The Dirty Truth About Grocery Store Chicken (Don't Trust The Labels!) | Levi Powers

And it's something that's come up a few times with country of origin labeling.

There is a lot of misinformation with what people think that they're buying when they go to the grocery store and what they're actually getting.

We've had a farm.

Here in southern Wisconsin, where we've raised certified organic and regenerative beef, pork, and chicken, and we've done farmer's markets, we've done shipping, we've done a lot of different things.

And that was the one thing we kept coming back to with customers was trying to educate them on what are they actually buying? What are they actually spending their money on? Are they getting what they think they're getting, especially as consumers? You know, everyone's very price conscious right now, even, you know, in the last four or five years at the grocery store.

So I think people trust what they see on a label just by taking it by face value.

But the truth is, there's very little that they should be taking on face value in the grocery aisle.

That's the truth.

Well, let's go label by label, if you don't mind, because I think this will greatly help people.

One thing I think is interesting is that usually it would say hormone free.

My understanding is that chickens are never given hormones.

And that's where there's so much nuance.

So hormone free chickens.

will mean more with beef and pork, where they might receive some of those.

With chickens, you really don't see a lot of those because a meat chicken is only going to live seven weeks, eight weeks on a regenerative farm.

On a poultry farm, or like a confinement poultry situation, that bird's probably going to live less than six weeks, if not closer to five weeks.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

So wait, let's back up for a second.

So seven to 10 weeks for regenerative farms.

Yes.

Six or less in a conventional situation.

Because they've got it down to a science.

And so that short lifespan really doesn't allow for like even antibiotics.

Like chickens do not get antibiotics either.

The only time you'd give antibiotics to a chicken is if it was like a laying hen, where it's going to be alive for a while and you want to maintain a level of healthiness.