Organic Chicken VS Non-Organic Chicken

Correction: I was just informed Harvestland is not organic. From my experience with other brands, my family have found harvestland to have a better taste and texture.

The other day I was watching the Doctors, they gave me a lot of helpful information that will help me in my journey to be a skinnier me. I found out what pink slime is, and I have to say we will rarely eat red meat again, we have also cut out most of the pork from our diet. On this episode it was showing how they not only prepare ground beef, but also chicken. Organic

I discovered they use chlorine to clean the chicken, then inject the chicken with a salt bath so cover up the chlorine taste/smell. I decided to look into going organic, and I was amazed with the prices. I would have thought organic chicken would have been insanely expensive.

I do most my shopping at Walmart, they have three different brands for chicken breasts. Chefs Choice, Harvestland, and Tyson, out of these three brands chefs choice is the cheaper one, then harvestland, and tyson to follow. Harvestland is the organic chicken, yet it’s about 20 cents cheaper per pound than the tysons. Chefs choice is the cheaper chicken, however, it has all sorts of additives.

Take a look…

1.97 a pound chicken breasts

Chefs Choice $1.97 a pound (Chicken Breast)

4.98 a pound chicken breast

Harvestland $4.98 a pound (Chicken Breast)

5.18 a pound chicken breast

Tyson $5.18 a pound (Chicken Breast)

Look at the difference! In the chefs choice you can see all the additives that is put into this chicken, sure it is 1.97 a pound, but look at the ingredients. I would much rather pay the $4.98 a pound and know I am getting nothing but chicken. The tyson brand doesn’t have as many additives, however it still has those added ingredients.

I have learned a lot from this, I will be checking those labels now.

How many of you have bought the cheaper meat?

I am guilty of that, from looking at the labels above, the cheaper meat, is not really cheaper, you are buying more additives then actual meat product. That is something to keep in mind the next time you go shopping. Organic also has a better flavor.

About Jammie Morey

Jammie is of Native American descent, her family is from the Ojibway/Chippewa tribe in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. She was born and raised in Michigan and currently resides there with her daughter. She is a single parent and enjoys spending time with her daughter. Jammie is a home healthcare aide and loves what she does outside the home. Jammie is Owner of The Neat Things in Life.

Comments

  1. I never have looked, but good to know..yikes!

    • I never looked either until last night. I was curious, so went to walmart site and searched for chicken breasts, that is when I discovered this information.

  2. Dear Jammie,
    How can you be so sure that the Harvestland is actually organic?
    This is the same question I ask myself too.
    I, as well as you mentioned, can only find this brand in Walmart.
    However, I only buy whole chickens.
    The first time I came across Harvestland, I liked what it said on the label (as you also mentioned no added ingredients and a cool description on the front label-
    •No Antibiotics Ever
    • Fed All Vegetarian Diet
    • No Animal By-Products
    • Humanely Raised
    • Raised Cage Free)
    I also found the price very appealing, too.
    After, I shared my findings with some of my friends most of them were very skeptical, and told me that as long as does not say “ORGANIC” on the label, it’s not.
    Looking at the price -$1.57 per pound for the whole chicken, I am also asking myself- “Is the label misleading and just making the product look like it is organic?”

    • I cannot be certain, Kroger also has this brand… All labels can be misleading, I know from taste or the Harvestland vs the other brands, and how this product cooks that it isn’t loaded with salt water. After the chicken is cooked the size does not go down compared to other brands of chicken. My family is pleased with the price, and the taste of the Harvestland.

      So although I am not 100% positive this chicken is not 100% organic, I am 100% positive I am pleased with the product, and I know 99% of all companies attempt to mislead one. :)

  3. Harvestland is not Organic. They don’t advertise as Organic. They simply add Humanely Raised and Raised Cage Free, but do not define those terms.
    The Humane Society filed a lawsuit of misleading advertising against them and Perdue.

    • Thanks for your comment. While it may not be “organic” it’s considered all natural whether this is true or not, I don’t know. Lots of companies lie to get consumers to purchase, my family can tell a difference in taste and texture and we personally like the harvestland the best.

      • I just wanted to add a correction…the lawsuit isn’t with Harvestland AND Perdue…the lawsuit IS PERDUE. Perdue created this company to dupe ppl who are oppsed to the perdue brand and have stopped buying their products. They didn’t change ANYTHING except the name…same chicken from the same farms all at double the price of traditionally packaged perdue. If you look at what their package claims, it’s all the same stuff Perdue claims, but consumers know and it’s been proven the Perdue name is tainted and does all those disgusting things to their meat and abuse their animals, so they created a new name for their chicken and when given the choice between Perdue at 2.99 a lb and HarvestLand at 4.89 a lb, health concious ppl like myself (I’ve soooo been duped!!) shell out extra cash and go with choice b…when side by side they are the same exact company. There is no competition…it’s like pick perdue or pick perdue…often times store brands are also perdue!! Perdue and Tyson and the leading mass produced poultry companies they are in bed with the USDA and have zero concern for the health of their chickens, let alone our safety and health!

        I feel so cheated by giving Harvestland my bussiness!!!

        Search under “company” on Perdue.com and you’ll see HarvestLand, however you won’t find it mentioned anywhere else on their whole site, not even under products and even if you use their search function you get zero results…they are trying hard to keep it a secret!! Spread the word!

        • Jammie Morey says

          I am sorry you feel the way you feel. I will continue to purchase harvestland chicken. I guess if we all stopped eating foods due to how the product was raised/grown we all would starve to death. I am not certain how Harvestland raises their chickens, just like I don’t know how Bird’s eye grows their veggies. If you want 100% real and organic, I reckon you will have to raise your own farm animals, and grow your own foods.

    • Steven Gustafson says

      How is Harvestland not organic if they state “Our products include no-antibiotics-ever chicken, turkey and pork and USDA-CERTIFIED ORGANIC chicken.”

  4. Jackie McDaniel says

    Harvestland sells “No Antibiotics Ever” chicken. It also sells “organic” chicken. It clearly states it on the pack. You can look it up on the Harvestland website. I shop at walmart and have been buying Harvestland for a while. And, although I would much rather buy organic, I haven’t been able to find it in our 2 local stores.

    • Jammie Morey says

      All we purchase is Harvestland. Whether it really is organic or not, it has a better taste than any other chicken we have ate. It also doesn’t cook down to nothing.

  5. Just bought harvestland, now that I think about it, I was pretty stupid, I guess in a rush at Key Food market.
    Humanly raised does not mean anything.
    Also, The Cage Free term makes sense for eggs because it’s more efficient for the food industry to collect egg with caged hens, but the way heavy industry raised chicken for meat is cage free,
    except they don’t see the sun in a 20 chickens/ sqr barn… but they are cage free.

    Hence I wont buy this again.

    T.

    • Jammie Morey says

      Again, I am sorry you feel this way. My family happens to like the chicken from harvestland. A large amount of the foods in the stores are produced not so well… more and more processed foods are making their way on to the shelves. All I can suggest is to start your own farm/garden so you know all the food is up to your standards.

  6. Jammie Morey says

    That is where I got it was organic from as well. However, commentors are stating no, so I cannot say it is, or it isn’t. I can say I prefer Harvestland chicken over any other chicken.

  7. Pamela Johnson says

    Please read Mark Sisson’s take on the subject: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chicken-labels/

  8. Frederik Kruis says

    Well Harvestland is not certified organic, but I buy it because it tastes better has less fat and generally looks better than Tyson. All this certification is garbage the real test how well the actual chicken looks and tastes, and Harvestland to me tastes better period end of story.

    • Jammie Morey says

      I have to agree with you! Harvestland has always tasted better to us, and when you cook it, it doesn’t cook down.

  9. Betty R in MN says

    If the package doen’t say organic with the official seal, it isn’t organic. If it is fed corn as it seems from the commercials I’ve seen, they are fed GMO corn. The vast majority of corn raised in this country is GMO, and bad for the animals/fowl and for us who consume the meat from them.

  10. The latest Perdue commercial states that their chickens are “free range” and fed an all vegetarian diet. That is factually impossible, since a free range chicken will eat insects, which are definitely not vegetarian. Perhaps Perdue doesn’t technically feed them the insects, but unless they are using pesticides, the chickens are eating them. I don’t consider that a bad thing, since that is a natural part of what should be their diet, but don’t fall for the hype.

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