Why Is Chicken So Cheap At The Grocery Store?

Have you ever picked up a package of chicken at the grocery store and see a big sticker that says:

Or what about Costco's famous rotisserie chickens at $4.99 for a whole cooked chicken!

It's a pretty magical feat to be able to offer chicken so crazy cheap considering that the chicken had to be hatched, fed for 6-8 weeks, butchered, cut/wrapped, transported multiple times, and then put in a grocery store for its final sale.

Who do you think makes the most money in this transaction when the final product is only $0.99/lb on a 5 lb chicken?

I can guarantee you...It ain't the farmer.

As a typical rule of thumb, the further you are down the line from the final product, the lower your percentage of the price. The chicken farmer is way down the production line and receives very little for that chicken that ends up on the shelf.

Chicken is so cheap because people want cheap chicken, so the corporations demand the farmers to raise cheap chicken.

Farmers enjoy raising their animals, but they do not want to market their products. Instead, they get into contracts with big corporations like Tyson or Costco that make it "easy" for them to sell their chickens. In reality, it locks them into a long-term contract where they are forced to keep up with the newest technology and equipment or lose their contract. Most chicken farmers are basically enslaved to these big corporations, and often, the only way to get out is to sell the farm. This is due to the high debt loads that are taken on to build the infrastructure required to raise chicken, which doesn't pay for the upgrades. 

Financially it's a terrible choice for farmers, and that doesn't even address the health of the land, the farmers, and the community when these gigantic chicken houses are built, and their waste is spread back on the land.

Cheap Food = Cheap Production = Cheap Labor = Cheap GMO Feed = Broke Farmers

There's just no way around it.

If we want farmers to make a living and be true stewards of the land, not just factories on the farm ground, we must be willing to pay higher prices to make a good living raising quality food for our families.

Our pricing philosophy is simple at Cunningham Pastured Meats.

Allow our producers to set the price that lets them make a good living.

We then figure in marketing/shipping costs, and then our final price is determined.

We do not beg the producers to get their prices cheaper. We do not beg our processors to offer cheaper processing.

We want both the producer and the processor to have a quality life and a good living without sacrificing the quality of our product.

Realistically, in the end, Cheap Food = Sick People and Sick Land.

All this being said, this is why we create relationships with small-scale producers who want to raise their animals right without sacrificing quality. In fact, that's why we started Cunningham Pastured Meats in the first place. Before, the only avenue we had available was selling our cattle was through an auction that would eventually land them in a feedlot somewhere in the cheap meat cycle. We wanted more stability in our family and our business, and we wanted to provide quality grass-fed beef to people in the Boise Valley. 

We believe transparency is important for a safe, healthy, and renewable food supply.