Artisanal Chicken Brooder

In the spirit of Blog 3.0, this post will share my ideas and plans for a low cost, effective brooder for use under CFO's Artisanal Chicken program to produce 3,0000 birds per year.

I have previously posted numerous descriptions about the evils of the CAFO chicken factory. I believe in pastured poultry.  However, that's kind of tough to do when the grass is under 3 feet of snow.  Even in the short Canadian summers, the chicks can't be tossed out into the pasture on they day they are hatched; they must spend time under Mama's wing, or in a brooder.  After 2 weeks, they will be ready for the great outdoors.

It's 17 hours round trip to the nearest abattoir that slaughters poultry.  It's 2 years in jail if I try to do it on-farm.  That regulation isn't for any particular health or safety reason, as it has been repeatedly shown that a farmer with a sharp knife can produce eviscerated chicken with 97% less bacterial contamination that the government approved Chicken Mafia system.  The mandatory abattoir visit is due to regulatory capture by the Chicken Mafia, helping to enforce their monopoly.

Due to the high travel costs, I must max. out the abattoir on every trip.  My nearest abattoir can process 500 birds in one day, so my Artisanal Chicken system must learn how to produce flocks of 500 birds.

Joel Salatin says the poults are ready to go to pasture on the first nice day after they are 2 weeks old.  CFO sets a maximum density of 2.88 kg/sq. ft of barn space.  Using the curve in Figure 1 below, we can design the brooder.

Figure 1:  Chick growth curve for Frey's Whiterock meat birds.  I assumed the
chick was 40 grams when hatched, then used Frey's data, fitted by
Richard's (1959) generic chicken growth equation using 4 parameters (A, b, k, and n),
showing the birds have an ultimate weight of 3.233 kg.

Figure 2:   GFQ's 5 tier brooder
can do 500 chicks for about a
week or less, requires a warm
draft free room, electricity, and a
fat wallet.

GFQ makes a 5 tier stacking brooder at a cost of US$1,130.00 plus shipping, exchange, and taxes, which equates to about CDN$1,850.00 for Canada.

With GFQ's system, I still have to do something different after the first week.  GFQ takes 15 amps to run the 5 electric heaters (one on each level).  That much electricity on a 34/7 basis is close to impossible for my off-grid solar-wind power system to power.  In addition, I have to supply a warm, draft free building.  The living room of our house won't go over well every 8 weeks with my patient spouse.

After scratching my head for a while, and a few back of the envelope calculations, I decided the only available solution was a 40 ft. used sea container.  You can do it in a 20 ft. sea container (about $2,500 delivered, about $15.60 per sq. ft. vs. $75 per sq. ft. to build your own barn, or $150/sq. ft. to have a contractor build it.

I decided to buy a 40 ft. can, as I have other plans for the rest of the space, and a 40 ft can is cheaper than two 20 ft. cans.  I got my 40 ft. can for about $4,000 delivered to the farm and put in place.  Under Ontario Building Code, a sea container sitting on the ground (or 6" x 6" sleepers) is not a building and doesn't require a building permit, and doesn't add to your assessed property value.  Sweet!

Figure 3:   Interior plan view of sea container brooder for 500 chicks.  There are 5 brooders, and a central hallway
for wheelbarrow access.  If you have terrible weather and can't go to pasture after 2 weeks of age, you can throw
a few bales of wood shavings onto the hallway floor, and legally extend the brooder time to a maximum of 3 weeks.

The central hallway has to be 3 ft. wide to accommodate my wheelbarrow.  Double door keep out drafts, and open fully for easy loading, unloading, and cleaning.  Each brooder is designed to hold 100 chicks, from day old to 2 weeks of age, then its out to the pasture for them.  At 2 weeks old, the poults should be 0.412 kg, so at a stocking density of 2.88 kg/sq.ft., we need 14.30 sq. ft. which is exactly what we have in Brooders 2 -->5 (#1 is slightly larger).

Sometimes bad weather, or a delay at the abattoir could cause a backup, where the poults can't go to pasture on the planned date.  In that case, you can throw a few bales of wood shavings or hay down on the central hallway, and depopulate each brooder by 67 birds each, and place 338 poults in the hallway for an additional week, or the emergency has resolved.

At 75 birds per pasture pen (10' wide x 12' long  x 2' high), the birds start at a density of 9.6% of CFO's maximum, and grow to 70% of CFO's maximum density; thereby ensuring no overcrowding.

To protect the brooding birds from winter cold, 1.5" of thermal insulation, covered by 1/2" plywood is between the sea container's cold steel wall and the warm birds.  The floor will have 1" of thermal insulation, then 1/2" PEX tubing carrying 50/50 mixture of heated propylene glycol-water.  When a brooder is cold, the thermostat turns on the small DC recirculation pump for that zone, and sends hot fluid through the PEX to warm the chicks.  I tried getting a used propane fired water heater from a travel trailer for $100, but my supplier was out of supply, so I had to buy a new one for $600

The 2 ft. high 2x4 walls between each brooder keep the chicks isolated, carry the PEX lines to and from each brooder, are internally insulated to conserve heat, then skinned with plywood..  Hockey puck LED or halogen lights will light each brooder.  A sheet of 2" insulation board will be used for a roof.

Ventilation of the individual brooders is by propping up the brooder's insulation board as needed.  Overall, the sea container interior is ventilated by grated air inlets cut into the floor (predator proof), and multiple roof vents.

Minimal cost, maximum energy efficiency, and maximum comfort for the birds.  With Small Flockers, everybody wins.

SFPFC has made arrangements with the owner of this design as an aid to our members.  Anybody who is a member of SFPFC is hereby welcomed and automatically licensed to use this design.  All others must refrain from using our registered design.  The design owner is not vengeful, but can be provoked to attack mis-use or unauthorized use of this design.

Any questions, or suggestions to further improve the design, please comment below or by private email.

Shifting Gears: Blog 3.0

I believe it's time to shift gears on the Blog for Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada ("SFPFC"), moving toward Blog 3.0

Readers of SFPFC's Blog are now from 161
countries, including Antarctica.

This Blog was started  on Feb.28, 2013 (coming up on 3 years old), has posted 444 entries, and attracted a total of 187,723 visits from people in 161 countries around the world. (USA, Canada, Russia, France, Ukraine, Germany, China, and UK leading the way in visitors).

We shifted gears in May 2015 to a non-daily posting, as Blog 2.0

Today, we shift gears to Blog 3.0, where our primary focus will now be to help non-quota poultry farmers, cheerleading their successes, and providing helpful hints to do sustainable, worthy poultry farming that can produce safe, nutritious, affordable, locally produced poultry for our local communities.  This will include non-CAFO poultry farming, small flock, Artisanal Chicken, Family Food exemption, and all similar non-quota poultry farming.

Up until now, our primary focus has been on investigating and describing the plight of non-quota chicken farmers in Ontario Canada, as a proxy and worst case scenario for all Small Flockers across Canada.

Small Flockers in Ontario have historically been the most abused, mistreated, and persecuted of all Small Flockers across Canada.  Our theory was that if we cannot make our case for relief and respect for Small Flockers in Ontario, we would not be able to do any good for anybody else across Canada.

Since starting our crusade 3 years ago, Ontario's Chicken Mafia, as embodied and lead by the Chicken Farmers of Ontario, has introduced "Artisanal Chicken", where a Small Flocker can raise up to 3,000 birds per year; 10 times more than the previous draconian rules by CFO against both Small Flockers and Canadians.

For those who shout "Too little, too late", I agree.

However, these changes forced upon the Chicken Mafia by public opinion and their government masters are a good start.

As the Canadian and world economies continues to tailspin down, out of control, the unfairness and unacceptable cost of Supply Management ("SM") will become more and more apparent to the public.  Soon the public will start shouting for urgent changes for more affordable food that isn't contaminated or depleted of nutrition.  Those additional changes to SM will suddenly start to appear.  We need to be patient.

The Chicken Mafia will think that each concession granted will be sufficient to satisfy the complaints against them and their wicked, dysfunctional system.  The Chicken Mafia think that throwing one last bone to the wolves at the Chicken Mafia's door, they will escape the bite of the ravenous wolves.  The Chicken Mafia think they can then resume their raping, pillaging, and abuse of Canadians and Small Flockers.

However, each changed forced upon the Chicken Mafia will be too little, too late.  It will quench the thirst for change only momentarily.  The grudgingly created concession will help show that change for the better is possible, and show the chronic unfairness that has been imposed for decades by the Chicken Mafia.  Each change will fuel and spread the need for more change.

That doesn't mean that the Chicken Mafia can escape by refusing all change, sending forth their lobbyists with more money and propaganda to quell the growing disturbance.  The Chicken Mafia can no longer delay, deny, destroy, defend, distract, deride, and deflect.  Refusing to change for the better will quickly end their tinpot monopoly.

For those who are interested, the evidence of the Chicken Mafia's dirty deeds is collected together and fully explained here.  For those interested, the Internet will spread the message.  For those who wish to stay dumb and blind, nothing written here will change anything for them.

Also, there is little to be gained from re-hashing the same crimes and misdemeanors of the Chicken Mafia over and over again.  It's now time to move on.  However, if the Chicken Mafia commit another unique and grisly offense against Small Flockers or the Canadian public, you will likely hear about it here first.

Now  we will build our own Small Flocker community.  We will share and support each other.  We will build the policies and best practices of Small Flockers, so that this becomes the nexus of sharing and celebrating everything Small Flocker.

I therefore call upon all our readers around the world for what they have done to improve their flocks and better serve their local communities.  You are all requested and invited to share your stories, pictures, and other successes here.

The dysfunctional CAFO chicken factories and their quota monopolies, lies, cheating, and incest are hereby abandoned, out of the spotlight, and can wallow in their own filth as long as they want, slowly rotting, rusting and inbreeding to their heart's content.  We are done with them.  Good-bye.

Your Chicken Choice Is Clear

We now have scientific evidence that pastured chicken is more nutritious than the CAFO chicken factory meat sold in the typical grocery store.  Your choice in chicken is now clear.

The Choice in Chicken is Now Clear

I have previously posted comments made by a number of sources that free range and/or pastured chicken was better, but I was never able to find hard scientific numbers to back it up.  Fortunately, courtesy of our American neighbours, we now have those science-based data to support the former anecdotal testimonies.

I have previous posted about the good fats and other benefits of pastured and free-range chicken (see Blog postings Animal Fat in our Diets, Vegetable Oils, Food Quality & Nutrition: Factory Chicken Vs. Alternatives, Pastured Poultry and Mental Health).

Figure 1:   Comparison of chicken fats from CAFO chicken factories Vs.
Pastured Poultry.  As can be easily seen here, pastured poultry is better
in at least 10 out of 12 categories.  Recent research shows dietary
cholesterol is no longer seen as a problem, and is essential for building
healthy membranes within all cells,  so that would make pastured chicken
better in 11 out of 12 categories (no data exists in the 12th category, so no
comparison can be made in the final category.   Source: APPPA

American Pastured Poultry Producers Association ("APPPA") conducted the research "Pasture and Feed Affect Broiler Carcass Nutrition", on the nutritional difference between pastured chicken and the CAFO factory chicken that is ubiquitously available in all Canadian grocery stores.  The APPPA's summary report was written by Mike  Badger, revised 4/22/2015.

As compared to CAFO factory farm chicken, pastured chicken has been found to have:

• 33% less of the bad Omega-6 fat;
• 91% more of the good Omega-3 fat,
• 47% to 80% better Omega-6:Omega-3 ratio (depending on the supplemental feed used);
• 407% more Vitamin E;
• 52% less Saturated Fat
• 53% less Monosaturated fat;
• 32% less polyunsaturated fat;
• 50% less fat (all types).
  

All About Fats

Trans fats are the worst, often created by the chemical factory processing of vegetable oils via high temperature oil extraction (often using petroleum based solvents such as hexane), deodorization, or hydrogenation. Because they have been deodorized, we can no longer detect when the oil has gone rancid, enabling us to unwittingly consume rancid oils.  Deodorizing these oils is the same as a car manufacturer purposefully not installing the LOW OIL PRESSURE switch on your car's engine, perhaps with the purpose that you will destroy your engine, and they can sell you a new car sooner.

Next worst after trans fats are PUFA's (Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids).  PUFA's are an essential fat (ie. we need it but our bodies can't produce our own, so we must consume it from our food), but we only need a tiny bit that is naturally occurring in many foods.  PUFA's are unstable due their unsaturated double bond, are easily oxidized, and quickly go rancid.  When eaten in excess, PUFA's have a terrible effect on our liver, pancreas, thyroid, and obesity.  Eating PUFA's at the same time as fructose maximizes the harm, as these interact to form AGE's (Advanced Glycation Endproducts).  Omega-6 (eg. Linoleic acid such as corn oil, canola oil, and most other liquid oils, salad dressings, margarines, etc.) is a PUFA which is one of the worst, clearly shown to cause or contribute to coronary heart disease.  Omega-6 fats also tend to cause or contribute to systemic inflammation in our bodies (eg. irritable bowel, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.).  In North America, we consume way too much Omega-6 PUFA fat; 8 times more than historically.  The rest of the world has followed us down this swampy path to PUFA hell, hurting their health too.

Omega-3 ( α-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) obtained from foods such as flax seed, cold water fish, etc.) is also a PUFA.  Omega-3 tends to counteract many of the negative consequences of Omega-6.  Omega-3 is best consumed as food rather than as a pill or other supplements (eg. fish oil), as too much Omega-3 is not good for you, and pills are of questionable quality and freshness (ie. likely they are contaminated or denatured by the extraction process, and likely oxidized or rancid due to sitting too long on the shelf).  The ALA type of Omega-3, primarily from flax seeds and other vegetable sources, can't be metabolized directly, so the body has to convert ALA to EPA &/or DHA for it to be used, and that conversion process is long and inefficient, so animal sources of Omega-3 are the best.

PUFA's are in most foods, so it is very difficult to avoid them. In meats, the PUFA's aren't as bad as the vegetable oils, usually because the meat isn't rancid, and if it is rancid, it's easily detected, and rancid meat likely won't be eaten due to the terrible taste.

First and foremost, PUFA's should be severely limited in our diets.  For the small amounts of PUFA's that are permitted to remain in our diet, the next important factor is the Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio.

Before humans got their first chemistry set for Christmas, it is believed that human diets had an Omega6:Omega3 ratio of 1:1.  A ratio of 4 or below is generally considered excellent (ie. 4 parts Omega-6, 1 part Omega-3).   Unfortunately, mainly due to our modern foods made by Mad Scientists and their chemistry sets, or processed foods, and/or CAFO factory farming, our typical diet in North America has way too much Omega-6, and our N. American diet ratio of Omega-6:Omega-3 is often as high as 20:1

Ouch!

To understand the healthier choices in meat, most science-based nutritionists suggest looking at minimizing the amount of Omega-6, then minimize the ratio between Omega-6 to Omega-3 fats in the meat.  

Looking at the table above, we can see that soy-free pastured chicken has 32.9% less Omega-6 fat, and as low as a 3:1 ratio, both of which are excellent for a healthy diet.

This research also shows that when chicken feed is made with soybean meal as the primary protein source, the chickens tend to add significantly more body fat.  However, when peas are used as the primary source of protein, the chickens tend to be significantly less fatty.  Of course CAFO chicken factories tend to be highly reliant on soybean meal as a cheap source of protein.  Non-soy fed pastured chicken has a ratio as low as 3:1 (ie. excellent), while USDA tests of CAFO chicken factory meats have a  15:1 ratio (ie. not so healthy).  On this basis, pastured chicken is up to 5 times better than meat from CAFO chicken factories.

Omega-9 (eg. oleic fats, such as olive oil) are mono-unsaturated fats ("MUFA") that are generally considered as excellent dietary fats, better than PUFA's.  However if a MUFA is used in a high heat cooking process (eg. grilling, frying, roasting, etc.), it will denature and form bad oxidation products.

8 Chicken legs (2.23 kg raw) were roasted,
producing 150 ml (144 grams) of excess fat in
the bottom of the roasting pan.  This excess
CAFO factory farming fat is $0.5 Billion
per year of waste to Canadians.

Practical Test of CAFO Chicken

To put this information to a practical test, I purchased two packages of whole chicken legs (4 drumstick & thighs per package, 8 legs in total, with skin), for a total raw weight of 2.23 kg.  I paid the standard Chicken Mafia gouging prices Canadians must pay due to this unholy Chicken Mafia monopoly.

I roasted the chicken and collected the grease left in the pan.  After cooking,  I had 150 ml of rendered chicken fat in the bottom of the pan.  I'm sure there was still some additional fat in the skin and on the legs that didn't liquefy.  That excess chicken fat weighed 144 grams, so we had 6.41% (ie. 144/2230*100%= 6.41%) of the raw purchased weight ended up as unusable fat in the bottom of the roasting pan.

The Hidden Costs of Soybean based Chicken Feeds

According to CFC's Annual Report for 2014 (see page 18), Canada's Chicken Mafia raised a total of 1,067,291,000 kg of eviscerated chicken in 2014.  Assuming my home kitchen test applies to all of that Chicken Mafia chicken, that 6.41% excess fat converts to a total loss to Canadians of 68.41 million kg of wasted fat.  Statistics Canada Table 326-0012 reported the Canadian average cost of whole chicken in 2014 was $7.23/kg., so that excess CAFO fat is a total loss caused by excess, unhealthy fat of $494.6 million per year; forced upon Canadians with no knowledge, disclosure, nor choice.

As calculated above, the CAFO chicken fat isn't healthy for us to eat, and overly fattened CAFO chickens wastes about $0.5 Billion per year from Canada's wallets.

In addition, soybeans are well known for their isoflavones (such as genistein and others, plant compounds that mimic human estrogen).  Soybean is the leading suspect in causing 9 yr. old girls to grow breasts and start early menstruation.  See this Scientific American article.

While the soybean is a relatively cheap source of protein, perhaps there are reasons for it being cheap, and we need to be wary of the hidden consequences of that cheap protein source.

No doubt, soybean-based feeds for chickens will maximize the Chicken Mafia's profits.  However, perhaps  it would be far better for Canada and Canadians if there was a different feed formulation and/or better CAFO growing methods so as to avoid adding this excessive and wasteful fat to their chickens.

Epilogue

There ought to be a law against the dysfunctional and questionable practices of the Chicken Mafia and their CAFO chicken factory methods.

Let this be a lesson to all of us.  This is what happens when we are provided no choice.  This is what happens when the Chicken Mafia is expected to make all the choices on our behalf, and we end up with no choice, and the final product presented to us happens
to be better for the Chicken Mafia, than for us.

In short, buy pastured, free range chicken, especially if it is fed a non-soy ration to supplement its natural diet of grass & bugs.  That's the best for both you and the planet.

Chicken Consumer Due Diligence

If the Chicken Mafia are surviving and prospering by spewing their propaganda far and wide, what can a consumer do to overcome the lies, half truths, and misleading omissions by the CAFO chicken factory owners and their henchmen?

Consumers must fight back with due diligence.



The above clip from the TV show Portlandia satirizes what well informed restaurant staff must go through to make a sale to overly conscientious guests who must know the provenance of the chicken on the menu.

It's funny because it went to an extreme.  It's sad, because that is what consumers are being forced to do more and more so as to overcome the Big Food propaganda machine.

C4: Canadian Campylobacter Contaminated Chicken

About half of Canada's chicken on retail store shelves is contaminated with campylobacter jejuni.

FoodNet Canada collects food safety surveillance samples at 3 different sentinal sites (Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta) on behalf of Public Health Agency of Canada.  In the 2014 Short Report of FoodNet Canada, they reported:

• "In 2014, Campylobacter and Salmonella remained the most common causes of human enteric illness in the [three] sentinel sites",
• "Campylobacter was the most prevalent pathogen found on skinless chicken breast in all sites with close to one-half of all samples testing positive.";
• "In turkey [farms] in the BC [sentinal] site, Campylobacter was again the most common pathogen found in 2014, as in 2013. Campylobacter was also commonly found in beef and dairy manure samples in the ON [sentinal] site, as in previous years. Campylobacter prevalence in broiler chickens was variable across the [3 sentinal] sites, ranging from 8.7% - 22%.";
• "...the 2014 FoodNet Canada sampling year have demonstrated that retail meat products, particularly chicken products, remain an important source of human enteric pathogens."

Perhaps Canada's Chicken Mafia thinks this level of chicken contamination is OK, because UK's CAFO chicken is 73% contaminated and US CAFO chicken is about 40% contaminated, so Canada's CAFO chicken is in the middle of the pack.

The common denominator across Canada, UK, and USA is their use of dysfunctional CAFO technologies, which causes serious problems in all countries that use CAFO.  Most unfortunately, those CAFO risks spill over to all countries who don't use CAFO.  Everybody on the planet gets impacted by CAFO, whether their country has used CAFO, or not.

Who Cares?

OK, so Canada's chicken is contaminated.  So what's the big deal?  Can't I just wash it off?  If I cook it properly, won't it kill the bugs?

Good questions.  Perhaps you don't have to worry.  On the other hand...

In the 2014-2015 year long study for the UK study of chicken in UK grocery stores , they found that 7% of the chicken packaging was contaminated with deadly bacteria on the exterior surface of the packaging.  I think it's reasonable to assume the same packaging contamination exists in Canada and USA.  Therefore:

• When you pick up the package from the meat counter, those deadly bacteria are now all over your hands.  If you touch your mouth or eyes, you will likely be infected, and can get very sick.  If you touch your child, or your fresh vegetables, now they are contaminated too.
   
• If your package of CAFO chicken brushes up against your fresh vegetables while they're in your shopping cart, you may die from this invisible mistake.
   
• Somebody used your shopping cart before you arrived at the grocery store.  What will happen to you if that prior cart user handled or purchased CAFO contaminated chicken?  In that case, the inside of your grocery cart may be contaminated with deadly bacteria before you begin your shopping.  It isn't enough to sanitize just the handle of your shopping cart.
  
  
• If you put your CAFO chicken into your reusable shopping bag to take it home, the contamination on the packaging exterior (plus any meat juice that oozes out of the package) has now contaminated your shopping bag.  How often do you sanitize the interior of your shopping bags?  Do you keep just one specially marked shopping bag for just CAFO chicken?  If you don't, the next time you go shopping, you may cross-contaminate your fresh produce and kill a family member.
  

  

  A HAZMAT suit, optional
  equipment for buying,
  storing, or cooking CAFO
  chicken in Canada

Have I got you scared yet?

Here are our recommendations on how to buy, store and cook CAFO chicken factory meat. So far, a HAZMAT suit is optional.

If you try to wash the bugs off your chicken, you will likely splash those bugs all over your kitchen counters and anything sitting on them within a 10 ft. radius from the sink.  Each micro drop splashing off the chicken can have enough bacteria to make a person seriously ill.

A scientific study has shown that the 50% probability of an infective dose of campylobacter for humans is approximately 900 cells; thus, the potential for human exposure to the bacteria through cross contamination, poor hygiene, or undercooking in the kitchen is high.

That is why public health officials recommend against washing the chicken before cooking.

Why don't they tell the public that a farmer with a sharp knife can kill and process a chicken with 96% less bacterial contamination than the CAFO chicken factories and their high speed processing lines?

Beyond the health risks, there is nutrition and taste.

Why don't they tell people there are alternatives to CAFO, such as pastured poultry, where no antibiotics are required, the birds are healthier and happier, the resulting meat is better tasting, and the nutrition levels in that pastured chicken is far superior to that produced by a CAFO system?

How Sick Will You Get?

How sick you get will depend upon your prior health, how big of a dose of bacteria you get, the state of your immune system, and how quickly you get the right medical help.

Campylobacter jejuni, has been recognized as a major cause of acute bacterial gastroenteritis in humans since the late 1970s and it is estimated that Campylobacter sp. are responsible for 400–500 million cases of diarrhea each year on a worldwide basis.

Prior to 1992, fluoroquinolone (FQ) antimicrobials (e.g., ciprofloxacin) resistance in Campylobacter was rarely observed in the USA and Canada, but several recent reports have indicated that approximately 19–47% of Campylobacter strains isolated from humans were resistant to ciprofloxacin.

That means it isn't a sure thing that a hospital can cure you of a campylobacter infection by using antibiotics.  If it gets bad, you could die, or have a few feet length of your bowl removed during emergency surgery.

This Blog has previously reported on the mis-use of ciprofloxin by the Chicken Mafia.  All CAFO chicken factories are supposed to be monitored by the supreme Chicken Farmers of Canada ("CFC"), as well as their respective provincial Chicken Mafia boss.  In spite of this alleged monitoring and supervision, more than one CAFO chicken factory was caught using illegal feed laced with this antibiotic; a ploy to maximize that CAFO farmer's profit and minimize their risk, in spite of the added risks to the public from their bad behaviour.  Fortunately, Public Health Canada discovered their plot, found them, and stopped them from continuing to feed this illegal antibiotic to chickens that produce eggs for hatching into meat birds.

The circle closes.  Campylobacter resistance to ciprofloxin is rapidly growing, likely caused or contributed to by the mis-use of this drug by the Chicken Mafia.  Unfortunately, it isn't just ciprofloxin where the mis-use of antibiotics occur.

Public Health Agency of Canada has reported that:

 "each year there are 4000 hospitalizations (range 3200–4800) and 105 (range 75–139) deaths associated with domestically acquired foodborne illness related to 30 known pathogens and 7600 (range 5900–9650) hospitalizations and 133 (range 77–192) deaths associated with unspecified agents, for atotal estimate of 11,600 (range 9250–14,150) hospitalizations and 238 (range 155–323) deaths associated with domestically acquired foodborne illness in Canada."

and

"Key pathogens associated with these hospitalizations or deaths include norovirus, nontyphoidal Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., VTEC O157 and Listeria monocytogenes"

and

"These estimates of hospitalizations and deaths capture only a part of the burden for all pathogens as they only account for acute illness and do not include hospitalizations or deaths related to chronic sequelae associated with the original infection (e.g., Guillain-Barre´ syndrome associated with Campylobacter spp.). Additional work to better understand the burden of chronic sequelae associated with foodborne pathogens in Canada is needed to inform Disability-Adjusted Life Years and cost estimates and facilitate international comparisons."

Those who become infected by campylobacter sometimes develop Guillain–Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disease where, instigated by the campylobacter infection, the body attacks the nerves, dissolving the myelin sheath on the nerves, resulting in numbness, nerve tingling, paralysis, and other serious symptoms.  In the worst case, you can no longer breath, just like in polio, so you get placed on a respirator.  Since the widespread vaccination for polio, Guillain–Barré syndrome has become the #1 cause of flaccid paralysis which puts people onto respirators. 

One study found that campylobacter infections caused 30 cases of  Guillain–Barré syndrome per 100,000 persons infected with campylobacter.  The risk of developing Guillain–Barré syndrome is 100 times greater due to campylobacter than all other causes of this disease.

The National Institute of Health says:

• "there is no known cure for Guillain-Barré syndrome."
   
• "Guillain-Barré syndrome can be a devastating disorder because of its sudden and unexpected onset. In addition, recovery is not necessarily quick. As noted above, patients usually reach the point of greatest weakness or paralysis days or weeks after the first symptoms occur. Symptoms then stabilize at this level for a period of days, weeks, or, sometimes, months. The recovery period may be as little as a few weeks or as long as a few years. About 30 percent of those with Guillain-Barré still have a residual weakness after 3 years. About 3 percent may suffer a relapse of muscle weakness and tingling sensations many years after the initial attack. Guillain-Barré syndrome patients face not only physical difficulties, but emotionally painful periods as well. It is often extremely difficult for patients to adjust to sudden paralysis and dependence on others for help with routine daily activities. Patients sometimes need psychological counseling to help them adapt."

In short, if the government allows CAFO chicken factories to continue causing campylobacter outbreaks, the Chicken Mafia are being allowed to play with fire, and it's you and me who get tossed into that fire.

Mis-Use of Antibiotics

As mentioned in yesterday's Blog posting about the MCR-1 fiasco, this mis-use of important antibiotics by CAFO factories has been going on for more than 46 years.

It's about time the government brought it to a full and complete stop.

Unfortunately, the government's current plan is to coast into the next exit ramp, then take a different antibiotic highway (ie. the back roads), so that it isn't so obvious that the Chicken Mafia will continue doing what they do best, screwing and endangering the public so they can maximize their profits.

The Chicken Mafia are already multi-millionaires.  Why do the Chicken Mafia have to put the whole planet at risk so they can earn an artificially higher income?

I guess they feel being a multi-millionaire isn't enough, they want to be a billionaire.

Chicken Traceability

Traceability for our food is terrible to non-existant.  There is better traceability for auto parts than food.  Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada ("SFPFC") leads the way to a new world standard for poultry traceability.  We challenge all other food suppliers to duplicate our solution and follow us, if they dare.

Figure 1:   Label on the chicken sold Farm Gate from my farm.
Click on the image for a full size version.  This label provides consumers full
disclosure on their chicken, from hatching to consumer's fork.  The Internet
link (in this case http://blacksbay.com/farm/flocks/BBF201510002.pdf ) and
the scannable QR Code both give the URL containing all the farmer's info
on these chickens.  Scan the QR code with your Smart Phone, or click
on the link and see how it works; instant disclosure at your fingertips.

If you have a QR code on a food label like that shown in Figure 1 for my farm, you can:

• Scan the QR code using the camera on your Smart phone using a free App on your phone (eg. a Barcode Scanner from GooglePlay or equivalent), or
  
   
• Use WebQR (using your desktop or laptop webcam); or
  
   
• ZXing (crawls a web page looking for an on-line QR code)

Farmers can also hand out hard copies of the document.  However consumers get to the traceability & disclosure document, they can now get full disclosure on the chicken they are thinking of buying.  If done by the Chicken Mafia, that freedom to choose well can be done right at the grocery store meat counter.

Eventually, consumer advocacy groups may pour over the detailed disclosure documents and rank chicken suppliers (eg. Green, Yellow, Red), or the Top Ten for a region, Province, or Canada overall.  This can help consumers quickly decide if they should buy, or keep walking along the grocery store aisle.

Too Much Information?

Some consumers don't want to know the squishy details of what happens to chickens as they grow, and especially when they go to slaughter.  For their sensitivities, too much info makes the meat impossible to eat.  For them, the funny QR code on the label can be safely ignored and put out of mind.  All they have to do is follow the herd (ie. the rest of their family and neighbours) who have done the detailed research and discovered the best chicken to buy.  The sensibilities of the sensitive are protected.

Farmer's Overhead & Paperwork

 Will this proposed system add unfair burdens to small farmers.  I've done it, and believe it is easily managed by all.  The steps are as follows:

Step #	Step Description	Man-hrs	Expenses, $	Total, $
1	Become a member of SFPFC, and obtain a free copy of SFPFC's disclosure & traceability form, and the MS Publisher meat label template.	0.25	1.00	3.50
2	Fill in the form &/or customize the form for your farm	1.5	0.00	15.00
3	Upload the disclosure document to your farm’s website.  If you don’t have your own website, obtain a free Dropbox.com account (or equivalent) and upload completed disclosure form.  Get the link to your document to share with the world.	0.5	0.00	5.00
4	Use http://goog.le to create short URL, then a QR code image to that shortened URL.  Copy the QR code image to your computer.	0.25	0.00	2.50
5	Place the QR code on the label you will apply to your chickens for sale.  Paste the original URL link into the label.  Print enough labels to apply to all your chickens.	0.5	0.00	5.00
TOTALS		3.0	1.00	31.00

The above costs and steps are in addition to the current chicken labeling system of today.  Assuming $10/hr labor rate, if a farmer is producing 300 chickens per year as a Small Flocker, assuming 2.2 kg birds, this traceability system adds $0.047 per kg to the cost of your chicken.  If you are an Artisanal Chicken farmer under CFO's new program, this disclosure form adds $0.0047 per kg. to your costs. If a chicken factory farmer is producing 200,000 birds per year, the farm gate price must rise by $0.00007 per kg.

Once a farmer has done this for their first flock, it becomes much faster & easier for all subsequent flocks to copy & paste the info.

While I am all for reducing overhead as much as possible, to me, this seems to be a reasonable and affordable cost, with huge benefits for consumers.

Canada's Chicken Mafia

Due to a marketing opportunity, CFC and CFO have adopted a "Canadian grown chicken" trademark, but refuse to provide any additional information.  By carefully reading the package, you can find where the chicken was slaughtered, but that the end of the info consumers are permitted to know.  Big national brands market the chicken, but hide which farms were contracted to grow that chicken.  They pretend that all farms, all farmers, and all chicken are identical; a fungible commodity like salt, sugar, and wheat.

Of course, the fossilized multi-millionaire chicken factory owners currently enjoy their secrecy and information vacuum, and don't want educated consumers.  They buy media time to spew their marketing propaganda.  Generalities and platitudes work well when consumers are sleeping and unduly trust their food suppliers.  That is why they have done nothing ever since I originally proposed improved chicken traceability way back in April 2013 (see Blog Posting Trace Your Chicken ).

While propaganda as summarized by Edward Bernays in 1928 was a powerful tool used by the Nazi's Minister of Propaganda Goebbels, and for other evil purposes, it isn't all powerful.  When given a voice, the truth can expose and destroy any propaganda.  I doubt that the Chicken Mafia is more powerful and devious than the Nazis regime.

False Documents

Just because a document happens to state something, it doesn't make it so.  Fraudsters well understand the power of false documents.  However any document is better for consumers than an information vacuum.  Once a document exists, that document can be checked for ambiguities, comprehensiveness, supporting and collaborating evidence from trusted sources, and other evidence or verification.  If a document is found to be silent, ambiguous, or lack comprehensiveness, consumers can complain or refuse to buy.  The complaints and lost sales can continue increasing until the supplier responds by improving the traceability and disclosure document.  Once started, the document can be improved, and then improved some more as customers compare between their current supplier and a better supplier.

If a supplier dares to issue a false or misleading document, the document (and its issuer) will eventually be found out.  At that point, we have a criminal and/or civil offense that can be prosecuted, initiated by a complaint by a government official, a competitor of the fraudster, or a consumer.  A documented traceability and disclosure system can be self policing.

The current vacuum of information can never self police.

Small Flockers Lead The Way

I now have about 400 lbs of chicken, duck, and goose meat for sale to interested persons in my small Northern Ontario community using this traceability system.  With time, I hope other chicken farmers come join me.  If you are a member of SFPFC, you can get a free copy of the form to customize it to your farm.  SFPFC membership has its privileges and advantages!

I believe this proposed traceability is in the best interest of consumers, and is therefore in the long term best interest of chicken producers.

How long will the CFO chicken fossils resist and fight against this trend?