Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

Enceladusj — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:58:13 GMT

Why eat this stuff at all? T. Casey Brennen wrote: "Poor animals! How jealously they guard their pathetic bodies... that which to us is merely an evening's meal, but to them is life itself."

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

USMom68 — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:49:04 GMT

This is why I tell my kids to never trust advertising. Their only intention is to get you to buy what they have to sell. Word-of-mouth advertising is generally the best advertising anyways.

It's amazing the advertising tricks some companies will use to avoid legal responsibility, while at the same time shifting the blame to consumer for not knowing any better.

...and what better way to affect Tyson's sales?.... word-of-mouth advertising.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

Capt. Awesome — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:07:37 GMT

Back when I was just Lt. Awesome, I used to eat the grocery store chicken thinking it was good for me. I'm surprised I ever made Captain thinking like that. I now only buy pork at the grocery store, and that is fed raw to my dogs. I'm lucky enough to have an organic, free-range chicken outfit nearby, so I not only can buy it locally, but for a remarkably reasonable price. I'm also lucky enough to have cousins who raise grass-fed, no drug beef, so I buy that by the side from them, and being here in Michigan, we hunt and eat a lot of deer and rabbits.

I'm considering buying my very own 7-Up tree to plant in my back yard. Do you think the cans that grow on the tree are returnable for a deposit?

Basically, it seems that anything you're buying from a mega-corporation is going to be laced w/ things that are bad for you. It doesn't really matter if this is due to pure economics or pure evil, the point is the only things you should be buying at grocery store should probably not be put into your body.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

curious7 — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:51:20 GMT

It is about time Tyson was called on the carpet for what it is saying about those "Franken-birds." You know chickens created in a lab. At the same time though, the entire food industry should be called on the carpet for it's labeling policy, and new strict labeling law that tell the whole truth, and nothing but should be the new law. You know labels without any loop holes. Label that say just what is or is not in the food we consume.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

Dr Rik — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:41:51 GMT

There is no Commandment "you shall not lie"

it's "you shall not bear false witness"

you will answer to God for a technically correct deception

Now if you are stupid enough to trust these companies, that's another issue

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

Paul Tolnai — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:16:50 GMT

Are you sure about the 7-up story. I understand that 7-up is being grown on organic farms down in Costa Rica - and picked by hand.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

jgross — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:53:00 GMT

The deception in marketing is rampant. Read, "Trust us, we're Experts" I just purchased a sack of "unbleached" bread flour only to find that the main ingredient is "bleached flour". Figure that one out.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

Pythonesk — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:06:21 GMT

I've never seen Tyson eggs in the store. I've seen Tyson chicken, but not eggs. Dr. Mercola says: " the eggs still have antibiotics injected into them before they reach the stores." I think maybe he got the wrong end of the stick here.

We raise our own chicken and eggs on our 7 acres in the country. I belong to several online forums for raising healthy meat & eggs, so allow me to pass on some information.

The chickens that you buy in the store are a highly specialized breed called a Cornish Cross. They are a mere 6 weeks old when they are slaughtered. Compared to heritage breed chickens they are babies. Heritage breed chickens in comparison are bony, tough and scrawny. The consumer wants and expects these big, fat, mushy chickens with lots of breast meat. At six weeks of age a heritage breed wouldn't be worth the time and effort of killing, plucking, gutting, cleaning, etc...

A "Cornish Game Hen" is merely the same Cornish Cross chicken slaughtered at a younger age, probably 4 weeks. There is no other difference.

Since supermarket chickens reach slaughter age so quickly there is very little, if any, need for antibiotics. The truth is that none of the big chicken producers are feeding antibiotics. The reason is that the Cornish cross (often called a Frankenchicken) grows SO quickly, has an enormous appetite, and an incredible feed conversion ratio that there is no need to feed antibiotics.

It is pork and beef that are fed large amounts of antibiotics. Chickens are not because there is no need.

I've never heard of injecting eggs with anything, but I guess they do. However, this one tiny dose, given before hatching, would certainly have little effect to the consumer. The truth is that we consumers have demanded cheap food and that is what they are giving us.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

junebug24 — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:53:11 GMT

It makes me sick to go to the store and see all these people buying all this crap, I talk to people in the

stores and tell them were to get there grass feed beef and organic chickens, they are shocked you

can buy beef at other places besides the grocery store. I do not buy any of my meat in the stores. These

people are not well informed I have turned a lot of people away from buying meat from the store. The

manger and i dont see eye to eye. O well junebug

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

Amicus Curiae1 — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:42:34 GMT

i have worked on egg farms in aust, our chooks laid into deep sawdust litter and did have plenty of room to run scratch and play , albeit undercover, fresh air and sunshine from good large "window shutters. i was thinking this was a sick joke...injecting eggs? as nature intended it to be a sealed sterile womb for a chick, it should be safe. the implication is cramped, unhealthy animals in unhygenic conditions, as stated ,eating their own kind as meal, and delevoping salmonella for one, listeria as another, to be breaking that seal to inject antibiotics "in case??" strikes me as possible the most lunatic thing..

.then i think of the pig farm i worked on..(1 day!).ummm newborn piglets being injected with antibiotics, tails burnt off, teeth cut off with pliers, ears slashed as markers, and this is "worlds best practice" with all those wounds, no wonder they get ill, add a mother who is unable to turn round or move away from her young , who is bred every cycle.. its up to us to stop buying from these people , stop taking their money as wages, and eat less, but eat better, and support small caring companies.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

rigatoni — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:06:40 GMT

I remember a story about Farmer John's meat packing plant in Southern California. An employee told an outside vendor if he ate hot dogs. The customer said, "YES." The employee took him to another room with greasy remnants of cows and pigs all over the floor. The eyes, guts, everything left over after the meatcutters performed their "surgery" on the deceased. He said all this other "stuff" goes into a large processor with some kind of fluid and out comes nice little frankfurters.

Out of sight, out of mind.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

bethhoxie — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:35:50 GMT

Reading labels, now we need to decipher them. Another reason why we need to find a good family farm to get our meats, dairy and other foods.

Beth in Detroit

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

corgi — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:09:13 GMT

I am surrounded by Perdue chicken houses and a processing plant. i can hit one of the chicken houses by tossing a rock from my back yard. I also subcontracted some work at the perdue rendering plant and learned all about thier feed system that uses slaughtered chicken wastes/additives to feed the chicks that you eat, ad infinitem/ad nauseum. If you lived in this environment you would give up chicken forever. its all gross. for the unknowing among us...chickens dont grow on trees, they are dead animals when you ingest them with loads of chemical additives and preservatives. mmmm, have another buffalo wing before you leave for your next dr. appt. so you wont be hungry as you pick up your chemical rx's.

live long and prosper or stay sick and support the medical system that relies on keeping your sick.....

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

Happycat — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:42:28 GMT

If the Tyson chicken co. is the same as the Tyson boxer guy, why would anyone trust the chicken co. in the first place? I don't know much about the boxer Tyson, however, I don't think I'd trust him to do honest business, based on his boxing ethics. He just doesn't seem like an honest guy.

re: Is Tyson's Antibiotic-Free Chicken Really Antibiotic-Free?

jancie — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:45:56 GMT

And to think I thought I couldn't be fooled!

The fool is me for believing that some big company really cared!

A lesson well learned, thanks!