Chicken fresh from the farm

Press, 6 October 1988, Page 20

Chicken fresh from the farm

While chicken is promoted as the healthiest meat to eat, it is in fact the most manipulated by artificial feed and chemicals, says Mr Ernst Frei, the owner of one of New Zealand’s largest organic chicken farms — Hoon Hay Valley Organic Farm. “Red meat is produced in a natural environment on green fields in the fresh air. Battery hens are confined in small wire cages all their life and fed chemicals and artificial food for optimum turnover,” Mr Frei said. Mr Ernst and Mrs Monica Frei are registered with the Biological Producers’ Council as Bio Gro chicken farmers. This guarantees that food bought under this label is grown free of chemicals and raised entirely by natural means. Chickens on the Frei farm range freely on the farm fields during a growth period of about 11 weeks compared with the six weeks for commercially produced poultry. Mr Frei said this was much of the reason why free range eggs cost 50 to 60 per cent more than other eggs. The organic farmer feeds and tends chickens twice as long as the battery chicken farmer. Mr Frei was most critical of misinformation by retailers.

He said many retailers were marketing battery eggs as “farm fresh” which suggested they were free range eggs. “In truth, these are the same eggs laid by chickens in small wire cages all their lives. The only difference is the name,” Mr Frei said. A health-conscious public and a deregulated egg industry meant more chicken and egg producers were trying new marketing angles that were misleading the public, Mr Frei said. Mr Frei admitted his farm would probably never produce enough to keep up with commercial chicken meat and egg producers, but he is annoyed that many of them present their product as farm grown. Hoon Hay Valley Organic Farm specialises in eggs and chicken meat. It produces 1000 chickens a month for the New Zealand market and supplies retailers from Dunedin to Auckland. Few farmers have taken up the challenge of free range chicken farming because it is expensive and rewards are slow in coming. Mr and Mrs Frei bought their farm si/ 2 years ago and during that time they have planted about 5000 trees to give the birds shelter, and lost some of

their first chickens experimenting with feed. “The worst challenge was trying to find the right feed with the right amount of vitamins, trace minerals, grain and so on. “One other time we lost 450 birds in one night because of stray dogs,” Mr Frei said. Mr Frei says he would not farm at all if he had to adopt chemicals and unnatural farming methods. "Battery hens in confined conditions catch diseases easily and that’s why they are pumped full of chemicals to control it. I think that is ruining nature and it is not good. “M.A.F. has finally recognised that more overseas countries are crying out for chemicalfree foods, and they’re beginning to research the area in depth.” Mr Frei said the media in Europe carried the ideas through to the public about chemicals and their negative effects on people’s health. “The press (media) here seems to be more concerned about accidents and so on, but has forgotten the real issues of life. “Europe has certainly caught on to this aspect of chemicals ruining nature. I guess New Zealand is yet to reach that stage,” Mr Frei said.