Special Chicken

Ever since I became pregnant with baby M, I've become extra conscious of the food we buy. Understandably, I didn't want to be consuming any pesticide residues, hormones or medication during her fetal development!

Now that M is learning to eat herself (the time has just flown by, by the way) my obsession with finding high quality food continues. For a while, we were a part of a food co-op that provided access to great local organic produce, and I felt like I could trust the source of the food. Sometimes we had the opportunity to meet the farmers, which was a great way of connecting with the food. Unfortunately, in a very sad chain of events, the co-op has gone belly-up, leaving both buyers and suppliers out of pocket. (For more information about the co-op, pleas read The Tyee article and blog.)

I try to buy organic whenever possible because I believe in sustainable farming and, as mentioned, I don't want to consume any harmful substances. The food also often tastes better, which is a bonus! But sometimes the selection just isn't there, and sometimes I just can't afford it. So sometimes I have to go with an acceptable alternative, like buying local un-organic produce. When it comes to poultry, sometimes we buy specialty chicken. But what is specialty chicken anyway? After blindly buying it on a number of occasions because it appeared to be one up on regular chicken, I wanted to find out the details.

Specialty chicken is basically chicken grown without antibiotics. Unlike organic chicken, which is raised according to strict Certified Organic of British Columbia Guidelines, specialty chicken only has the one criterion that distinguishes it from regular chicken. However, the difference is noteworthy. In Canada, unlike in Europe, chicken farmers can give their healthy birds unregulated amounts of antibiotics, which seems pretty crazy to me!

A recent CBC Marketplace story revealed that 'regular' supermarket chicken is often covered in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And, according to an earlier CBC story, about a quarter million Canadians suffer from an infection each year, which means that this resistance can have a big impact on our population. We definitely don't want to go back to the days where people die from a simple cut or scrape. If you have the choice then specialty chicken is probably a good choice.

If you're worried about hormones, there's some good news that was news to me: the use of growth hormones in chicken farming has been illegal in Canada since the 60s (Chicken Farmers of Canada). Another thing I didn't know is that chickens raised for meat are not caged but instead are raised in large sheds, with free access to feed and water. Unfortunately, unless your chicken is labeled as free-range, it did not have any access to an outside space.

I will continue to buy organic chicken whenever I can, but will definitely chose specialty over regular chicken if that's the choice. As well, I will try to support local farmers and smaller farms whenever I can. Maple Hill Farms out of Abbotsford raises free-range specialty and organic chickens, which I've seen for sale at both the butcher shop and local supermarkets.