Chickens for Days

Today, we toured Gallina Feliz, or in English, the Happy Hen. It is one of the few organic farms located in Chile (though its organic certification has been temporarily suspended due to nonorganic ingredients in the chicken feed). A two hour bus ride up a bumpy and endlessly curving road took us through the beginnings of the Andes Mountains and into farm country. This would be an interesting visit, and our first true farm visit during this program. Being very aware of the farming conditions in the industrial farms that dominate the States, I was keen to see if Chile held higher standards for their animal producers. While this farm fell short of my expectations, they do monumentally better than farms in the US. This can start a whole conversation on societal values and an understanding as to why the US industrializes the lives of animals more than other countries, who value the quality of the animals they produce.

The farm itself is worked on manually by eight employees, and started up about ten years ago. The owner of the land came to live at the property, but realized there was a high demand for eggs. Seeing a marketable opportunity, the owner began a chicken farm from scratch. There are 10,000 hens on site, producing one egg a day, and fed a plant-based feed. While some chickens roamed around, the majority were kept in small house-cage structures. Predictably, the placed smelled of farm animal and other unmentionable fumes, natural to the nature of the farm life. Gallina Feliz sells 90% of their egg production to retail, and the others are either thrown away or sold elsewhere. They plan on growing, as we saw them building another hen house, some 15 feet by 6 feet sort of size. Hopefully there is a second house in progress so that the hens can move more freely.

The littlest of the chicks

While visiting Gallina Feliz was a new experience, it made students wonder at the conditions at farms back home. My friend Kevin commented, stating: "I hope that the States are more regulated than here. Apparently, they treat their chickens really well compared to others, but it seemed like they didn't."

Another student, Vraajesh, said: "I feel the conditions were really poor. The farm was solely for business purposes and had no regards for the lives. But then again, that's how farms function in the animal business. The only plus side was that the chickens weren't being artificially injected with anything."

Finally, my roommate, Karine, said: "The US should consider adopting some Chilean farming methods. Having more local smaller farms around the US, allowing the product to be fresh and of better quality."

This business meeting was eye-opening, and made us think a little deeper than bottom lines in the business sector. It offered us insight to the food industry, and a business that has to feed hundreds of people. It is fascinating to learn how that works, the amount of work left to improve the industry, and realizing the real work we as business students need to focus on.