http://www.truthdig.com/interview/page4/20060411_michael_pollan_interview/
Quote,
Does the same thing go for free-range chickens and eggs?
It's very interesting. Free-range chickens-I did go visit a large organic
chicken producer here in California, and if you look at their label, there's
a farmstead with a little silo and a farm house and a farmyard and chickens
running around, but if you go to the farm, the chickens are grown in these
huge barracks as long as a football field. They're indoors, there are 20,000
of them in a house, and running along this barrack is what looks like a
little front lawn-mowed, maybe 15 or 20 feet deep.
"Whole Foods is very cleverly designed, but it's based on illusions. If you
go to the farm depicted on those labels, you find that in fact, things look
a little bit different."
--Michael Pollan
There's a little door at either side of the barrack where, theoretically,
chickens could step outside and take the air. But they don't. One reason is
that the doors are closed until the chickens are about five weeks old.
The farmers-if you can use that word, the managers-are concerned that the
chickens might catch their death of cold or pick up a germ, so they don't
open the doors until the chickens are five weeks old. They smother them at
seven weeks; so it's not exactly a lifestyle. It's more like a two-week
vacation option. And the chickens don't avail themselves of this option
because they've never been outside before. They're terrified of going
outside. First of all, it's not big enough for the whole flock. Second of
all, the food and water is inside; they're not used to it; they weren't
brought up this way. They're like the cat in the Manhattan apartment; when
you open the door they just stand there in terror wondering about the other
dimension of reality outside that door.
Free range is a conceit. It's to make us feel better about these chickens.
It's not doing anything for the chickens, as far as I can tell.
Yes, that organic chicken is still a better product, I think. It's getting
better feed, it's got a few more inches of legroom than a conventional
chicken, but it's not all it's cracked up to be.
End quote.
The remark about "Whole Foods" was in a box to the side. I couldn't tell
whether he was speaking of Whole Foods, the business, or Whole Foods in
general.
Dee Dee