A Contribution to the United Nations Forum on Global Food Security & Nutrition
Harnessing the Power of the Humble Chicken Egg in the Fight Against Hunger & Malnutrition
November 3, 2018
The "Humble Egg," as Saul Morris and Tim Lamber (the FAO.org Egg Forum administrators) put it; I have found through our intensive Nutritional Diversity study here in Panama, to very certainly be everything that is hoped for by this discussion's introductory comments.
Through experimentation with Nutritional Diversity Diet for different livestock, we came up with a few incredibly effective chicken food creation systems, that was based on a "grow soil not plants-type" of idea and a "use what you got-type" of attitude that saw drastic increases in egg production and overall chicken health.
In the case of the ND chicken study it was about moving chickens to new ground, where they can find a diversity of new insects naturally and developing insect production systems to provide a constant nutritionally diverse worm staple. Putting large rows of bucketed out food scraps approve 70 feet from the house, helped detract pests that were otherwise attracted to the smaller food piles left out for shorter times, like during cooking. We would allow insects to visit the food scraps and eventually buckets of grubs is what we had. The simple natural decision to learn to attract and use the most popular larvae worm or grub type naturally occurring was a winner. I am really proud that we took the time and really communicated strong love and care to our chickens during the life of that particular study and line of experiments.
During this time on the Caribbean Island of Colon, of Bocas del Toro, the farm inherited an abandoned young person who we all learned an immense and dynamic set of lessons from. His diet became Nutritionally Diversity and eggs. For our many chapters of economic stress, eggs became the principle protein group in the diet for the entire farm family there.
Many modern diet subscribers would say that eating too many eggs runs a cholesterol and acidity risk. We have found the egg heavy diet to be incredibly sustainable both in times of poverty and for our personal nutrition. Eggs are serious in nutrition and the cholesterol concerns are addressable by donating a certain amount of yoke to compost, to rabbits, to bee's or back to nature in other ways.
The amount of time that chickens have been used in sustainable agriculture dates back at least 10,000 years. We had good energy and sustained muscle mass using eggs this way, we did not encounter any sort of problem, again this is combined with 50-100 other species, and in this type of consumption model, not much is a problem.
I maintain and drive the point always that a diverse spectrum of plants at 5x ( gram weight) that of protein consumed makes the optimal diet for humans and this concept I write under the title Nutritional Diversity, and low and behold, I also found this to be true of chickens. These guys are very happy to eat a Nutritional Diversity diet of their own. Their selection of plants as they are moved around the farm or wild terrains using an electric portable fence can be quite the revealing experiment in a good number of ways.
Chickens when let out can follow the farmer who loves them in a quiet loyal and local fashion. When that bucket of worms goes back in the pen, you can expect they will be right behind it. They are very interpretable, and there are many different species of chicken. These guys deserve a story and no living thing deserves to be caged or kept on it`s own feces for long. Just like all nature they depend on and deserve a diverse environment rich with thousands of other living souls.
The balance of give and take must be appropriate, at a minimum with our animals and with our plants. The strongest system is the one that gives the most love and care, and the most diversity.
We must stop trying to control so much as much as we need to let nature do it's own job. The most divine of us will realize beyond that, to really take care of and propagate our environment and diversity into abundance for all. There is a social cultural aspect to our methods that is grossly overlooked and therefore even more important than ever today. We all know the free range chicken is a more healthy and nutritious product than the factory abuse of the living animal does. Chickens also can remove the need for harsh pesticides that plague or precious pollinators and seriously threaten our remaining ecology.
Small groups of seven to thirteen chickens in moveable chicken fencing and moveable houses is what I found to work very well. Chicken tee-pee style houses rolled up with Premeir (or other) temporary solar powered roll fencing into backpack or horse / ironhorse carry bundles which makes it more manageable, easy and could bring in a whole new set of possibilities for a free roam large range secure chicken farming plan. In the interest of global freedom and food security the chicken egg, is a great egg but it is not the only egg, or the only food fowl. A repopulation of all diverse species to abundance effort is a repetative final thought in the freedom and security conversation. See also Guerilla Permaculture, A More Integrated with Nature Free Permaculture System.
Working chickens and other natural fowl into mutlistaged mutlifacted sustainable agriculture models rooted in the fact that they are free and loving, should be ahead of other science, and the fact that it is not at the level yet of replacing pesticide use, is shameful. It can be as easy as selecting public land, deciding to love it, and starting to see what invited species take a liking to it also.
Humbly,
Brandon Eisler
Mr. Brandon Eisler