Why Eat Organic?
1. Taste. Our poultry has a richer, fuller flavor because our chickens are grown as God and nature intended, out where they can scratch, eat bugs, and strengthen their bodies by running around.
2. Nutrition. Organic poultry is replete with omega-3 oils, which are essential nutritional acids that must be obtained through diet to maintain a healthy body. These oils make for strong, well-functioning cells, and prevent sicknesses such as blood clots and degenerative diseases. Any good diet must include these oils so the body can function properly. Organic chicken is a tasty way to get what your body needs!
3. Locality. Buying from a small, local farmer keeps intact the age-old processes of community food production. Not only does this mean you are supporting small farming, which is better for the environment and not government-subsidized, it means your money is invested locally in people you know and trust. According to the Global Sands Resource Development and Conservation, for every $1 invested locally, $3 local dollars are generated!
Why Sonday Produce?
Organic from the beginning. Sonday Produce chickens are bought as day-old chicks and eat only feed purchased from an organic mill in Wisconsin. Their feed is a blend made of about 50% corn, 20% roasted soybeans, 10% wheat, 10% peas, 5% oats, 5% rye, and organic vitamin and mineral additives. Once put out to pasture, about 20% of their diet comes from forages.
The chickens brood for about four weeks in a warm, insulated coop, then are put to pasture in a 10x12 foot poultry pen. This pen is moved every morning for five to seven weeks, fertilizing the soil naturally and supplementing the poultry's grain with vitamin- and mineral-rich organic green pasture materials. They are finally processed in our small, state inspected, certified organic meat processing plant when they are of the proper weight and maturity.
All of our own chickens are certified organic through the Midwest Organic Services Association. This means that none of our chicken has ever been vaccinated, injected with hormones, steroids, antibiotics, or arsenic, and have never been fed chemically-engineered or pesticide-touched feed.
Peaceful, Healthy Chickens. All of our chickens are treated humanely and given the best of care. Our birds have not been stressed by confinement in crowded quarters, breathing ammonia-laden air, or overfed on a grain diet that harms their liver and causes poultry obesity. They have not travelled 600-800 miles from coop to processing plant, then butchered by minimum-wage workers who work on a quarter of a million chickens each day. Rather, they have spent their days in the fresh air and sunshine, eating the grasses, forbs, and insects that compose a chicken's natural habitat and diet. Our chickens are cared for and processed by those who have raised them, eat them, sell them, and understand quality and health.
Quick and Sanitary Slaughtering Methods. An extremely short transit to slaughter time (20 minutes) means that the birds are subject to very little stress due to overheating, crowding, underwatering, and fecal contamination. We also have a very quick slaughter time. From the last time the chicken is picked up until quietus and termination of blood let, it is 90 seconds or less. Most other plants place poultry upside down for up to five minutes, stun them, and begin draining blood while the bird is still alive. This causes not only unnecessary cruelty and stress, but possibly releases stress hormones into the poultry, which will off-flavor the meat.
Sonday Produce uses a kosher slaughtering method which severs the bird's jugular vein, not its head, allowing the brain to continue sending signals to the head, allowing the best possible blood let while the bird dies quickly. The more meat is blood free, the better quality it is and the longer it will last.
Each chicken is chilled rapidly in ice water after processing for bacteriological cleanliness, then "aged," which allows the meat's natural enzymes to tenderize the meat. Other plants freeze the chicken immediately while it is still in rigor mortis, which causes tough chicken if cooked directly after thawing. Once aged, our meat is blast frozen to avoid bacteria. Sonday Produce operates the only State Inspected Certified Organic poultry processing plant in Wisconsin. Our plant is cleaned and sanitized after every 400 or less processed birds. Not 20,000 - 350,000 like most plants in other areas, therefore providing the cleanest, healthiest, safest, chicken available.
The Omega-3 Component. Omega-3 is one of the two essential fatty acids (EFA's) that cannot be produced by the body, but are required for good health. An omega-3 fatty acid called alpha linolenic acid is found in green leafy vegetables, grasses, and forbs. An omega-6 fatty acid called linoleic acid is found in grains, such as soybeans and corn. While both of these EFAs are essential for our health, the American diet has become overloaded with omega-6's because the meat we eat is raised almost exclusively on grains. When we put our animals back on grass pasture, we help to bring our entire diet back into balance.
While grain is essential to the diet for poultry, our birds are raised on fresh pasture, where they glean as much as 30% of their nutritional needs from grass, clover, alfalfa, and insects. This is nature's diet for poultry. It's best for them, and best for those who eat them.
Research has shown that people low in omega-3's have a higher risk for cancer, depression, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, allergies, asthma, dementia, and bipolar disease. They are also more likely to have high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. A Purdue University study found that children with low omega-3 levels are significantly more likely to be hyperactive, have learning disorders, and display behavioral problems. Compared with commercial poultry, the meat of pasture-raised birds can have up to 21% less total fat, 30% less saturated fat, and 28% fewer calories. It can have up to 50% more Vitamin A and 100% more omega-3s.
Our ancestor's diets consisted of meats, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and no processed foods. The meat they ate came from animals free to graze on omega-3 rich land. Many of the ailments mentioned in the previous paragraph were uncommon in their day. A major step in getting back to a more healthy diet is to eat more meats, eggs, and dairy products from animals raised on pasture with little supplemental grain.