SO WHAT IS PASTURED POULTRY?

It is s a system where chickens are raised in bottomless pens directly on pasture.  This allows the birds to receive a significant amount of natural vegetation (and bugs) as part of their diet.  The birds are moved to a new section of pasture twice daily, which ensures that they always have a fresh selection of forage – an “all you can eat” salad-bar for chickens. The chickens are raised on fresh pasture and fed our own mix of feed without growth enhancers or antibiotics of any kind. The pens are moved to a new spot twice daily. This also allows the birds to be raised in a cleaner, healthier environment creating a healthier chicken.

What is the difference between a Pastured Chicken and a Free Range Chicken?

“Free Range” is not the same as “Pastured”.  Unlike Pastured Poultry, Free Range poultry does not have access to fresh grasses and greens.  In fact, according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, the only qualification for “free range” or “free roaming” is that “producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.”

In other words, if the bird has “access” to the outdoors (for as little as 5 minutes a day), even if it never actually goes out, or goes out onto a concrete slab, it can still be labeled “free-range.”