Thinking back to my elementary school days, it seemed that every few weeks the cafeteria would serve up something that we students not-so-affectionately referred to as “mystery meat”. Whether it was the color, the consistency or simply our immature imaginations, the offering was unrecognizable.
Come to think of it, many of the food choices available today are shrouded in a cloak of mystery. A few decades ago Americans filled their plates with locally sourced whole foods, whereas today much of what we eat is a conglomeration of unknown ingredients commercially produced and bearing only a slight resemblance to the original. Ironically the acronym used to refer to the “Standard American Diet” is “SAD.” Certainly a multitude of complicated factors converge in what has become our modern day food system, and admittedly not everyone has the same access to high quality nutritional food, but those are topics for another day.
Fortunately there is an increase in the availability of transparent food choices at the local level that meet consumer expectations. Referred to as the integrity food movement, consumers want to know now more than ever what is in their food, where it comes from and how it was produced. Pastured poultry is an example of new opportunities for food choice in a market flooded by products produced in an unsustainable and unhealthy way.
Since the 1940’s, America’s ever-increasing appetite for chicken has been supplied by the artificial environment known as the confinement house model. According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, over 9 billion broilers were produced by the American poultry industry in 2016 and this number continues to rise. Marketers are very good at appealing to the expectations of consumers, but catch words like “organic,” “all natural,” “Non-GMO,” “free range,” “antibiotic free,” and “cage free” do not always mean what we think they mean. The result is a chicken that we know very little about.
As the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association put it in a video produced in 2017, there is “A Better Way Forward.” Farmers across the nation, dedicated to improving the food system are creating opportunities for food choice near you. Find a local farmer you can get to know and trust; someone you can ask questions to and get answers from. The food you prepare and serve in your home does not have to be a mystery.
Author: Rebekah Napier