For a while now, I've belonged to a chicken-and-egg CSA from Soul Food Farm, a pasture-based chicken farm in Vacaville, California. I do this for a number of good reasons, from the altruistic (supporting a small farm and local, sustainable agriculture) to the greedy (these are the freshest, best-tasting chickens and eggs I've ever had.)
My pastured chickens come with their heads and feet still attached which means I've had to teach myself a few basic chicken butchery tricks. The mechanics aren't that difficult, but it is a very different experience emotionally when I cut open the wrapper and find a chicken head staring back at me.
I've read many accounts of this experience now that more and more people are taking up raising their own meat animals and learning about butchery. The responses have ranged from absolute indifference to abject, vegan-making disgust. But mostly it is somewhere in the middle, a complex cluster of squeamishness and fascination and hunger, all of which, when you think about it, are appropriate. In my opinion, what you feel is what what you feel and there is no right or wrong here. People are wired differently and some folks will have the stomach for this and some won't.
Does it make your food experience more authentic to be in touch with the whole animal? Does it make you a better person when you are reminded that what you are about to eat was once a living, breathing thing just like you? Should you eschew meat if you cannot bring yourself to kill or butcher it? Again, I have to say no. Some of us may need (or at least not mind) that very intimate, up-close experience that the killing and butchering brings. And some of us just aren't up for it. It has almost always been this way with human beings and is why some folks become butchers and others makers of hats or schoolteachers.
Of course, purchasing a cut-up chicken wrapped in cello does make it too easy for people to sidestep the fact that what they are about to consume was once alive and flapping its wings. And we pay a big price for this aversion, both individually and collectively. Our current, critically broken food system is based in part on this lack of concern for the suffering of animals and for that reason alone it needs some serious fixing.
But what about on an individual level? For me, dealing with a whole chicken has taught me a lot about respect and responsibility. By that I mean I can never become indifferent to the sacrifice behind what I am about to consume. I try to deal with this by always saying, either quietly in my own head or out loud if appropriate, a form of grace or thank you before consuming my food. I also try to purchase and consume well-raised meat, which usually means pastured-raised and therefore quite expensive. So I eat less meat and use up as much as I possibly can when I do.
And every now and then I try to touch that edge where I challenge my complacency. The Soul Food chickens helped with this recently when I pulled a collection of heads and feet from the freezer to make broth. I looked down at that jumble of odd and fascinating feet and the be-combed heads on my counter and was startled into being aware of their once-aliveness. My first instinct was to pull away but instead I leaned in even closer, examining and admiring the little toenails on the feet and the texture of skin on the neck, discovering a whole world of appreciation and fascination and beauty. Then with a deep breath I straightened up, said my thank you prayer and reached for my knife.
P.S. It's kind of hard to read in the photo above but the label also says "For Buddhist Religion." Neither the owner of Soul Food Farm nor her butcher knows why that is or what it means except that it is a USDA regulation to label chickens sold with their heads and feet intact in this manner. Does anyone know why?
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Dana,
USDA's FSIS Directive 6030.1 sheds some light on the "For Buddhist Religion" issue. It says, "poultry processed in accordance with Buddhist religious beliefs that require that the head and feet remain on eviscerated poultry" (p. 2). Under X.2.a. the Directive requires that labels must state that the meat was processed under a specific exemption, and that's why your meat says it. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind it, as this is simply the directive. A Google search only turned up three links for "USDA 'for Buddhist religion.'"
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISDirectives/6030.1Rev1.pdf
I started to raise my own chickens. It's a great experience.
I like using whole meat and seeing all parts. I do always add chicken feet to my soup, as it is way tastier. Whole fish are tastier too, and whole squid is fresher. People who are afraid of looking at these things are missing out on a lot of flavor.
My family is buddhist, and we use the whole chicken as offering to the gods. As a child, I went food shopping with my mom in Chinatown for whole chicken, and all the butchers carry them especially during the religious holidays. When we moved to the burbs, my mom felt that the supermarket cheated her on the chicken head and feet. So we started our weekly trek to Chinatown to get our meats and veggies.
Thank you for sharing this! I can totally relate, and so well put.
Dana, are the head and feet the only extras you get, or do you get the whole chicken, breast cavity intact? Cause I agree that having a head staring back at me would be unnerving. But having to open up the breast cavity and remove the lungs, heart, liver, entrails, etc, would just be more than I can 'stomach'.
My husband and I have started raising our own meat birds. It has been a great experience, especially the slaughter part. I know it may sound awful, but to be that involved in the process has made me immensely grateful anytime I eat meat. And I am much more informed about the whole process now too, which we keep as humane as possible.
Put me in that list of those who cannot stomach that intimacy with my meal. I can certainly appreciate that others can and will do this in my stead. As many have told me that they could not teach (I'm a high school history teacher) or do what I do, I do see a place for all of our talents.
I grew up in Vacaville! This is one reason for me to move back!
We are raised to have such strange and conflicting views about animals it is unsurprising that there is a range of emotional responses to them. We are raised to treat companion animals like family, we teach our children that's it's wrong to hurt the weak, the small, the defenseless animals, we scorn animal abuse and think that people who kill animals for pleasure alone are psychopaths. One thing is for sure, focusing on our emotional intuitions as an ethical guide to our treatment of animals is bound to fail us- emotionally, we are so inconsistent, broken, detached, asleep.
You can only learn so much about the true costs that are paid for the chicken on your plate by butchering the animal. In order to appreciate the animals we use in our food system, try seeing how they live. Visit a place like Farm Sanctuary where you can see rescued animals, learn about the lives they lived before they were rescued, and how they live now, when given space to live the lives they want to live. Rescued animals at farm sanctuaries are the best reminders of what the food industry costs, the incredible things that they endured, and the horrifying things that we, as strongest and most intelligent species on the planet, are capable of.
Interesting article.
One note though, please mention to the CSA that they should spell check their label "keep efrigerated".
In many countries, chickens are sold with head and feet intact. I thought Buddhists are supposed to be vegetarian?
This is why I do not eat meat anymore. I do not judge anyone who does, but it is no longer for me. I guess I am the disgusted vegan in this story.
My father raised cows and pigs when I was growing up. I could never eat the meat without thinking about petting the calves or about laughing at how cute the little piglets were.
The opening paragraph to this made me laugh aloud for some reason. Just the 'package open..ta-da! Chicken stare.'
I doubt I'd have a problem with it, and I think I'll try the chicken feet in soup trick someone noted above.
I love getting my hands dirty, handling my food, discovering the different parts of any raw ingredient I am preparing. I pull, push, knead, massage and meditate on the food I'm about to eat, whether it be meat, vegetables, or other. It makes me far more appreciative and in tune with what nourishes me.
fi_burke: The chicken cavities are cleaned out just like the usual supermarket chicken. I believe that if you leave the innards, the chicken will quickly become a health hazzard.
scwilson47: Ha! Good catch! I'll pass the 'efrigerated" on.
pearmelon: While many Buddhists are vegetarian, not all of them are. Tibetan Buddhists, of example, eat meat due perhaps to the fact that it is impossible to grow enough vegetables in Tibet's climate.
rebcres and virtualjess: Very thoughtful points. Thank you for sharing them.
@pearmelon: Most Thais are Buddhist, but very few of them are vegetarian.
Great post. That's how I became vegetarian almost two years ago - my parents were given a skinned rabbit and I just couldn't eat it. I decided that if I couldn't handle seeing a dead animal, then I shouldn't pick up meat from the supermarket simply because it's easier that way.
It doesn't mean I won't go back to eating meat some day or it's wrong to eat meat, but I do feel we should be able to face the fact we're eating dead animals.
That's how a Poulet de Bresse comes -- with head and feet still attached. You can ask the butcher to remove it for you, or you can do it yourself. I thought it would traumatize my children, but it doesn't. They are very aware where their food comes from, and although not happy at the fate of the animal, very appreciative of the meal that they have provided. I am surprised at how they manage to balance the situation... at first, when she was about 4 1/2, my daughter proclaimed herself a vegetarian, but it didn't last more than a couple of weeks.
(Tibetan buddhists are not vegetarian either -- they would be pretty hungry if they were...)
@ mschatelaine -- Can you buy a Poulet de Bresse in this country? Where?!!?!?! I spent a year in Bourg-en-Bresse, and have been pining for the chicken with blue feet ever since.
I'll deal with feet and heads if I get amazingly great tasting chicken and you're right, it's nice to reflect that this was once a living animal.
ps. extra parts for broth are never a bad thing.
@themegnapkin -- I'm in Switzerland...
The local market for the chicken is so strong (i.e., France and the few that make it outside of France, like into western Switzerland) that there simply is not enough Poulet de Bresse to export.
But I've read that there are passionate chicken growers in the U.S. raising a similar chicken... not quite the same, but...
(we are supposed to return to North America this year, and between French butter and the Poulet de Bresse, I am finding it very difficult to contemplate...)
My friend's mom runs Soul Food Farm! Great people who truly support the Vacaville community. Glad to hear of your support! I've passed this mention onto my friend and her mom!
My butcher here in Paris told me that the head and feet are left on so that you can determine freshness (the comb on the head) and whether it was free-range/spent time outside (feet). It makes sense to me (and it was fun to see him demonstrate his pride for his fantastic chickens - Bresse included).
So glad to see someone from back home (CA) doing something great!