{"id":58698,"date":"2017-08-08T14:46:39","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T14:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/?p=58698"},"modified":"2017-08-08T14:46:39","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T14:46:39","slug":"true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Costco may be a media darling, but its proposed use of contract farming is anything but progressive. <\/p>\n

Forbes recently named Costco to its list of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies most loved by liberals<\/a>. Maybe that\u2019s because Costco CEO Craig Jelinek has championed important causes like a livable wage and company sponsored health benefits. The company\u2019s starting pay is above the federal minimum wage<\/a>\u2014$13.00 per hour, and the average employee wage is $21 per hour. Nearly 88 percent of employees have company sponsored health benefits. At the height of the recession Costco actually gave raises to help struggling employees.<\/p>\n

And yet, despite this commitment to social responsibility, Costco is about to venture into vertical integration and contract farming\u2014a system that is the antithesis of fair. Why? Because Costco sells a lot of rotisserie chickens. So many, in fact, that they\u2019re planning to build their very own chicken slaughterhouse in Fremont, Nebraska where they will slaughter 85 million chickens annually\u2014or about 1.7 million per week. Where will the chickens come from?<\/p>\n

Factory farms. And they\u2019re planning to sign up farmers under a contract growing system.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s wrong with this? Well, where do we begin\u2026<\/p>\n

As Nebraska Communities United<\/a> points out, this is not your grandparent\u2019s farm. In a system of vertical integration (how the vast majority of chicken is produced in the U.S.) the \u201cintegrator\u201d (usually a company like Tyson or Perdue) delivers the chicks and feed and dictates farm operations through a contract. They often require the growers to build and continually upgrade expensive barns to keep obtaining contracts. Farmers generally take out loans lasting more than a decade to pay for this expensive infrastructure, but the contracts are often flock-to-flock, meaning a grower only has guarantee of income for six or seven weeks at a time. The poultry sector is less like a free market than abject serfdom. Contracts are often unfair or abusive and farmers often have no legal recourse against integrators as John Oliver helped expose in this scathing piece on the poultry industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forbes recently named Costco to its list of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies most loved by liberals. And yet, despite this commitment to social responsibility, Costco is about to venture into vertical integration and contract farming\u2014a system that is the antithesis of fair. Why? Because Costco sells a lot of rotisserie chickens. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":58700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[19,3],"organicbytes":[],"countries":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken - Organic Consumers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken - Organic Consumers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Forbes recently named Costco to its list of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies most loved by liberals. And yet, despite this commitment to social responsibility, Costco is about to venture into vertical integration and contract farming\u2014a system that is the antithesis of fair. Why? Because Costco sells a lot of rotisserie chickens. \" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Organic Consumers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/organicconsumers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"523\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"OCA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@organicconsumer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@organicconsumer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"OCA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"OCA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3286fbb57d176e9dfb5990eb19a78260\"},\"headline\":\"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/\"},\"wordCount\":355,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"CAFOs vs. Free Range\",\"Environment & Climate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/\",\"name\":\"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken - Organic Consumers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":523,\"caption\":\"chickens roasting on a rotisserie\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/\",\"name\":\"Organic Consumers Association\",\"description\":\"Campaigning for health, justice, regeneration, peace, and democracy.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Organic Consumers Association\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OCA.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OCA.png\",\"width\":640,\"height\":290,\"caption\":\"Organic Consumers Association\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/organicconsumers\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/organicconsumer\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/organicconsumers\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@organicconsumer\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3286fbb57d176e9dfb5990eb19a78260\",\"name\":\"OCA\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/author\/pam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken - Organic Consumers","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken - Organic Consumers","og_description":"Forbes recently named Costco to its list of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies most loved by liberals. And yet, despite this commitment to social responsibility, Costco is about to venture into vertical integration and contract farming\u2014a system that is the antithesis of fair. Why? Because Costco sells a lot of rotisserie chickens. ","og_url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/","og_site_name":"Organic Consumers","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/organicconsumers","article_published_time":"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":523,"url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"OCA","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@organicconsumer","twitter_site":"@organicconsumer","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"OCA","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/"},"author":{"name":"OCA","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3286fbb57d176e9dfb5990eb19a78260"},"headline":"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken","datePublished":"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/"},"wordCount":355,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg","keywords":["CAFOs vs. Free Range","Environment & Climate"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/","url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/","name":"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken - Organic Consumers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg","datePublished":"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-08T14:46:39+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/chickens_roasting_rotisserie_food_1000x523.jpg","width":1000,"height":523,"caption":"chickens roasting on a rotisserie"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/true-price-499-rotisserie-chicken\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The True Price of a $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/","name":"Organic Consumers Association","description":"Campaigning for health, justice, regeneration, peace, and democracy.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#organization","name":"Organic Consumers Association","url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OCA.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OCA.png","width":640,"height":290,"caption":"Organic Consumers Association"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/organicconsumers","https:\/\/x.com\/organicconsumer","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/organicconsumers\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@organicconsumer\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/#\/schema\/person\/3286fbb57d176e9dfb5990eb19a78260","name":"OCA","url":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/author\/pam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58698"},{"taxonomy":"organicbytes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/organicbytes?post=58698"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=58698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}