Can You Love Your Chicken & Eat It Too?

Is it okay to love your chicken and eat it too?

Hmmm…

I don’t mean to love a bucket of yummy, crispy fried chicken from KFC that you devour while watching a football game.

I don’t mean to love a package of boneless, skinless chicken breast that turns into one of your favorite gourmet meals you’ve been planning for company on Sunday.

I mean this… to love a cute, cuddly, living, breathing, still-alive chicken. An actual animal that relies on you for sustenance, shelter and care? And then harvest that animal for food.

That’s a thought to really ponder and to be quite honest…it’s not a fun one to think about.

It’s very easy to go into the grocery store and pick out your meat from the endless trays neatly packaged on the shelves. And don’t feel bad about it, I’ve done it a thousand times!

But something changed for me when I watched a film in 2011 called Forks Over Knives. It’s a documentary about the diseases and health problems in the world…and it blames the problems on an animal-based diet.

Watching the film spoke to my soul. You see, I had never known about “factory-farming” before. It was so eye-opening and devastating to think about.

I didn’t realize that our modern food systems are actually run by huge corporations and that most of the food on our shelves can be traced back to just 3 or 4 companies. 

I didn’t realize that chicken on store shelves is raised in a massive confined building, with no sunlight, and no access to fresh outdoor air.

I didn’t realize the chickens are so overcrowded that literally hundreds of dead ones are pulled out every day. One building can house up to 50,000 chickens at a time! Whoa!

I didn’t realize that egg-laying hens spend their entire lives in a cage that is barely bigger than their body and their top beaks are trimmed halfway off so they don’t peck the hen next to them.

I didn’t realize that cows are raised in such a small area that they are constantly standing in their own waste and have to be brought food instead of grazing in fields of grass like they’re pictured.

There’s a lot more to the film, but you get the idea. I was so appalled that I actually turned to a vegan diet for 6 months! I didn’t necessarily do it because I thought an animal-based diet was bad for my body, but I did it more out of care for the animals.

Unfortunately, the vegan diet was not good for me and I soon started having health troubles because of it. I knew there had to be a better way.

I remembered from the film a farmer that was raising his animals the way we all envision… on a family farm with lots of free space to roam and they were able to live their best lives, in a natural environment.

His name is Joel Salatin, and maybe you’ve heard of him. He’s a best-selling author of many books and he’s an advocate for animal welfare. He’s also quite eccentric and some people don’t like him, but the point is, he helped me change my view on raising animals.

I realized that even if I couldn’t change the world of factory farming… I could change my world…and I could change the world for the animals in my care.

I was in my early 40s when I decided to start raising our family’s own meat. I almost thought I was crazy! I couldn’t believe I was going to try my hand at farming… something I’d always dreamed of as a child!

But I absolutely loved it!

Knowing that our animals are raised with love and compassion has been such a life-changing thing for our family. We can feel good about the meat we pull from the freezer, knowing that our animals were given the chance to live a healthy, happy life.

It’s not easy by any means. It takes a lot of time, money, and energy.

Yesterday I spent time hand-feeding baby rabbits whose first-time mom wasn’t feeding them.

Two nights ago I was awakened by an alarm telling me the temperatures in the chick brooder had fallen and I spent 2 hours in the middle of the night getting things adjusted and still lost 14 birds.

Once I had to cull a rabbit that was slowly dying of a placental abruption during labor in order to try and save her babies. I bawled the whole time!

It takes lots and lots of emotional energy because we actually care about the animals and love them…deeply. We are connected in a very tangible way to the food we eat and it’s awesome.

I know not everyone has the ability to farm and that’s okay. That’s why I recently started farming for more than just our family.

I want to help those of you who care about and love animals, but still like or even need to eat animal-based foods.

If you want to feel good about the meat you eat and you want to know it lived a happy, healthy life, then we’re here for you!

So… the answer to my question, can you love your chicken and eat it too?

Yes, you absolutely can!