Now that @nateliason let the entire internet know... I just got a farm! I'm looking to do some super interesting experiments that I've never seen anyone else do before like proving how unhealthy chicken is and how it doesn't have to be. More info below https://twitter.com/nateliason/status/1318617123036549120

Wait, chickens aren't healthy? No. Not if you look at PUFA content in chickens. Even "free-range" or pastured have 20% fatty acids coming from PUFA. Historical precedence is closer to 2-3%. This means $46 chicken is the same as eating veg oils.

Why is this a problem? Because by and large our idiotic media has told people to stop eating red meat, and they listened. Consumption of chicken has skyrocketed. Therefore, the consumption of PUFA has also skyrocketed. (img cred: The Conversation)

But why do chicken have high PUFA? Profits. Farmers need to slaughter chickens faster to increase yield/acre. We artificially selected breeds to grow to slaughter in 60-90 days. They need supplemental feed and can't just eat bugs (species-appropriate diet) or they die.

Yes, even pastured. The problem with supplemental feed is chickens are monogastric (like humans) and incorporate the fatty acids they eat into their fat. It doesn't matter if the feed is non-GMO or organic. Eating organic margarine would still destroy my fatty acid profile.

So is there a better way to make actually healthy chicken at scale? I think so. I plan to test the following and getting 3rd party lab tests to verify fatty acid profile and nutrients and publish the results:
1. Better feed
2. Better chickens
3. Better animals

1. Better feed: if you create a feed that has low PUFA, you should have a chicken that also has low PUFA. You keep the time to slaughter the same but likely drive cost/chicken up due to expensive feed. (But what if I asked a local juice shop to take away buckets of compost? )

2. Better chickens: if you use different breeds of chickens, they may not grow as fast, but they will likely be able to thrive on more scant diets. Doesn't fix the time to slaughter equation, but wouldn't matter if you had enough land and could float the held "inventory."

3. Better animals: rabbits and geese both thrive eating grass with very little inputs. Rabbits in particular breed extremely fast, so you have no feed cost and your time to market is faster. But... will anyone eat rabbit? What will the end nutrients/FAs be?

I plan on keeping in mind the business side of farming, something rosy-eyed health idealists forget, to find scalable solutions. Once I figure out poultry, I'm going to move to pork. And on we go to help people get access to healthy food.

If you want to stay updated with my farm adventures, I'll be posting most of this on my (mostly) weekly newsletter: http://dranthonygustin.com/thefeed