IT’S A LEAP YEAR!

Market News

The Cumming Harvest is open for orders!
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Why is chicken so darn expensive?

Recently, someone posted this question on the “Atlanta Real Food” group Facebook page. She asked…

Question: "It has been my experience that pastured local chicken purchased from ranchers here in GA is more expensive than local grass-fed beef or local pastured pork. Has it been the same for you? How would you explain that to someone trying to learn more about real food who is used to chicken being cheap and red meats being more expensive? My aunt is visiting and trying to learn how to eat better and I want to do a better job explaining this to her. She doesn’t get why we eat more pork and beef than chicken and worries it’s “unhealthy”."

Sandra Walker of Free Home Farm, posted this response in such great detail that I thought I’d share it since I’m sure there are others asking similar questions.

Answer "I raise pastured chicken here in Georgia. Compared to locally grown pasture raised beef and pork, chicken is still less expensive. We sell our whole chickens for $5-6/lb. It is hard to find ground beef or pork for less than that and other cuts cost $10-$15/lb. Of course, with the whole chicken you are getting a lot of bones. I have made it a point to try to teach our customers how to make broth so that they can get more use out of one chicken. My family of four eats one chicken a week. The meat can be broken up into at least 2 family meals and then a couple of lunches for me. And I get at least a gallon of stock that I use in other dishes.

As for the cost of raising chicken, our single biggest expense is feed. Chickens on pasture are eating grass and bugs but they still need some grains. We have raised a few batches with as little grain as possible and they came out under 2 lbs each. The types of birds we raise are called Freedom Rangers which are very good a foraging but we have found the optimal amount of grain to get 5 lb birds is around 20-25 lbs of feed per bird. We prefer to feed them certified organic, soy-free feed. The closest place we can find it is Virginia. There are no farms in Georgia growing organic feed grains. When we buy it by the ton and have it shipped on a semi from Virginia it costs us $0.66/lb. If we buy it by the bag from a local feed store it costs us $0.80/lb. That means we are spending between $13 and $20 per bird — just for feed! If we went to Tractor Supply and bough the regular GMO soy/corn/canola feed that factory farmers use, it would only cost us around $5 per bird, and they would get much bigger due to the soy.

Another cost involved in raising chicken on pasture is a portable structure to protect them from rain and sun. We build “tractors” for our chickens that we move around the pasture. It cost us $150 for each tractor (plus several hours of labor). Each tractor holds around 25 birds so we have several tractors that we move once or twice a day to fresh grass. Each year we spend a hundred dollars or so to maintain our tractors. We only raise a couple hundred meat chickens a year so that comes out to around $0.50 a chicken for tractors, after the initial investment. We also use a portable electric fence to keep predators away. That cost around $300 new. At some point we will need to replace or repair so that is something we have to consider when pricing our chicken.

The final input, which we grossly undervalue is our time. We go out there twice a day, every day to carry 50lb sacks of feed and several buckets of water across the pasture to the chickens. Then we move their tractors to fresh grass. I estimate we spend an average of one hour a day on feeding and watering. That doesn’t count any repairs we need to make to tractors or dealing with the fence to make sure it is working properly. We raise our chickens for 10-12 weeks so that is around 80 man hours of labor. IF we paid ourselves $5/hour and we are raising 100 birds at a time that comes out to $4/bird.

Then there is processing. If we want to sell our chicken at a farmers market it has to be USDA inspected. There are no USDA inspected processing plant in Georgia that are open to small farmers. All the farmers I know have to load their chickens into cages and drive them 6 hours away to the nearest processor in another state. They often get a hotel room to spend the night since it takes 24 hours or more to process. Then they have to buy ice or buy gas to run a generator for the 6 hour drive back home with frozen chicken.

We are allowed to process our own chickens on farm if we sell them directly to the customer and they pick up at the farm. That is what we do. We bought the equipment last year ($1000) and it takes two of us 6 hours to process 50 chickens. Assuming $5/hr per person that comes out to $0.60 per chicken. Plus we use propane and ice during processing and plastic bags to put them in and a label. That adds another $1 per bird.

So… we raise 200 chickens a year on pasture in Georgia. Including labor, it costs us somewhere around $25 to raise each chicken to an average of 5 lbs and we sell them for an average of $27.50 per chicken."

You can follow this post on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AtlantaRealFood/

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I have a feeling some of you have a connection with UGA in some way or another. The following information came from the Athens Locally Grown market and it is such a great project I thought I’d share with you and maybe you’ll choose to help them out.

“Real Food UGA, a group of students in Athens, are working hard to get more locally-sourced food available in the university’s many kitchens. Here’s a few words they’ve written about their important project:

In 2009, a couple of UGA students learned about a campaign taking place on college campuses across the country called the Real Food Challenge. By harnessing the multi-million dollars of purchasing power that colleges and universities hold, the food industry could finally see positive change. The RFC classifies ‘real food’ as meeting at least one of the following criteria: fair, local, sustainable, ecologically sound, or humane. Since then, students at UGA have been working to get the President to sign a commitment stating that 20% of our food will meet a higher standard by the year 2020. And, as we have entered the 6th year of this campaign, we know that now is the time that real change can actually be made.

What exactly does this “work” look like? Examining, researching, and tracking all the food purchases UGA makes, educating students about the global impact of the food economy, meeting with faculty and administration, and uniting with other campus organizations and Real Food campaigns across the country. But, now we are asking for the help of our community. If issues such as workers’ rights, farmers’ livelihoods, community health, or animal treatment matter to you, we ask you to do one thing: sign our petition. The more names we have, the more our administration will know that this is something we need, and something we need now. When you’ve signed it, pass it along. If you wish to raise your voice alongside us, please check out our website or get in touch with us at realfooduga@gmail.com and we would be happy to give you more information."

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CURRENT MARKET LOCATION
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040.
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MOVING SOON TO… 165 Enterprise Drive, just north of us only a few minutes away. Google Map

PICK UP HOURS
Saturday from 10-12pm.
106 Colony Park Drive, Suite 100 Cumming, GA 30040
Please contact me if you have any questions, problems or suggestions. EMAIL ME

To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest