What's with all the panic anyway? Is anything the matter with letting the disease run its course as it would in the wild. Many animals (us included) used to deal with infections and viruses by simply adapting over time and naturally developing resistance. The subject I would love to see explored is the degree of infection at conventional poultry farms versus organic ones.

When it comes to chicken chatter in the boardrooms of the poultry farming industry, organic chicken farmers understand the industry’s fowl language. Commercial chicken farmers are under the gun to produce cheaper chickens, resulting in the need to maximize space and resources. However, more profit often comes at a cost. While organic farmers have long crowed about the dangers of overcrowding and over-medication, the industry has cried foul and countered by claiming organic folks are using ‘Chicken Little’ scare tactics. Sadly, today we witness that for those in the chicken farming industry, the Avian sky is falling. And for a very simple reason: commercial chicken farmers have ignored history, research and the common sense warnings of organic/free range chicken farmers. However, the significance of the organic farmer’s insight should not stop with the chicken farming industry. Their warnings apply with equal urgency to human populations. Whether we want to believe it or not, the effects of overcrowding and over-medication are the same whether the animal in question has fur, fins or feathers. And, with a global population exceeding 6 billion, us furry human creatures are fast becoming overcrowded and over-medicated. The technology-solves-all mentality, that desperately tries to justify chicken farms, fish farms and the human zoo, has now reached the point where folks in highly industrialized societies prefer to park their brains in front of the TV rather than make real contact with the world around them. People, like chickens, need to reacquaint themselves with nature and get out and scratch around in the ‘dirt’ in order to build some natural immunity. Otherwise, it will be just as Chicken Little predicts, the sky will fall; it’s just a matter of time.

Will we ever learn? During the dark ages European man lived in his own sewage and died in huge numbers. Disease was rampant and death came early for many. Sewer systems solved much of the health problems at the cost of water degradation. Have we learned our lesson? I guess not. Now we have farmed salmon raised in their own sewage and thus heavily medicated. Ditto the chicken industry. It is no coincidence that fast food chicken products are heavily salted and spiced - it is to cover up the ammonia taste in the meat from the chickens picking at their own droppings, breathing in the dropping dust and drinking contaminated water in overcrowded conditions. And the industry immediately points at the wild birds. And haven't we heard that same 'song' from the salmon farmers (its the wild fish) and the beef industry (its the moose, deer and elk)? The blame game is an easy out for them rather than to take responsibility for a problem self-created by a sick industries.

ugh...what to make for dinner...vegetarian anyone??

Anyone know of orgainic chicken farmers in the Kootenays?

KWD, I think you are bang on about the technology issue. Seems the only criteria in using new and untried technology or processes is a simple ''is it cheaper?'' Why, when we are dealing with our food is there no requirement to learn the side effects until years or decades later when whatever corrective action taken is always too little, too late. Is DDT that distant a memory? Another issue is that Agriculture Canada seems at times to get too involved in looking for shortcuts that help the producer and the government's first responsibility - to the public - is left to chance. Just like cattle and fish farmers, chicken farmers have been feeding their livestock meat and other animal parts among other rather unpleasant things for years while Ag-Can has quietly played along even doing much of the research, all, apparently in the spirit of fostering free enterprise. The government and the industry don't tell the public of the Frankenstein science, presumably because 1. there hasn't been a problem so far, 2. we just won't understand and 3. the industry's trying to provide a cheap meal for us dummies who don't appreciate how lucky we are to have them. If you pursue the issue, Ag-Can will acknowledge some rather cannibalistic practices among other things you don't want to talk about over a plate of hot-n-spicy chicken wings, but why does it take a crisis to learn the facts of what we are eating? It makes for great TV to see hordes of chicken gestapo hosing down truck tires and footware at every farm gate but why weren't any safegaurds installed before. I suspect it goes back to this same all-too-cooperative arrangement between industry and government in which the consumer is definitely not the first priority. I won't even get into the overcrowding or the haste to find a convenient scapegoat or is that wild duck?

well thats what happens when you let birds esp chickens or other fowl live ontop of each other and are over medicated with antibiotics and eat their own poop.

Too too reminiscent of Mad Cow Disease. Self regulating always rejected leads to no regulating and to think all this mess could have been avoided if only they really did self regulate and ditto for cows and fish. What a waste in all ways.

Sophisticated!!!! Try UGLY Try SAVAGE Try DISGUSTING Try going veggie. Supporting this kind of Bedlam, mindless, uncaring, dangerous practice with our family chicken dollar is over. We buy local from today.

I will spare being the smug vegetarian in anticipation of there being some hideous outbreak of grain or bean toxin in the near future (though it can't be as hideous a mess as the meat industry - even if we tried). As an immunulogist - I have to first say that the bird and human specific viruses (or viri) can and do co-inhabit the same organism that serve as carriers (such as wild birds and whales). However, most viruses are very species specific - but the danger comes when the same cell carrying different viri swap genetic material - which may result in a more virulent strain. The rate of mutation depends on the type of genetic material the virus uses. The "lifespan" of a virus outside of a living cell is usually very short (often in the range of a few minutes) - so to spread, a living organism that serves as a reservoir would have to carry it to another location. Pets, wild birds - and possibly even people could serve as reservoirs. In nature - it is survival of the fittest - those that are strong with a heterogeneous background (like wild birds) have stronger immune systems and are able to fight the flu just fine (like people). It is exactly because of the hideous overcrowding, overuse of antibiotics in feed, and the stressed and weekened state of chickens raised on commercial farms that make them susceptible to endemic viruses (on which antibiotics have no affect). The author of the article is a little off on the facts concerning viral infections - but does have the right idea about the very ill state of the food industry which essentially has to be regulated or forced into a reformation - immediately. They cannot be continually bailed out with tax payers money every time a new crisis befalls them (note the increasing frequency and the tendency to look everywhere else but at themselves for fault) because of the shortsighted and uncouth manner they conduct business. The fact the media and the population feels they show support and patriotism by endorsing "I eat Alberta beef, BC chicken, and farm fished salmon from Canada!" helps matters little. With farmed fish - the risks are a 100X greater for doing serious harm because of the fact that the heinously squashed fish and their hideous waste are one with the open ocean - that is a suicide bomb waiting to go off. Who wants to wager that a big pharma company will come out within the next little while with a new "chicken vaccine" patent - urging all chicken farmers to vaccinate their stock? And this little profitable venture will come about as often as a new "human flu" vaccine comes calling. Money and crisis makes this sick world go round.

Thanks for the honest and REALISTIC article. I'm sooo sick of hearing about the poor commercial poultry farmers woes on the news - losing money (but don't worry, their insurance covers it, right?) forced into "destroying" millions of chickens (which they were going to do anyways, hello?) Pay attention people! Mother nature always wins . . . buy local, buy organic, buy natural. PS does chicken shit pollute our water by seeping into the ground? what do they do with all that shit??

Amber asks, “what do they do with all that shit??” It’s collected and allowed to ripen and mature. But during the initial aging process it’s stored in the best containers money can buy and then, after a few years of constant 'mothering', it is sent through the best finishing process imaginable. Once the initial insulating containerized curing period and finishing process is complete, the product is removed from the containers and sent through a series of molding and reshaping institutions, a very costly process which can take many years. In the end it’s made into something that becomes a useful tool for the very wealthy but often shunned by the working class and poor. BC has more than its share of these well-trained, well-heeled bags of over-ripe chicken shit. They can be spotted from time to time, although rarely, near the parliament buildings in Victoria. However, the odds of seeing one in the flesh are much higher if you frequent Hawaii.

To Lynette - I don't know the name of an organic chicken farm in the kootenays, but you might want to call Organa Farms in Yarrow - toll free 1-866-611-3311, or 1-640-855-7104 - Leo and Shelley Deschamps should be able to give you that information.

While on the topic of corupted farming practices and the food industry - those interested should check out Beef Inc. on the Knowledge Network (thurs Apr15, 8 pm - while the station is still available to BC residents - since anything having to do with education and the public is shut down pretty fast by the gordo knowledge-bashers) - it supposed to be an indepth look at what commercialization of the agricultural communities has done to our food sources.

Fear mongering as political tool... keep us all scared shitless and we'll become such isolationists we won't notice, let alone care, what all else is going on around us and to us. Stay away from cows or your brain will turn to sponge, stay away from horses or you'll get equine encephalitis, stay away from pigs because...and sheep ... now it's chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese...and what about rabies in squirrels, racoons, and bats...and dogs and cats and...jeez even the churchmice can give you Hanta virus and...we already know about mosquitos and killer bees and the germs on house flies and we're grossed out by the thought we have microscopic mites in our eyebrows, and dust mites in our pillows and and we're buying oceans of disinfecting cleansers and soaps and detergents and ... and the development of much nastier things continues in the biological warfare research labs and the family farm is as good as extinct, with less than a half dozen agri-corporations controlling food...and please, don't bore me with all this ill informed b.s. about "organic" food, the US agri interests went to court and argued anything which grows or lives is by its very nature organic and they got the right to use the term on their mass produced pap and pulp so "organic" don't mean crap today..how "organic" can anything be if grown or raised within sight of a freeway where cars pour exhaust into the air..the water is contaminated with chemicals... the soil has been dosed with drifting particles from jet planes flying overhead, dioxins and furans are pouring out of pulp mill stacks and that stuff has to come down SOMEWHERE...paint factories... smelters... factory stacks... you can't BUY immortality, you can't BUY safety. Yes, you're eating healthier food if you get it from a local farmer BUT... it's not guaranteed to be free of SOMETHING... and while we worry ourselves sick the corporations move to control the water, land, and air... the stupidity of the government in the way they have mis-handled the avian flu thing would be astounding if we hadn't already been inured to their idiocy by the way they have mis-handled everything else.

John van moron, bc's minister of agriculture is reported in canwest dailies today as actually being stupid enough to consider bulldozing tons of chicken carcasses into the burns bog dump, where the bags would be promptly chewed into by mice and rats, thereby spreading the disease into not only burns bog but into every migratory bird root in the americas as well. The virus would also mutate in burns bog, becoming more deadly. I wonder how many bc liberal cabinet members even have university degrees... Let's see, gary collins doesn't, shirley bond, minister of advanced education doesn't, how many others don't? Worse than not having a degree these people are too stupid and egotistical to listen to experts in the field. I doubt very much the dumping will happen, but being stupid enough to even consider it simply proves the bc liberals are not bright enough to run a pay-toilet in a diarhea epidemic...

anne cameron, I’m not sure what message you’re trying to convey. While your litany of ecological/environmental abuse is legitimate, do we just genuflect and allow our selves to be further violated by government and corporations? Although I agree that the “organic” label is misleading, the opportunity to use due diligence, when selecting food for personal consumption, is available. It is an opportunity to take some control over our lives and seek a measure of protection, no matter how insignificant, from unnecessary harm.

Is Campbell out of the province? If the Avian flu outbreak is the equivalent of a forest fire in the interior, as Van Dongen suggests, then why has the Premier been so absent? Is it because there are no sexy photo ops he can get out of this? Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen Campbell in the media since before the last damning poll numbers came out.

Yeah - where is Gordo? Maybe he is vacationing in Maui.. or holed up in Point Grey?

I bet you'll see Gordo on the 6 o'clock news (global TV most likely) eating kentucky fried chicken (or perhaps I should say, BC fried chicken carcass) - to go with that high protein/fat low-brain fuel diet he's on - and endorsing nothing tastes better than a fevered chicken slaughtered young.

Back to Lynette's question about organic chickens in the Kootenay's. Here is the website for BC certified organic farms: www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca - as KWD said, "the opportunity to use due diligence, when selecting food for personal consumption, is available." At least when I buy organic, which I do, I know there are no deliberately added synthetic chemicals and anti-biotics or genetically modified organisms; and I know that the animals and fowl I eat are not subjected to additional horrific stress from compressed living conditions - which continued stress inserts another, albeit, natural chemical or two into the animal's body. And what gets me even more is the "news" that cancer is becoming the top cause of death but no news that the cancer agencies are campaigning to get rid of the synthetic pesticides, fertilizers etc etc. And the "authorities" are busy spraying all mosquito breeding grounds with what? molasses? not likely. Got to laugh.

On the topic of farmed fish, many of you will be interested in a documentary that is airing on Global on Saturday night, May 1st called "Alexandra's Echo". It examines the impacts of fish farms on the coast through the life and the work of Alexandra Morton.

On another note, I heard via the grapevine that farmers are no longer feeding or watering flocks headed for destruction. They want to cut their losses.

Hey Allison, What grapevine are you on? If you can't name it, don't say it and blight the name of farmers who actually are doing everything they can in the form of bio-security to prevent AI from infecting their flocks in the faint hope of preserving them. Not to mention being incredibly saddened by the prospect of losing them. Most of us have a heart.

I believe I said up front it was a rumour. I also checked with the BC SPCA and several friends who have farming families in the valley. The SPCA didn't respond to my inquiry and the Valley folks believed it was happening, and they thought it was justified, because they thuoght farmers shouldn't have to bear the cost burden of throwing good money after bad. You are corect in pointing out that I don't have specifics, but I thought this would be a place where a collective intelligence could be gathered. I guess I was wrong.

Just remember that chickens are hatched, raised and slaughtered on a very short cycle (think weeks), unlike beef cows, etc. Chicken farmers in the Fraser Valley expect their barns to be empty multiple times a year, so that they can disinfect them of all the bugs and other evil things that live there. So, the avian flu just means they slaughter early, clean extra well, and carry on their merry way.

Chicken farmers in the Fraser Valley are not all the same. For example, most people are forgetting that there are layers out there for table eggs, not hatching eggs. Layer hens are raised for 4-5 months before they go to a lay barn. They are then laying eggs for 12 - 13 months. This AI is a completely different story for egg producers as it will take 18 months to two years to get back to normal production. As far as I know, the compensation covers only the cost of production as layers do not go to market when they are finished laying. The producers bear the cost of removing them. Allison, you are right. This is a place where collective intelligence can be gathered. I think we all need to know the truth in order for that to happen. I didn't mean to offend you. I think I'm alone on this site defending the farmers, but that's O.K. I come from a family farm of fifty years and have always felt that farming was an honorable profession. What happened? Since when is it a crime to produce food for the majority of people who can't afford to pay double for organic. It would be a wonderful world if we could all afford it, but in this country the costs are too high. Only 10% of Canadians make $50,000 or more a year. We enjoy some of the best prices in the world and the safest food supply thanks to supply management. I'm still very proud of the industry that I'm part of.

I come from a farming background too (Aunts and Uncles), and I've seen them almost lose the farm a couple of times when crops were devastated. I'm very proud of those people, and I'm glad I got to learn from them I also have several friends who converted to organic farming in the late 70's. They are millionaires now. There are a lot of people out there who will pay a premium for organic food. And as the market proves time and again, where there is demand, supply will grow, prices will fall. If they can make a cheap DVD player I bet they can make a cheap organic chicken.

Cheap DVD players are made up of cheap components from other countries where they use slave labor to put them together. I have personally "grown my own" organic broilers and they are not cheap to raise. Hence the prices you see in the store. When the price of organic feed comes down, then maybe it will be feasible. Also note that organic anything is labor intensive which results in very high labor costs. I would be interested to know what your millionaire friends are farming and where. By the way, did you know that your brown egg is really only a white egg with shell coloring. Try sitting it in vinegar and the brown will come off. Yet that is one of the things that constitutes an organic egg. Go figure.

Re. DVD players - I was being ironic. It was a cheeky example of the power of market forces albeit, hardly a sustainable one. I'd rather eat an organic egg than buy a new DVD player any day. I don't care what colour it is. Grain & peas in Saskatchewan.

To KWD: No, don't genuflect and go passive... just don't fall for the "organic" label on stuff you buy in the supermarkets. I was a full time farmer and had to work really hard to keep the plethora of additives out of my beef, chicken, turkeys, and rabbits. Animal feed laced with ??? is actually cheaper than that which hasn't been turned into a chemical concoction. I bought individual grains and mixed them myself even though the "chow" pellets were much cheaper. "Organic" is too often a fad, and people get taken by labaels, paying premium prices for food which isn't the least bit "organic". The fruit and vegetables coming from the states, particularly from California, is fumigated before being brought across the border. There are very good reasons for this but it makes me wonder how "organic" and "free" this stuff can be if it sits for three days in a fog to kill bugs, fungal spores, etc... I don't know any truly organic farmers who have become millionaires but I know quite a few who work hard to produce good food. The sad thing is that those who most need the best possible food can ill afford the prices. And organic farmers aren't ripping it off in strips, the costs of organic farming are higher, it is a very labour intensive way of producing food. People with small kids, people on low income just can't afford the higher quality. I guess my belief is if you buy it in a supermarket it probably isn't really organic... go to your local grower... keep the money in the province... pressure the government to do more to protect the small producer instead of pandering to agri-corporations...and stay informed because the government isn't doing much to protect you from truly frightening things like franken-food. All potatoes sold in stores in Canada for the past ten or so years have been irradiated and we weren't told. That scares me. I try to eat only locally grown non nuclear spuds...and we can all of us grow at least some of our food...scarlet runner beans are beautiful and could grow in tubs on balconies..snow peas the same...lettuce...chard...the list is long... each of those apartment buildings in the city has a roof and some containers up there could produce food...maybe we've been too conditioned to look outside ourselves and our personal lives for what we need...maybe we can all do more to take responsibility for ourselves...I'm a tomato sandwich freak and there is no comparison between a tommy-toe which was grown properly and those pink things which are in the stores!!!

B.C. Conservation Officers (game wardens) have been seconded to enforcing the chicken laws. This is at the expense of protection of BC Fish and Wildlife