Poultry Research

Organic Poultry Scorecard
Organic Poultry Scorecard Scoring Criteria
Full Report
Organic Chicken and Turkey at a Glance (Major Findings)
Who Owns Organic Poultry? (Infographic)
Do-it-Yourself Guide to Choosing The Best Chicken and Turkey
Press Release

Seven in 10 US shoppers buy organic poultry. Unfortunately, the birds consumers are most likely to find come from industrialized operations where they live in fixed housing with no meaningful outdoor access.

The Cornucopia Institute’s report, For the Birds: How to Recognize Authentic Organic Chicken and Turkey, uncovers critical issues in certified organic chicken and turkey production, including unsettling animal welfare and environmental concerns.

This research serves as a call to action. Our food dollars can safeguard ethical, organic poultry farmers and secure their essential role in the marketplace.

The accompanying Organic Poultry Scorecard surveys more than 60 marketplace brands of chicken and turkey, highlighting authentic organic producers and exposing industrial-scale, faux-organic producers and brands. This mobile-friendly rating tool points consumers to brands they can trust and warns of those to avoid.

Some of these problematic brands can be found on the Who Owns Organic Poultry? infographic, which reveals how some parent companies and suppliers of organic poultry brands provide consumers the illusion of choice. Perdue’s organic brands, identified here, dominate the organic poultry market with industrial-organic meat.

Perdue Brands
Click on the image to enlarge or view the image as a PDF

 

The cost of authentic organic poultry is markedly higher than these factory-farmed imposters, a price tag that reflects the true cost of feeding the animals more expensive certified organic grain and the time and labor required to raise them humanely.

Although Cornucopia always recommends certified organic food, we recognize that authentic organic poultry options are scarce. If no authentic organic brands are available at your retailer, Cornucopia’s Do-it-Yourself Guide to Choosing The Best Chicken and Turkey offers a valuable tool. Outlining specific questions to ask your farmer, the guide will help determine whether production practices meet your dietary needs, environmental ethic and expectations for the humane treatment of chicken and turkey.

Voting with your fork requires a deeper understanding of the issues. Delve into Cornucopia’s research, then leverage your power at the checkout aisle and farmers markets. Our authentic organic poultry farmers depend on it.

Give a Gift

The Cornucopia Institute, through research and investigations on agriculture and food issues, provides needed information to family farmers, consumers and other stakeholders in the good food movement and to the media.

Stay Engaged

Sign up for The Cornucopia Institute’s eNews and action alerts to stay informed about organic food and farm issues.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.