I love chicken of all kinds. But it is also important to me that the animals are kept and fed in a species-appropriate way. Unfortunately, I don't trust Optigall enough in this respect and would like to see more organic products or a label that guarantees animal welfare (lots of exercise, grains, scratching, being able to hide in the grass, everything that makes a chicken happy).
Organic is great, but unfortunately I can find almost no organic chicken products in my Migros store (Neumarkt Altstetten).
I always bought the chicken from TerraSuisse. It was much better than the watery one from Optigal. I also always believed that the poultry was better that way. But in our store in Zollikofen, TerraSuisse was removed from the range because I was probably the only one who bought it.
Now there is "only" Zebu direct from the farm (Bätterkinden).
Greetings moz
Guest
Current photos from a chicken farm in the Bernese Seeland. The farm produces for Frifag Märwil AG, which supplies Migros, among others. The footage shows blatant violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Numerous animals are dead, some already badly decomposed. The belief in small-scale animal husbandry in Switzerland is unbroken. Wrongly so: factory farming has long since arrived in Switzerland. In fattening facilities with up to 18,000 chickens, 17 animals per square meter are crammed in. In the name of profit, chickens are degraded to commodities. With devastating consequences.
Guest
Hello
Do you want organic chicken or chicken from happy chickens? There is a big difference. Do you want to blindly trust the green label on the packaging or do you just want to soothe (lie to) your conscience?
@HirschiS You want to have happy chickens, that's not so easy but not impossible. Ultimately, it involves doing your own research, poring over literature and a considerably higher price. If you really want to stand up for species-appropriate husbandry and happy chickens, you should not buy any poultry products at all in the supermarkets, but only from the few farms that can guarantee real quality. However, there are very few of these in Switzerland and the chicken costs a lot more. By the way, free-range chicken and eggs are not available in winter, at best they would be barn-raised. Farms that focus on real quality therefore do not sell such products in winter. For pure chicken farms without a second mainstay, genuine quality is therefore not a priority.
There are basically two main types of breeding: laying hens and broilers. Here is a picture comparing the two types. Today, a laying hen lays around 300 eggs per year, a total of around 420 eggs throughout its life and lives for a maximum of two years. A broiler chicken lives for a maximum of 40 days, but is often so fat after 25 to 30 days that it can no longer be raised to sleep. Although there are a few farms where you can buy more or less "happy chicken", the price is sometimes many times higher than what you are used to. With a little background knowledge, the price is justified if the chickens are kept according to the strict KAG guidelines or better. An important point in fattening is the type of chicken, because the more "extensive" a species is, the longer it lives. According to IP-Suisse, extensive and semi-extensive species are permitted in the free-range sector, whereby it is almost impossible for the latter species to meet the CISA requirements due to their shorter lifespan. However, there are also farmers and especially labels who do not have to meet these requirements.
Fresh chicken and fresh eggs from happy Swiss free-range hens are not available between November and March, regardless of what is written on the packaging or how trustworthy the brand presents itself.
The Bauernzeitung often advertises individual KAG farms that produce poultry meat using "slow fattening". With this method, chickens often live twice to three times as long and therefore need considerably more feed and care. What many people do not know is that real quality farms do not fatten their chickens in winter because they would freeze and would have to be kept indoors rather than outside. However, this would be contrary to the KAG guidelines, which is why fattening begins anew each spring with new chickens, otherwise the KAG label would be withdrawn. Fattening poultry must have spent at least two-thirds of their entire lifespan outdoors. They are housed directly after hatching, where the chicks are kept in the warmth for around three weeks for better growth. In the middle of the fourth week, they are moved outdoors, where they remain until the 11th or 12th week. Only then may they be slaughtered. With extensive species, it is possible to produce around 1000 chickens a year without antibiotics. However, if you rely on semi-extensive species and antibiotics, production can easily be doubled, which has a considerable impact on business profits.
There are also other regulations, such as that each chicken must have at least two square meters of outdoor space, the farm must have a maximum of 400 animals and the abattoir must be no further than 30 km away. An own farm slaughterhouse requires the fulfillment of further guidelines from the health department and should also have sufficient refrigeration. This can pay off, but with a maximum of 400 animals allowed on the farm at any one time, it takes years. Because of the many requirements and costs, there are farms that don't want the KAG seal at all and simply produce for a false seal. Unfortunately, there are also cheating farmers with farm stores where all kinds of products are sold because there are no comprehensive controls. Only the farms that are certified are inspected, but how often and how thoroughly remains unknown. The main drawbacks of the KAG requirements are that they do not prohibit antibiotics and the feed does not have to be of organic or ecological origin, although this would often be feasible without any problems.
There are a few farms where you can visit everything, which only keep extensive species and if they also advertise with a KAG sign on the street, the chicken is sometimes worth the money. But how many consumers dare to ask for a guided tour and know exactly what to look out for? Unfortunately far too few, which is why not every chicken from the farm has lived happily ever after.
But there is only so much cheating in the industry because consumers don't have a clue about the subject and don't want to get involved or even stand up for anything. They would rather pay a little more for goods with green patches or supposedly great brands on the packaging so that they don't have to worry about it themselves. Last but not least, it's often about what other people think of you. People would rather buy the supposedly organic crap than get involved in a discussion or be labeled as poor. This behavior is quite comparable to the widespread, imaginary obsessive-compulsive disorder that makes many people buy overpriced branded clothing. Manufacturers, salespeople and corporations know exactly what makes the majority of customers tick and sell them fresh self-confidence every day. This tactic is also known as afluenza. It (and of course the stupidity of consumers) is responsible for a large part of the commercial success of industrialized countries.
The world wants to be deceived, as Sebastian Brant (1458 - 1521) already knew.
However, I made a small mistake when typing, which I would like to correct and for which I sincerely apologize.
The maximum of 400 animals does not refer to the farm, but to one fattening group of which a farm can have several. Whether and to how many animals this is limited in total is unfortunately beyond my knowledge. With a dozen fattening groups, for example, a farm would have 4800 animals and would need at least 6400 square meters of outdoor enclosure. If the chicks remained under the heat lamps for four weeks after hatching and were then allowed to live outdoors for eight weeks, such a farm could produce 400 chickens a week. Calculated with an extensive type of chicken and without taking losses into account.
With semi-extensive chicken species, the same farm could probably produce up to 1000 chickens a week. With several dozen fattening groups and a correspondingly larger area, this is of course many times higher. But then again, we are talking about an industrial farm where the chickens never get to see a blade of fresh grass, despite being free-range. With such dimensions, it quickly becomes clear why the administration of antibiotics is not restricted. With several thousand animals, antibiotics are probably unavoidable, especially when you consider that chicken droppings can also be extremely harmful to human health. The KAG farms mentioned in the farmers' newspaper work with homeopathic remedies. It would be interesting to know up to which populations this works and how the health of the chickens is defined.
A few kilometers away from us, there has been a large chicken farm with a huge enclosure next to it for several years. I've often seen lots of chickens there when driving past. It may be a free-range farm, but I don't know whether they produce eggs or chickens there. I'll have a closer look tomorrow.
Greetings from the yellow Migi piglet
Guest
Shortly after hatching, small male chicks fall into a large shredder or are gassed without being anaesthetized.
In February, the public prosecutor's office in Münster brought charges against a hatchery for the first time - but it was too early to rejoice, the killing continues.
We have received new, shocking material from a chicken fattening plant (FR), which 20min published yesterday. Now we demand transparency: a realistic photo should be on every meat package!
We already received chicken pictures at the beginning of the year. More about the chicken product: www.tier-im-fokus.ch/huehner
Guest
Hello
April, April :-) TIF had put up a fake Micarna website, but it has long been down again. http://w ww.micarna.ch.clonezone.link/fleischpackung
With April Fool's jokes like this, TIF no longer has any credibility. But you can't expect much more from unemployed journalists and disillusioned teachers on the TIF board than to go illegal and take people for a ride. 10 days later, TIF comes running with a so-called "petition". Who is supposed to take that seriously now? The little pictures of the pretty Jessi chubby don't help either. It's always the same with the flower associations, you put a lot of energy and money into a project that is guaranteed to achieve nothing. It was the same with the Postit campaign with Figaro, the money could have made a difference, but the flower eaters preferred to burn it. Tell me Ivan, do you really want to be one of those losers?
Greetings from the Migi piglet who might borrow Jessi because she speaks French so well. :-)
