Here's what you need to know about Free Range Chickens

#MythBusterSeries

The term 'Free Range' has been used to as a marketing jargon to market chickens at a premium. As consumers, we have the right to know what it actually means.

Free Range means that the chickens have access to the outdoors. However, it doesn’t mean that the hens go outside, or that the outdoor space is more than a small, fenced-in area; rather it implies that access exists. Isn't that a shocker? Yes, the labels on chickens are ever so confusing. Corporations do their best to hide their practices, as many of these labels can be quite misleading.

This essentially means that the chickens are NOT happily running in green pasture. Most Free Range Chickens are raised in closed (with no or little access to sunlight)  or semi open coops (where there is access to sunlight). The chickens may only have access outdoor for as little as an hour a day, if at all. 

In some cases, the outdoor space provided to free range chickens can be as small as a few square feet of concrete or dirt, with no vegetation. Moreover, the doorway to the outside might be small and difficult to access, leading many chickens to remain indoors. As a result, free range chickens may not have the opportunity to truly roam and forage.

The density of how the chickens are being kept in the coop is similar to Industry Mass Farms where it compact and hardly any space for the chickens to thrive. 

Dense: Free-range rules allow nine hens per square metre of floor space

Terms like ‘free-range’ are designed to convince us that animals have a decent life so that we continue to buy chicken meat and eggs in blissful ignorance of the truth. - The DailyMail

Their living conditions may be a little step up from a Mass Industrial Farm, but it's not much better if you don't know where your food source is from and how the chickens are being bred, raised and processed. As a consumer, we must educate ourselves on what we are putting on our dining table and to make healthier choices for our loved ones.

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