Farm To Table Farming
Part 1 of 2
The all important Farm in Farm to Table
A pre-pandemic trend in the food industry was Farm To Table dining. In the old days, before mass transit and mass farming equipment and techniques, the idea of farm-to-table was done in the local restaurants because this was needed.
Farm to table is a rediscovered mindset that used to be the norm in a time when restaurants weren’t as prevalent as they are today. The farm mentality to the table brings locally grown produce, meats, and specialty items that the restauranteur might even produce.
A local owner of the restaurant or chef may not have grown and harvested the items they serve; however, the main idea of farm to table is that local farmers grow and or produce things that the restaurant will utilize as part of the menu.
I am fortunate to reside in the farm country of Pennsylvania. I have taken joy in interviewing several farmers to get their perspectives on how they approach farming. I have researched what the monster farms do and will share my findings describing the differences here.
3 Farmers in particular 1st was a chicken farmer, 2nd a grass-fed beef farmer, and 3rd a beef and poultry farmer.
Farmer 1:
I visited a grower for laying hens. This was interesting to me because I never really considered the process. The production process for mainstream mass production of poultry in our country is as follows.
The birds are hatched in an incubator; then, after 2 – 3 days, they are transferred to a grower, which I visited. The grower manages the birds as they mature. They are inspected for disease and inoculated as needed. When mature, they would go to either a laying house or a processing plant. The birds that we consume regularly are fully grown in 6 weeks from hatching.
It fascinated me that they had little dome propane heaters to keep the birds warm as they were little. The water they drank came in the form of a bead on the tip of an angled straw-like vessel. The bead was positioned so they would stretch their necks as they reached for a drink, and this was raised as they grew so they would continue to try.
This was in a line of beads that stretched the length of the growing house, which might hold 20 – 30,000 chicks. The food was dispensed by an automated screw dispensing mechanism that distributes the food as needed through remote control and timing.
Some of the exciting pieces to this was that the grower would have the birds for six weeks, which would become fully grown. Some birds would begin to lay eggs before leaving the house. The final destination for these birds would be laying houses.
The final destination home owned the birds themselves. All of these birds were laying hens. This means that their owner contracted the hatchery to deliver a specific ration of birds to the growing house, where he would arrange the particular feed that the owner wanted for their birds.
This feed would be delivered to a silo-looking feed bin which would dispense into the automation process.
A growing house may have different styles of birds. One place had regular laying hens, one had organic hens, and one had free-range hens. Another site had a blend of roosters and laying hens. This is all prearranged by the owner from the incubator to the growing house and then the bird’s final destination.
The difference in these three types of birds also meant that the feed would be under different conditions. Organic birds would have the organic dinner and certain precautions to protect them from bacteria and disease that the farmer might carrier in with his feet.
This precaution was that the farmer would need to step in an antibacterial powder that would help eliminate bacterial dangers from entering through his feet as he entered the coup. Both Free range and organic need a particular airflow element through the coup and light. Free-range birds also are expected to be able to get outside and walk around out.
This is all excellent stuff and sounds terrific for raising these birds. The farmer put things into a different perspective and shed some reality and history on tour.
Historically birds weren’t limited to the number of birds per square foot of space. He elaborated that in the house that now holds 25,000 birds, there may have been 40,000 birds in it. Regulations made it so that each bird needed a certain amount of space. This seems like a reasonable regulation for the animal’s comfort, which may allow for it to be less stressful, maybe.
The free-range and organic regulations were more interesting, though. While both organic and free-range concepts are that you offer more natural forms of feeding and caring for the animal. I know that an actual free-range bird has great full chicken flavor. In theory, the organic and free-range concepts should provide a wholesome bird.
The demand for free-range and organic in the food industry has increased dramatically with the knowledge of more healthful eating concepts. The increased demand for this has also caused the idea to be shortchanged.
Both organic and free-range regulations state that a certain amount of natural light is let into the building for the birds. This light comes through louvers that are in the walls and windows. The louvers allow light and airflow.
In the case of free-range birds, it is expected that the birds can walk around outside. This sounds great; that is what we want a bird that walks around and eats and roams like natural. Before getting too excited, let’s look at the regulation in more detail.
The regulation that governs the building of chicken houses says that the birds need a certain amount of space outside per bird in which they can go outside on their own. The regulation is written so that they don’t all need to be out at the same time, allowing for a natural flow of the birds to go in and out.
The build for this equates to a small penned-in area compared to the number of birds. The reality is the birds are classified as free-range; however, they do not get outside, and “free-range” as the regulation is meant to attain. The farmer classifies this as “not hitting the mark of the intention of the regulation.” What it does is it lessens the results of what a free-range bird is expected to be.
Continued: Look for the article in July.