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Cooking challenge (thelemmy.club)
submitted 4 months ago by [M] to c/cooking@lemmy.world
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You have to use these two ingredients. You have a well stocked pantry. A well stocky pantry is defined as the things you normally keep in your kitchen. What would you make with the featured ingredients?

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[–] [S] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I don't know of any grocery that sells roosters. Due to economics all chicken for sale in grocery stores are females. The males are disposed of in vast quantities on the day they hatch in one of the most crushing aspects of factory farming. But here is the real rub, most of them are disposed of pretty quickly in non factory farms too. Rooster genocide is one of the dirty secrets of all chicken farms.

In the summer time all the roosters that were intentional or accidentally got by backyard chicken owners end up on Facebook in posts like "looking to re-home my sweet baby boy rooster.". That's about the time they turn six months old and start being a menace. But you can't re-home a rooster. Because everyone is trying to re-home their roosters too.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    That's one of the things about the current industrial processes that I don't get. Capons (neutered roosters) used to be prized over regular chicken, and they're much easier to keep than regular roosters. You'd think someone would try diverting at least some of the male chicks from the macerator to market as "Premium Chicken" or something.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    They aren't worth the surgery costs. Literally more profitable to hatch, sex, trash half the results. A couple of years ago some company was claiming they could sex eggs but I haven't checked to see if that was actually legit or if the cost was more than it was worth.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    Isn't there also a chemical method to do it? I'm not a chicken farmer though. Maybe even with that it doesn't make sense economically.

    Still though, it feels like there's an opportunity there that a creative marketing campaign could exploit to transform what's currently a waste product into something more valuable. If not "Premium Chicken" then maybe "Ethical Rooster Meat" or an "Eat the patriarchy!" angle or something. Selling the sizzle rather than the steak, so to speak...

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    Hmm, okay. I didn't realise it was as skewed as all that. So the main problem with roosters is what? Their general aggression and loud crowing?

    Factory farming is horrific from almost every angle I know of as a layman, but I was also exposed to the idea that "free-range" chickens (and other animals I guess) can also be effectively BS. The idea that you can give them an open area to the outside from their habitat enclosure, but with no significant food there and/or generally unpleasant conditions, there might be stronger reason for them to simply stay in their enclosure for the most part, even if crowded and filthy.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    At the commercial level they don't put on weight like hens so less profit. And even with Cornish cross needing to be processed at exactly 8 weeks old their roosterness makes humanely raising them cost prohibitive.

    Free range chickens means that they are in a giant building with thousands of others. Very different from pasture raised which actually get to go outside, see sunlight and eat bugs. But pasture raised there is an increased risk of bird flu. And the current strain of bird flu is nearly 100% lethal in birds. So that's a huge insurance risk.

    It's all money. Every single consideration comes down to profit.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    Thanks. So "caged" - can barely move around. "Free range" - can move within a giant, filthy enclosure. "Pasture" they can go outside and do stuff.

    I think it was the "pasture" angle I was thinking of. As in, in some cases they're labelled such as more of a technicality than anything else, but are only let out during limited hours, to a limited "outside" space that might be of no real interest to them. For profit.

    Searching my bookmarks, I think it was probably the Craig Watts thread I was referencing. I'll give that a re-read in coming days.

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