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Organic or battery? |
I am not a Daily Mail reader, but sometimes I wish my favourite leftwing broadsheet has the same tenacity and imagination to bring R&D materials to life.
On Sunday, the Daily Mail reported on a Bristol University study which concludes that ‘organic chickens have less flavour’. The research, originally published in the British Poultry Science journal, “involved a panel of ten tasters blind tasting samples from 120 chickens which had been reared in various ways”.
Dr Paul Warriss, who led the study at the university’s school of veterinary science, told the Mail that “in general, higher ratings were given for texture, juiciness, flavour and overall preference for meat from the birds reared in the standard system.”
Although it sounds like a press release from the pro-antibacterial camps, this is an interesting piece of news.
Actually, you can find a lot of extremely interesting stuff if you have the time to browse through PubMed, that very useful online service ran by the US National Library of Medicine. Never mind the Daily Mail. If you want to be entertained/horrified/incensed/intrigued, go to PubMed.
I did a story on the possibility of tumour caused by RFID chips in dogs and cats based on the leads found on PubMed. Typically, it’s the kind of news that won’t be taken up by the mainstream papers (because it’s about dead pets, not dead humans), and the type that veterinary associations and their sponsors would keep at an arm’s length.
One thing you have to remember about R&D news is that just because it’s based on some fancy studies, has plenty of numbers, Latin words and incredible job titles (Prof, Dr and so on), it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the news with a pinch of salt.
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They're not free-range, so they're not fashionable |
But I won’t knock battery chickens as well. I grew up on them; I still buy what Tesco calls “Caged Eggs” (does that mean the eggs are caged?) and I understand it is impossible for chicken producers to generate a large amount of supply in a short time and make profits without relying on antibacterials (Feeding the 300 million, April 2008).
What I am curious to know, as a consumer, is what organic means under the current EU regulations. Different countries have different definitions. The EU and the US have comprehensive organic legislation. In Australia, there are no organic standards for produce at domestic level. Australia only bothers when it comes to food export.
In my previous life as a technology reporter, when I was researching a piece about International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for wireless devices, a PR person told me: “You know that some ISOs are not given out by government bodies, but by private companies sub-contracted by the government?” Similarly, in some countries, the organic certification is given out by private companies sub-contracted by the governments.
I am not saying that government agencies are not immune to corruption. I am just saying that private agencies are driven by bottomline.
Labelling is also another issue. According to the Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007: “The aim (of the proposed regulation) is to have the lowest possible presence of GMOs in organic products. The existing labelling thresholds represent ceilings which are exclusively linked to the adventitious and technically unavoidable presence of GMOs.”
So do I care if organic chickens have less flavour or not? Maybe you do. I don’t. What goes into my curry will always taste like curry. What I want to know is: how truly organic is our organic chicken?
2 comments:
All chicken is organic! It all contains carbon atoms, or if you want the other meaning - it all comes from something that was alive.
If you want to use the misleading and dishonest definition used by the marketing group then of course none of it is. All chickens eat feed and breathe. The plants also exist in the atmosphere and the soil. Somewhere sometime the nasty chemicals (in addition to chemicals such as H2O etc) will be somewhere in the air, somewhere in the soil and somewhere in the organic labelled chook you buy.
I suggest go with the flavour and don't stuff it up with curry!0
I can not wait until dinner! To keep my ecological foot print low I like to eat local as much as possible. This is why I intern with the Eat Well Guide. We've teamed up with Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports) to issue the Local, Organic Thanksgiving Challenge this year. Will you join us? And share a recipe? Read more on the Green Fork www.blog.eatwellguide.org/2008/11/take-the-local-organic-thanksgiving-challenge
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