Organic animals are reared under natural conditions.
There are no hormones, pesticides, antibiotics or genetically-engineered materials in the animals' food.
The stocking density is far lower than conventional factory-farmed animals.
For example, the maximum number of chickens per shed varies from 500 -1000, compared with 60, 000 – 100, 000 with conventional chickens.
Organic farmers therefore need to rent far more land to rear under free range conditions.
Animals are not routinely fed antibiotics so there is a higher mortality rate
The animals are traditional, slow-growing varieties, not genetically manipulated to put meat on the chest, so they look good in the supermarket freezer cabinet. For each lb or kg of grain they consume, the meat they put on is less.
As a rough guide, conventional Ross Cobb chickens require around 1.8 kg of feed to put on 1kg of weight. Organic ones require over 3kg of feed to put on 1kg of weight, thus the quantity of feed required is far greater.
Organic feed costs are significantly higher.
Conventional feed suppliers simply look for the cheapest protein source available, sometimes using fish meal – please see the end of the article at http://www.biggreenjewish.org/... for the worldwide effects that can ensue. Organic feed suppliers conform to strict standards.
Organic chickens grow for 10 - 12 weeks, so there can be 4 batches of birds per shed per year. Factory-farmed birds reach the desired weight in 38 - 42 days, so there can be 8-9 batches of birds per shed per year. So organic farms’ income-producing opportunity is half.
All Organic Kosher food products are totally free of artificial additives.
As an example, a factory-farmed chicken can cost as little as £2 per kg in the supermarket.
Our organic chickens cost more than that live!
The kosher process
Rest assured that no animals are electrocuted: Jewish law requires that animals are conscious at point of slaughter.
All animals are :-
- carefully slaughtered by hand, by a rigorously-trained religious slaughterman, who has undertaken at least two years instruction and whose job it is to ensure that loss of consciousness is immediate,
- drained of blood,
- defeathered,
- scrutinised by trained Beth Din personnel to check if they are kosher (healthy, free of certain illnesses/blemishes/signs of maltreatment)
- eviscerated (cleaned inside)
- soaked in clean water for half an hour,
- salted for one hour,
- rinsed in clean water,
- drained,
- chilled overnight
- transported to the processing plant
- portioned by experienced butchers
- placed in trays and labelled