Costco sells
rotisserie chicken for $4.99 and will go to great lengths to maintain
this ultralow price. The company is opening its own poultry CAFO in
Fremont, Nebraska, to have better control over the size of the broilers
There are steep, hidden costs to CAFO chicken, including environmental costs, human health costs and ethical considerations
Current-day
CAFO chickens contain more fat than protein and have lower amounts of
omega-3 fats and higher omega-6 than they used to. Previous research has
linked diets high in omega-6 to a rise in obesity
Another
significant hazard linked to CAFO chicken is the spread of
antibiotic-resistant disease, specifically urinary tract infections
(UTIs), including drug-resistant UTIs, which are on the rise
Recent studies
have conclusively demonstrated that a majority of UTIs are caused by
exposure to contaminated chicken; American, Canadian and European
studies have all confirmed close genetic matches between drug-resistant
E. coli collected from human patients and those found on poultry
If you live in the U.S. and frequent
Costco, you’re probably familiar with their $4.99 rotisserie chicken.
It’s one of the standard items Costco sells that pull in repeat
customers. As reported by CNN:1
“The chickens have become almost a cult item. 91 million were
sold last year, double the number from a decade earlier. They have their
own Facebook page with nearly 13,000 followers. So Costco is willing
to go to extreme lengths to keep its chickens at $4.99.”
However, as with all foods raised in concentrated animal feeding operations
(CAFOs), this cheap fare comes with steep, hidden costs. CAFOs are a
primary contributor to several problems, including environmental
pollution and antibiotic-resistant disease.
The fact that Costco is willing to go to great lengths to keep the
price of its chicken at rock bottom means the problems associated with
its CAFOs are likely to only get worse. As reported by CNN,2
Costco is now planning on opening its very own poultry complex in
Fremont, Nebraska, which will allow it to “control the production
process from farm to store.”
One of the stated reasons for Costco’s decision to invest in its own
poultry operation is because they’re having trouble procuring the
right size broilers. Rotisserie chickens need to be right around 6
pounds, and many CAFO chickens today can go as high as 7 or 8 pounds,3 which are too large for the rotisserie.
Chicken Farming Isn’t What It Used to Be
Critics have rightfully pointed out that Costco’s move to open a
400,000 square-foot chicken CAFO in Nebraska will have negative
repercussions for the environment. When interviewed by CNN, Randy
Ruppert, a Fremont environmental activist, pointed out the facility
will produce toxic runoff such as ammonia and nitrates.
He rightfully refers to it as “degenerative farming,” which it is.
CNN also highlights the unfair contract agreements involved. A vast
majority of American chicken farmers work under a contract system that
shifts the financial risks to the farmers while providing them with few
benefits.
Contract farmers are responsible for building and maintaining the
barns, while the companies supply the chicks and feed and set all the
rules. As noted by Robert Taylor, Professor Emeritus of agricultural
economics at Auburn University, this type of contract “essentially
makes the farmer an indentured servant” or “chicken house janitor.”4
As reported in a 2018 article5
in The Atlantic, a chicken farmer will typically need to take out a
large loan, often in excess of $1 million, to build the facilities.
They must then raise the chickens according to the chicken company’s
rules. Once the chickens are fully grown, they’re sent off to the
chicken company’s processing facility for slaughtering, packaging and
distribution.
For all of the work the farmer does, he or she may only be paid 5 to
6 cents per pound of meat, and he has virtually no say at all in how
they raise, feed or care for the chickens. Jonathan Buttram, president
of the Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association, told The Atlantic
that in these contract relationships:6
"The company has 99-and-a-half percent control over the grower …
I'll list what they tell you: what time to pick up the chickens, what
time to run the feed, what time to turn the lights off and on, every
move that you make. Then, they say we're not an employee — we are
employees, but they won't let us have any kind of benefits or
insurance."
In 2001, former chicken farmer Alton Terry
contracted with Tyson Foods to raise chickens, after taking out a
$500,000 loan to build houses for the chickens. After a couple of
years, Tyson told Terry to purchase more equipment, which he refused.
Terry believes the company gave him sick chicks the year after that,
then canceled his contract. With no other chicken companies in town,
Terry couldn't find another customer to buy his chickens, essentially
putting him out of business.
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The Hidden Cost of Cheap Chicken
The hidden costs of cheap factory farmed chicken can be divided into
three primary categories, all of which are hidden from the public, even
though we are ultimately the ones paying these hidden costs:7
• Environmental costs —
CAFOs are notorious for producing massive amounts of offensive waste
that disturbs and pollutes the local ecosystem. Were chicken companies
to pay for the prevention or cleanup of this pollution, the price of
chicken would be significantly higher. • Human health costs —
Besides the health ramifications suffered by those who happen to live
near a CAFO and are exposed to the environmental contamination caused
by these factory farms, CAFO chicken is also taking a hidden toll on
your health when you eat it, in several different ways:
◦ The nutrition is inherently inferior — A study8,9
by the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association, which compared
the nutrient value of pastured chickens with the USDA’s National
Nutrient Database for Standard Reference values for CAFO chicken, found
pasture-raised chickens contained:
▪ 406.8% more vitamin E (1.86 IUs per 100 grams compared to 0.367 IUs) ▪ About half the fats of CAFO chicken (saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) ▪ An average omega-3-to-6 ratio of 1-to-5, which is near ideal, compared to the USDA’s value of 1-to-1510
◦ CAFO chickens are contaminated with
antibiotics, which can raise your risk for antibiotic-resistant
infections — According to a September 2019 global trend report11,12
in the journal Science, antibiotic resistance in bacteria known to
transmit from animals to humans has nearly tripled since 2000. In
chickens, the proportion of antibiotics with rates of resistance
exceeding 50% increased from 0.15 to 0.41 between 2000 and 2018. ◦ They’re also frequently contaminated
with other drugs, including some with known toxic effects in humans. I
reported on this in “More Bad News for CAFO Poultry” ◦ CAFO chicken is notoriously high-risk for foodborne illness,
and bacterial contamination has been specifically linked to the rise
in drug-resistant urinary tract infections (UTIs), which I’ll discuss
further below
• Ethical costs — Research
has shown that chickens are not only quite smart, they experience
suffering just as animals higher up in the food chain. As reported by
the Cornucopia Institute:13
“Chickens have nervous systems similar to ours, and when we do
things to them that are likely to hurt a sensitive creature, they show
behavioral and physiological responses that are like ours.
When stressed or bored, chickens show what scientists call
“stereotypical behavior,” or repeated futile movements, like caged
animals who pace back and forth.”
CAFO Chickens Are Loaded With Harmful Fats
Over the past decade, questions have been raised about the
possibility that CAFO chickens are contributing to the ever-expanding
waistlines of Americans. As noted in a 2012 Huffpost contributor
article14 by Kathy Freston:
“Virtually all commercially-available chickens now have what many
call the ‘obese gene,’ which makes birds gain weight quickly to speed
up production from birth to slaughter.
That, combined with no exercise and a constant supply of
high-energy (caloric) food, makes today's chicken the opposite of lean:
The amount of fat in modern chicken may be five or even 10 times what
it used to be, according to a UK-based study15 …”
The study16
Freston cites, published in the Public Health Nutrition journal in
2010, found that modern CAFO chickens not only have more fat than
protein, but also have lower amounts of omega-3 fats and higher omega-6 than they used to.
They found the omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio was as high as 9-to-1,
whereas government health guidelines recommend a ratio of about 2-to-1.
What’s more, modern broilers were found to have far higher levels of
the omega-3 fat DPA than DHA. In earlier analyses, chickens used to
have more DHA than DPA.
Omega-6-Rich Diets Linked to Obesity
Omega-3 fats are essential polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) your body
needs for a wide variety of functions, including proper cell division
and function of cell receptors, muscle activity, cognition and heart
health. The importance of animal-based omega-3s is detailed in my book “Superfuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets of Good Fats, Bad Fats, and Great Health.”
Omega-6 fat, on the other hand, are overabundant in the modern diet, and most of it is oxidized, which adds to the problem.
You only need around 1 to 2 grams of omega-6 linoleic acid per day,
ideally from plant seeds and tree nuts, whereas optimal levels of
marine omega-3 fats are around 3 to 4 grams per day, which can be
obtained from small fatty fish such as anchovies, sardines, herring, wild-caught salmon or krill oil. As concluded by the authors of that Public Health Nutrition study:17
“Traditional poultry and eggs were one of the few land-based
sources of long-chain n-3 fatty acids, especially DHA, which is
synthesized from its parent precursor in the green food chain.
In view of the obesity epidemic, chickens that provide several
times the fat energy compared with protein seem illogical. This type of
chicken husbandry needs to be reviewed with regard to its implications
for animal welfare and human nutrition.”
Another study,18 published in 2013, highlighted evidence linking diets high in omega-6 to a rise in obesity. According to this paper:
“Exposure of the developing fetus/neonate to a typical Western
diet increases their risk of obesity and metabolic disorders throughout
the life-course, creating an intergenerational cycle of metabolic
disease.
In Western countries, this epidemic of metabolic disease has
coincided with a marked increase in the intake of omega-6
polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-6 PUFA), leading to suggestions that
the two may be causally related.
Recent studies have emphasized the proadipogenic properties of
the omega-6 PUFA, and provided evidence that rodents fed on diets with
omega-6 PUFA contents similar to the typical U.S. diet (6-8% energy)
have an increased fat mass.
Importantly, recent studies have shown that perinatal exposure to
a high omega-6 PUFA diet results in a progressive accumulation of body
fat across generations.”
CAFO Chicken Linked to Drug-Resistant UTIs
Yet another significant hazard linked to CAFO chicken is the spread
of antibiotic-resistant disease, specifically drug-resistant urinary
tract infections (UTIs), which are on the rise.19
UTIs affect anywhere from 25%20 to 50%21,22 of women over the course of their lifetime. A study23
published in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases in 2017 noted
hospitalization rates for UTIs in the U.S. rose by 52% between 1998 and
2011 — a direct result of increasing antimicrobial resistance.
In the past, recurrent UTIs were thought to be caused by reinfection by the same pathogen,24 but research25,26,27 published in the Journal of Molecular Biology suggests this pattern has changed.
The reason UTIs tend to have such a high recurrence rate in
postmenopausal women is because the infection can be caused by several
different pathogens, including Escherichia coli (E.coli), Klebsiella
pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus
saprophyticus.28
Of these, about 80% to 90% are caused by E.coli.29,30
Conventional wisdom has maintained UTIs are primarily caused by a
transfer of naturally-occurring E. coli via sexual contact with an
infected individual and/or the transfer of fecal bacteria from your
anus to your urethra by poor personal hygiene. However, more recent
studies have conclusively demonstrated that a majority of UTIs are actually caused by exposure to contaminated chicken.31
Importantly, factory farmed chickens
are the source of most antibiotic-resistant UTIs — a problem that can
be traced back to the routine use of antibiotics for growth-promotion
purposes, which has allowed resistance to develop.
Many Studies Have Identified CAFO Chicken as Source of UTIs
Drug-resistant E. coli strains from supermarket meat were matched to
strains found in human E. coli infections as early as 2005.32 Research33,34 published in 2006 confirmed that humans could develop antibiotic resistance by eating poultry treated with antibiotics.
Bacteria from conventional chicken, and those who ate such chicken,
were found to be more prone to developing resistance against Synercid
(generic names: quinupristin and dalfopristin35), a strong antibiotic used to treat vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium.36
In short, handling and/or eating antibiotic-treated chicken can
cause you to develop resistance to the last lines of defense currently
available in the modern medicine cabinet — a steep price for
inexpensive meat.
American, Canadian and European studies37,38,39
published in 2012 all confirmed close genetic matches between
drug-resistant E. coli collected from human patients and those found on
poultry (chicken and turkey).
More recently, a study40
published in the journal mBio in 2018 found 79.8% of chicken, pork and
turkey samples purchased from large retail stores in Flagstaff,
Arizona, were contaminated with E. coli. The researchers also tested
blood and urine samples from people who visited a major medical center
in the area, finding E. coli in 72.4% of those diagnosed with a UTI.
In particular, a strain of E. coli known as E. coli ST131 showed up
in both the meat samples (particularly poultry) and the human UTI
samples. Most of the E. coli in the poultry was a variety known as
ST131-H22, which is known to thrive in birds. This specific strain was
also found in the human UTI samples.
“Our results suggest that one ST131 sublineage — ST131-H22 — has
become established in poultry populations around the world and that
meat may serve as a vehicle for human exposure and infection,” the
researchers noted, adding that this E. coli lineage is just one of many
that may be transmitted from poultry and other meat sources to people.
Eat the Egg, Not the Chicken
Historically, chickens were rather scrawny little birds that few
thought to consume as a primary meal on a regular basis. The chicken we
eat today bears almost no resemblance to the backyard chickens of old,
as they’ve been specifically bred for meat.
The routine use of antibiotics for disease prevention and growth
promotion played a pivotal role in this transformation. Unfortunately,
chicken production in the U.S. has become an industry that places
profits over just about everything else, including animal welfare and
farmers’ rights.
Overall, the evidence is clear: CAFO chicken is best avoided if
you’re concerned about your health, the environment and/or animal
welfare. If you do want chicken now and then, I recommend making sure
it’s organically raised and pastured.
Organic, free-range chickens are allowed to engage in their natural
behavior in a natural environment (outdoors), and can serve an
important role in regenerative agriculture
and holistic land management. The lack of stress and access to a
natural diet, fresh air and sunshine make for healthier birds that don’t
need antibiotics.
Another option is to forgo the chicken meat and just eat the eggs —
again making sure they’re from hens raised organically on pasture. Keep
in mind that when it comes to labels such as “free-range” and “natural,”
there are loopholes that allow the commercial egg industry to call
eggs from their industrial egg laying facilities "free-range,” so don’t
be fooled.
True free-range chickens and eggs come from hens that roam freely
outdoors on a pasture, where they can forage for their natural diet,
which includes seeds, green plants, insects and worms. If you live in
an urban area, visiting a local farmers market is typically the
quickest route to finding high-quality chicken and eggs.
Another alternative is to raise your own, if you have the space and
local regulations allow it. Earlier this year I finally got my own
chickens and now have seven birds that provide me with a steady source
of eggs for my diet.
As a general rule, you can tell the eggs are pastured by the color
of the egg yolk. Foraged hens produce eggs with bright orange yolks.
Dull, pale yellow yolks are a sure sign you're getting eggs from caged
hens that are not allowed to forage for their natural diet.
For store-bought eggs, be sure to check out Cornucopia's organic egg scorecard
that rates 136 egg producers based on 28 organic criteria. According
to Cornucopia, their report "showcases ethical family farms and their
brands, and exposes factory farm producers and brands in grocery store
coolers that threaten to take over organic livestock agriculture."
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