Oregon may not be a major player in the national chicken production market, but there are some options for folks who prefer that their food is locally grown. In local grocery stores, brands such as Foster Farms, Tyson, Coastal Range Organics, Willamette Egg, Wilcox Family Farms, Eggland's Best, and Oakdell appear in the poultry and egg sections but only a few of these companies have operations or farms in Oregon. Foster Farms, headquartered in California, has several facilities in Oregon. According to OSU, there are approximately 40 broiler (meat chicken) farms in the Willamette Valley although Foster Farms is the major chicken producer in the region. Other brands either are distributed to local grocery stores from out-of-state suppliers or are specialty brands such as Coastal Range Organics based in Kelso, Wash.

Due to the regulations for poultry processing, there are few smaller chicken growers and processors in the Willamette Valley. Oregon-grown eggs come largely from Willamette Egg, headquartered in Canby, Wilcox Family Farms based in Roy, Wash. with a farm in Aurora, and Skylane Farms in Woodburn.

Attempts to talk with Oregon chicken and egg growers and to visit their facilities were somewhat unsuccessful. Foster Farms requested that any initial communication be sent through email. The general manager of its Pacific Northwest Division, Tom Hendrickson, responded to inquiries about the company's concerns with animal treatment and environmental issues with the company's "Animal Welfare Document," "Sustainability Statement," and "Final Disease Prevention Plan." He indicated via email that "due to stringent bio-security measures at all Foster Farms facilities, an onsite visit is not possible."
Gordon Satrum, owner of Willamette Egg, considered talking with Salem Monthly but later declined.
"There is this distrust between the media and industry," Satrum said.   "It seems like every time we talk to somebody we put our neck in the guillotine."  

Wilcox Family Farms, a fourth-generation, family-run farm that started in 1909, was more receptive and spoke with Salem Monthly on several occasions about animal welfare and environmental issues, but also decided not to allow a visit to their operation in Aurora due to bio-security concerns.  

Salem Monthly did visit a smaller operation near Dallas, Abundant Life Farms, which raises both broilers (meat chickens) and layers (egg chickens). Abundant Life Farms was founded by Scott and Marilyn Jondle as a family farm in 2000. They sell meat and eggs at Salem Public Market and participate in buying clubs in Portland and Salem. SM also visited Lazy 54 Farm in Hubbard, the only hatchery in Oregon that sells to the public.

Animal Welfare: How free is free-range?

In an attempt to address consumer concerns about poultry products, new labels are showing up on egg cartons and chicken packaging such as "pasture raised," "free-range," "naturally nested" and "hormone free."  Buying "free-range" chicken or "cage-free" eggs gives some people a better feeling about eating that juicy grilled chicken breast or cheesy omelet. But what do these and other poultry product labels really mean?  For one example, "hormone free" adds no value to the product as federal regulations already prohibit the uses of hormones in raising poultry.

"Free-range" is another term that can be misleading. The label suggests that the animals were raised living freely and happily outdoors, getting exercise and sustaining themselves on the land. However, for a company to label chicken as "free-range," the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires only that broilers have access to the outdoors. Chicken producers must submit a written application to the USDA to use the term "free-range." The USDA generally grants permission for the use of these terms based on the evidence provided in these written applications and does not send an agent to inspect the facility.

Inspections typically only take place if a complaint is filed on a particular producer violating the use of one of these terms. No minimum technical specifications exist that define the amount of space or time that chickens enjoy their access to the outside.

Foster Farms' standard corporate information asserts that "[the company's] poultry is neither `caged' nor `free-range'" but that its chickens are "grown in large poultry barns designed to protect the birds from environmental extremes, while allowing fresh air to constantly circulate."  The company also says its barns are "built with enough space for the birds to move about freely" and that "in the interest of optimal health and development, we keep the birds comfortable, clean and well treated."

Alternative farming

Abundant Life Farms uses an approach to raising broilers called pasturing. Pasturing is a method that is becoming more prevalent among small farms. Abundant Life receives day-old chicks via mail from a hatchery in Walla Walla. Once the chicks are old enough, they live outside in pens (60 per pen) in pasture and have a life span of 8 weeks before they are slaughtered (compared to 6-7 weeks for a large commercial operation/factory).  
Scott Jondle says that chickens like to stay close to their food and they are more subject to predators when out in the open. Still, the chickens have room to move around, can forage off the ground in addition to their feed, and the Jondles move the pens one pen's length every 24 hours to give the chickens fresh ground.  

"We make sure they are as well cared for as we possibly can," says Scott Jondle.

Free-range or cage-free chicken eggs, however, have no legal definition in the United States. In addition, free-range egg producers have no common standard on what the term means.  Nevertheless these terms are seen on egg cartons more and more and their cost is often over twice that of eggs not labeled as such.  

The advantages of cage-free egg production are largely related to the comfort of the birds: They have more space (144 square inches per bird compared to 67 square inches in cages), it allows the hen to select a nesting site, and some cage-free systems provide hens with a perch. Cage production does have advantages, including protecting hens from predators, severe weather, and diseases while providing comfortable temperatures and allowing farmers to inspect each hen every day.  These advantages improve the flock's livability and egg production. Up until the 1960s most eggs were produced in backyard cage-free systems but there have been improvements in cage-free systems and egg producers are offering other egg options to meet consumer choice.

Large chicken and egg producers tend to have similar space requirements for their broilers and layers, but at Abundant Life Farms, layers are not housed in any pens (except during the winter when they are kept in a greenhouse) and free to roam within a fence around their area which is used mainly to keep out predators. With this system, the chickens choose their nest, have perches and get more exercise.  

Why the difference between broilers and layers?

According to Marilyn Jondle, "meat chickens are couch potatoes, layers are the athletes."
Wilcox Family Farms' facilities are animal care certified by United Egg Producers Certified Program and "Certified Humane Raised and Handled" by Humane Farm Animal Care partly in response to the public's concern for caging birds, as well as their own desire to "always be in line with animal health," says Andy Wilcox.

The company is transitioning all of its egg production facilities to cage-free. In 1999 Barrie Wilcox, President of Wilcox Farms, was instrumental in the United Egg Producers formation of an independent scientific advisory committee charged with reviewing all scientific literature on animal well-being for egg-laying hens. The results of this committee eventually led to the United Egg Producers Certified program which is said to have some of the strictest standards for animal care in the industry.  

Gene Bunting with Lazy 54 Farms says that he is seeing more people buy their own broilers and layers to raise at home so they know exactly where the chicks came from, how they were raised, and what they are fed. Then they have a home-grown supply of meat or eggs which can be cheaper than store-bought eggs and without the retail increase for free-range, cage-free, or organic.