Battery hens cannot perch, cannot roost, cannot dustbathe, cannot forage for food and cannot satisfy their urge to lay their eggs in a nest.

The Evidence
Evidence from research into hen welfare indicates that battery hens suffer intensely and continuously throughout their confinement in cages. The research suggests that "battery cages cause suffering to hens in at least 7 different ways" *:

• Chronic frustration of normal behaviours including dustbathing and wing-flapping.
• Chronic inhibition of comfort behaviours and increased incidence of frustration behaviours.
• Chronic stress and disruption of social interaction.
• Acute suffering during the pre-laying period every day caused by frustration of nesting behaviour.
• Prevention of foraging and feather pecking.
• Inability to maintain bone strength due to restriction of exercise.
• Lack of perching opportunities and prevention of roosting.

* Baxter MR (1994). The welfare problems of laying hens in battery cages. Veterinary Record 134:614-619.

Humane Alternatives
There are humane alternatives to the battery cage system in the form of barn and free-range housing systems. These systems overcome the problems associated with confinement in battery cages by allowing hens to behave naturally. Well-designed alternative systems provide hens with space to roam and forage, perches, litter, suitable material for dustbathing, secluded areas for laying eggs and allow the hens to preen, stretch out and flap their wings: all behaviours which are frustrated in the battery cage. They also make use of the bird's ability to fly by providing elevated terraces and perches.