Lately, there has been a lot of pressure around factory farming and the way in which the animals we eat are raised. Because of this consumer pressure on the farming industry, we are able buy poultry that is “cage free,” “humanely raised,” and “free range.” We can feel good about the food we buy and consume right? Not quite.

It’s time to wake up and smell the bull sh*t and Craig Watts, a contract farmer for Perdue Farms, is here to help us get a big whiff.

Craig’s family farm has been around since the 1700’s and has specifically been under contract with Perdue since 1992. He currently raises close to 720,000 chickens a year for Perdue. Craig recently watched a video of Jim Perdue, the chairman of Perdue Farms, promoting the company’s “humanely raised,” “healthy” chickens, and decided enough was enough. “My jaw just dropped,” he said. “It couldn’t get any further from the truth.”

“Doing the right thing is… treating your chickens humanely.” -Jim Perdue

Craig reached out to an animal welfare group called Compassion in World Farming and invited them to his farm to see what was really going on behind closed doors. Here is a video of what they saw. It’s chicken hell.

Not so fun fact: Poultry Science Journal has calculated that if humans grew at the same rate as today’s chickens, a human would weigh 660 pounds by the age of eight weeks.

Why is the USDA certifying Perdue’s chickens as “humanely raised” and allowing consumers to be misled? If they are letting Perdue’s actions slip through the cracks of regulations, what other products are we being dooped into buying because we are led to believe they meet certain agreed-upon standards? There is a serious issue of misrepresentation between the government, big agriculture, and the consumers. Not to mention the obvious inconsistencies in animal rights laws.

Let me put it this way: If my dog was so fat that he couldn’t walk and because of it he had open sores on his stomach from laying in the feces of 1,000 other dogs I had locked in the room, I’m pretty sure I would be sent straight to jail. Last I checked animal abuse is still illegal. Unless of course it is a big company doing it; then it just called farming.

The answer of course is less demand for inexpensive chicken. But if we are lied to about the methods by which the chicken we are eating is being produced, there will never be a decrease in demand.

If you are interested in staying away from chickens like the ones in the video, you unfortunately can’t trust the government-ran USDA. You have to look for labels that say, “certified humane,” “global animal partnership” or “animal welfare approved.” They are expensive and hard to find, but your conscience and your body will thank you for putting in the extra effort.

Ask your supermarket for Better Chicken at better-chicken.org

Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

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Originally published on NewYorkTimes.com

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