Fighting Global Warming and Lab Meat…One Chicken at a Time
True confessions: I don’t pay much attention to the news. It’s repetitious, depressing, and I can’t do anything about most of it, anyway.
How-ev-er. Being in the homesteading / pastured poultry world, I do hear a good bit about the push to create meat in the lab using stem cells.
(Mmmm. Burgers, anyone?)
Of course, the reason claimed for this push is, in great part, to answer the environmental issues we run into when we raise thousands of animals at one time in a confined area. There is the enormous waste of fossil fuels, transporting animals hundreds of miles to the feed lot, then to the processing plant, then to the grocery store, and who knows where in between.
(Note: I realize there are lots of opinions out there about what “they” are intending with lab meat. I will NOT get into that, as there are probably nearly as many opinions as there are people. I can’t fix “them.” But I CAN steward MY corner of the world, and YOU can help by “voting with your dollars.”
Now, in addition to the waste of fossil fuels, imagine the manure load of your average CAFO (Confinement Animal Feed Operation)! Depending on the species, we’re talking about 700-1000 cattle, or about 100,000 chickens under one (admittedly large) roof.
Folks…that’s a lot of dung!
And what do you DO with it all?
Consider, too, processing day. We get the meat and a few of the bones at the grocery store. (And of course we want the convenience of boneless/skinless!) But there is a heck of a lot more to an animal than meat and the few bones we (may) see.
Some of you are familiar with buying a “whole hog” or a “side of beef.” You know that you typically pay for “hanging weight” of a beef, but you only bring home about 65% of that weight…the rest is the hide, the guts, the head, etc.
On a 1,400 pound cow, that’s 490 pounds of waste. Per. Cow.
And large processing plants slaughter anywhere from 3,000 - 7,000 cows. Per. Day.
Let that sink in a minute!
So what do “they” do with ALL THAT? Getting back to chicken, according to the all-knowing (?) AI, the largest slaughterhouses in America process 125,000 chickens daily. Even if that is exaggerated, we’re talking a lot of feathers.
Well, I’m small-scale, but even I know what happens if I improperly manage the manure my chickens lay down. It STINKS. It smells like ammonia. What IS THAT smell, anyway? That smell is nitrogen being released into the air. Useful nitrogen being wasted, and not only being wasted, but HARMING the environment.
And THAT is some of the reasoning behind lab meat! All of those chemicals being released into the environment from ALL of that manure, ALL of the carcasses of dead animals, is changing our air…changing our environment. Lab meat could theoretically “fix” that problem.
Folks, that IS a problem. I don’t like lab meat…I think it’s an awful solution. But, admittedly, there IS a problem that needs solved!
So what do we do?
Well, here at the Cluckery, we have a solution. It wouldn’t work so well for a CAFO. But for a homestead? For a small producer?
On OUR farm, we can never have too much manure!
Compost: the transforming principle of regenerative farming
I’ve often joked that if Kevin bought me a diamond ring, I’d wonder why he had wasted his money. Unless I could sell it to buy manure, of course, because to a homesteader, manure is worth more than diamonds.
(I think I’ll get a t-shirt made: “Manure is a farm girl’s best friend!” I know! I need “Merch!” It’s sure to be a best-seller.)
So, first, there is the daily management of all that “stuff.” Here it is, Cluckery-style, in a nutshell.
First, the brooder.
The brooder is where the chicks spend the first three weeks of their lives, when they are too small, too delicate to live outside. Believe you me, 150 chicks can lay down a LOT of manure, right quick-like! And if we don’t manage it properly, it will soon release nitrogen into the air…ammonia, that is. Not only is it bad for the environment, it is death to chickens’ lungs. So we constantly add more wood shavings to their brooder, which they joyfully scratch around. The wood shavings act as a “bank,” holding that nitrogen safely until we clean out the brooder, moving the whole kit and kaboodle to a compost pile to finish breaking down into a beautiful, living soil.
Living soil…the kind that has more living organisms in one handful than there are people on the planet.
Next, the pasture.
The pasture is where we start daily moves in our chickens tractors. “Tractoring” lets us direct the animals’ manure at a rate the soil can metabolize…while protecting them from predators. In the beginning, we move them daily. As time progresses, we go to twice or even three times daily. When giving farm tours, one of my favorite things is to walk backwards along the path the chickens followed…just to see how quickly the land regenerates after getting just the right burst of natural fertilizer. Where they were yesterday is NASTY. If the day is really humid, that spot DOES stink. But not with a “too many chickens in one place for too long” stink, nothing that’ll choke you, and we sure don’t need CAFO respirators! It’s just an “okay, they’ve got animals here” smell, and the odor doesn’t linger. Where they were a week ago has brown patches, but the grass growing throughout is a brilliant green. And where they were three weeks ago? Rich, deep, green…a green to do Ireland proud!
Finally, the processing.
This is the ugliest part. Yet it is also a part of life. It is sort of “the gift that keeps on giving,” because in order for me to eat, something must be sacrificed, whether plant or animal. So here at The Cluckery, we honor that gift by using it to its fullest potential. All of “the ugly” stuff is taken to the compost pile, surrounded by and mixed with wood chips and other plant residue so it doesn’t stink or draw varmints. And just a few short weeks later, it has become a vital part of the richest soil imaginable, living, vibrant, with a wonderful, earthy smell, ready to grow tomatoes and calendula, zucchini and basil…or even sunflowers to feed our chickens!
And THAT, folks, is the beauty of stewardship farming.
Barefootin’ it in a lush blend of sunflowers, carrots, nasturtiums, tomatoes, bachelors buttons, holy basil, okra…ahhh, the glories of compost!