Serving ethics with dinner

Dee Hobsbawn-Smith

  Calgary Herald 2004 
 
 
 

The grass is thigh-high, shivering in the breeze. Wild roses are in full bloom along the grass verge where poplars sway and evergreens tower. A veranda wraps two sides of the house in a close hug. In the field beyond the yard, Highland and Galloway calves snooze in the sun, piglets socialize in their sun shelter and chickens roam.

Welcome to Sunworks Farms, say Ron and Sheila Hamilton. And their smiling daughter Erin echoes, “Welcome”.

The Hamiltons recently welcomed a group of chefs, restaurateurs and reporters to tour their farm and enjoy a breakfast of sausage and eggs.

This is as local as it gets — the eggs were gathered this morning from the egg trays in the field, sausage made from the animals grazing on the farm.

The Hamiltons are among the growing number of Canadians who believe in the ethical and humane treatment of food animals. An April 2004 Ipsos-Reid Poll shows that 89 per cent of Canadians, 92 per cent of Albertans, want provincial and federal government support to go to family farms with environmentally friendly livestock production systems.

On their farm near Armena, just southeast of Edmonton, the Hamiltons raise certified-organic, free-range, grass-fed chickens, pigs, beef and turkeys. With Sheila’s sister, Dorothy Marshall, they also raise organic lamb and ducks nearby in Rosalind.

The couple consider themselves stewards of their children’s land. They were initially motivated to go organic by Sheila’s ongoing illness and Erin’s allergies. Both problems responded positively to dietary adjustments; as a result, all their meat and sausages are celiac- and allergy-safe, containing no gluten, wheat, diary products, nitrates, sulphates or MSG.

The chickens and turkeys live in airy structures that sit on the prairie in the centre of a field that has been grazed to chicken-friendly height by cattle. Each two days, the buildings are moved to fresh ground. The birds have access to fresh grass, and can roost in the sun or drowse in the shade of the building.

Ron Hamilton says that, for poultry to be humanely raised, each bird requires a minimum space of 1.5 square feet. Alberta Agriculture regulations say only that broiler birds raised in pens require sufficient space to stand, turn and stretch their wings.
     
The land is next grazed by free-ranging piglets, who dig wallows and in the process distribute the chicken litter across the ground. Moles, digging up-hill for fresh air, even out the moonscape created by the rooting pigs.

Their birds are white Cornish Giant chickens destined to be broilers, brown laying hens known as Sex Cell Links and Nicholas White turkeys. They arrive at the farm within two hours of hatching, in groups of 2,300 chicks per week. The chicks stay at the farm an average of nine to ten weeks, growing to a weight of about 2.7 kilograms.

The Hamiltons sell their birds, meat and sausages in Edmonton, at the Old Strathcona Market and in Calgary, at the newly opened Calgary Farmers Market at Currie Barracks.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, there are 2,851 chicken producers in Canada. About 10 per cent of them are in Alberta, and fewer than half a dozen are organic.

We eat a lot of chicken. In 2003, Canadians consumed 34.5 kilograms of poultry per capita. And, these days, in the wake of the BSE and avian flu outbreaks, we are increasingly aware of the risks posed to our food.

The growing issues of food safety and ethical animal treatment are not just the domain of farmers and consumers. Grocery retailers and distributors are beginning to recognize the issue as “the” hot potato.

At the recent annual conference of the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, speaker Dr. Bob Church raised the issue of animal welfare and the surge of interest in organic and “natural” foods among consumers. A market-driven trend, he argued, is one that carries weight and endures as a sustainable trend, and he advised grocers to wake up and smell the coffee.

Or the chickens, Ron Hamilton and his family would add.

The grassroots and growing public interest in organic, ethically raised food is not yet reflected in our food supply. Alberta Agriculture’s organic growers’ directory lists just five organic chicken producers, 25 organic beef producers and six organic turkey producers.

As Ron Hamilton points out, “We realized that if we wanted to eat clean, wholesome food, we’d have to raise it ourselves.”