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Fact vs. fiction on organic chicken
Friday 23 February 2007
Demand for organic poultry products is going up, but so is confusion about what exactly the organic label means. Andrew Maunder, commercial director of the south west's leading poultry company Lloyd Maunder Ltd., is keen to set the record straight.
There's no doubt about it, chicken is a staple food product in most people's shopping baskets today. It accounts for more than 50 per cent of all meat consumed in the UK each week – and a growing proportion of it is organically raised. Here at Lloyd Maunder, organic chicken production has grown by 33 per cent in the last year alone, and now accounts for more than 15 per cent of our total output.
But while sales are growing, so is confusion over what exactly the organic label means. And it's not surprising really. There's been a spate of national media coverage that, in my view, is ill informed and misleading. One such article in a leading Sunday paper left readers with the impression that organic chickens were being beak trimmed, ‘bred' in windowless sheds and fed non-organic feed. The paper's message board soon filled up with readers vowing never to eat organic chicken again.
The small farms producing chicken for Lloyd Maunder do so according to the Soil Association's stringent standards, and are regularly audited to ensure standards are being maintained. However there are two main organic certifications for table birds in the UK, and their standards are radically different. No wonder people are confused. Buy organic chicken in one supermarket and the conditions it's been raised in could be completely different to those of a chicken from another supermarket. This also goes a long way to explaining why in some supermarkets organic chicken is so much cheaper than in others.
I am as concerned about this as those people who want to eat organically. It does the industry no favours and it's inevitable that consumers will lose confidence in products for which the goal posts are constantly on the move. Of course the impact of any loss of confidence in the product will ultimately hit Lloyd Maunder's organic farmers hard – all 37 of them, who are growing organic poultry on small farms as part of a traditional mixed system that's been at the centre of Devonshire farming practice for generations.
Personally I believe that having one set of organic production standards, the highest practically possible, is the only way to guarantee consumer confidence. This should be the goal of the UK poultry industry as a whole. If there's just one consistent way an organic chicken can be reared, consumers will be able to trust the integrity of what it is they're buying and eating. Whatever that standard ultimately is, I believe it must involve growing poultry in small colonies, in rotation with other organic crops and livestock. This is how Lloyd Maunder farms do it now and, though it isn't the most convenient for large scale production, I believe it is the best way forwards for the organic poultry industry as a whole.
Across the UK but particularly in the West Country, where the push to ‘buy local' has succeeded in creating an increasingly informed and conscientious consumer base, the record needs to be set straight on organic poultry. Opinions may differ as to whether organic produce is ‘better for you', but the reality is that more and more people are buying it. Concerns about Avian Flu and the conditions at the Norfolk turkey farm where it broke out have brought intensive farming practices back into sharp focus, which means we as poultry producers need to work even harder to ensure the integrity of all our products right the way through the production chain, and communicate this honestly to consumers.
Understandably, there are many misconceptions out there. Lloyd Maunder is the largest producer and processor of organic poultry in the South West, which conjures up images of large scale production and intensive conditions. The reality couldn't be further from the truth. Essentially what Lloyd Maunder did in 2000, when it first began pioneering its organic chicken range, was to create a standardised production framework for small organic farms, and provide the farmers with a commercial route to market.
So while our organic poultry is supplied by 37 different farms scattered around Devon and into Somerset, every one of them raises the same Devonshire Red breed, developed specially for Lloyd Maunder to be slow-growing, naturally inquisitive and active. All birds are hatched in our own hatchery and introduced to the farms as day-old chicks. They are reared under cover until they are fully feathered at about 21 days, then introduced to small mobile houses (moved onto fresh ground for each flock) in large pastures where they have freedom to roam during daylight hours. Organic feed is supplied direct from our own dedicated organic mill in mid-Devon mill and is certified 95 per cent organic, the remaining five per cent being fish meal which, by its nature, can't be certified as organic.
At least 27 per cent of our chicks come from organic parent stock, so we are well on our way to achieving 100 per cent which is our ultimate aim. The 73 per cent of chicks currently coming from conventional parent stock are reared organically from day one right through to maturity at 70 days, at which point (and not before) they become classed as organic. If anyone buys a Lloyd Maunder organic chicken and wants to know exactly which farm it came from, we have a traceability feature on our website www.lloydmaunder.co.uk.
Recent media reporting has raised concerns about vaccinating organic poultry. Well, vaccinating them doesn't mean pumping them full of synthetic drugs. Chicks receive two swift ‘sprays' of vaccine at the hatchery which, by inhaling the naturally occurring molecules, protects them against two common diseases – infectious bronchitis and coccidiosis. If either of these got into an organic poultry house it would be devastating so, for animal welfare reasons, we will continue to vaccinate in this way just as most of the population vaccinates their children against polio, mumps, measles and the like.
Overall, we recognise that organic poultry production is a ‘work in progress' and any standardisation isn't going to happen over night. However as a company we are committed to progressing and improving organic production so consumer confidence can be earned and kept.
On a recent visit to one of our organic poultry farms in mid-Devon, I found myself standing on a hillside overlooking a field of active, healthy Devonshire Red chickens all grazing and foraging and doing what chickens do. I felt genuinely good about them, about our organic process and our end product. In future years, I hope we'll all be able to feel equally comfortable with organic chicken across the board. In the meantime, all supermarket products labeled West Country Organic Chicken or Devonshire Organic Chicken have been raised by Lloyd Maunder farmers. If you'd like to visit a farm to find out more about Lloyd Maunder organic chicken production first hand, email me at marketing@lloydmaunder.co.uk and if there's enough interest we'll set up an open day.