Are Cornish Cross Chickens Genetically Modified?
One of the questions I see debated often in “homesteading” or “backyard chicken keeping” groups on Facebook has to do with Cornish Cross chickens. More specifically, whether Cornish Cross chickens are genetically modified (GMO).
Before I answer that question, let’s first chat about what Cornish Cross chickens actually are, and why they’re the breed of choice on our farm.
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What Are Cornish Cross Chickens?
The most common meat bird breed in the United States, Cornish Cross chickens are hybrids of male Cornish and female white Plymouth Rock parents.
Developed around 1916, the breed offers a number of benefits for people who raise their own chickens for meat, as well as for the large commercial outfits that tend to provide grocery stores with the chicken you see on the shelves.
Cornish game hens are the exact same breed, just processed much sooner, so the birds only weigh a couple of pounds.
Are Cornish Cross Chickens Genetically Modified?
Roughly 78% of Americans believe that chickens are genetically modified. But contrary to popular belief, Cornish Cross chickens are NOT genetically modified. They are simply selectively bred, as are the vast majority of livestock species we raise around the world today.
Selective breeding is a traditional process of breeding animals with certain desired traits. GMOs, on the other hand, involve directly modifying genes in a laboratory. GMO and selective breeding can produce the same end result, but the two are not the same process in the slightest.
What Are the Benefits of Cornish Cross Chickens?
We choose Cornish Cross chickens on our farm for a number of reasons. For one, they are docile and grow extremely quickly. They’re ready for processing in just six to eight weeks, meaning less food and time to get them to where they need to be.
They also have fewer feathers than other types of chickens, so they’re easy to process and yield a more attractive finished product after plucking (no dark black pin feathers speckling the skin).
Controversies Surrounding Cornish Cross Chickens
That said, they’re not without their fair share of controversy, and it’s not just due to misunderstandings about the GMO issue.
One concern I hear often is that Cornish Cross chickens are an inhumane choice because they suffer from leg problems and heart issues as a result of their rapid growth. This can be true, but is relatively easy to avoid with a bit of conscientious decision making and advanced planning.
We do not raise our Cornish Cross chickens in confinement, instead moving them to fresh pasture daily by use of a chicken tractor.
Because of this, they’re forced to get exercise and rarely “keel over and die” suddenly, as many naysayers will argue is common with the breed (it’s true that, when raised in confinement, these problems are not out of the ordinary). While we have the odd chicken here or there pass away, this is not common. Of the hundreds of birds we raise each summer, unexplained deaths happen to a mere handful.
Good management is key with these birds, as it is with any other pasture-based operation. Another common complaint is that they stink. Again, this is true if you keep your birds locked up in a small barn. By moving the chickens every day, there are no odors, no manure build-up, and minimal flies. They also provide valuable fertilizer for our fields.
Some people worry that these birds grow so quickly because they’re given hormones to make them grow faster. About 77% of Americans (based on a National Chicken Council survey) believe chickens contain added hormones or steroids, and 73% believe they contain antibiotics.
Also not true. Hormones and steroids have been banned in poultry in the USA since the 1950s. Antibiotics are also not allowed as a growth mechanism; although antibiotics are permitted for the treatment of illness, the USDA requires withdrawal periods prior to processing.
Instead, these chickens grow quickly simply because that is the nature of the breed.
Why We Raise Cornish Cross Chickens
In the past, we used to raise dual-purpose chickens that could be grown out for either eggs or meat. While an efficient use of space, we weren’t fond of the results. Dual purpose animals tend to be compromises, doing a decent job at both tasks but not excelling in either egg laying or meat production in isolation.
We tend to refer to the carcasses produced by these birds (like New Hampshire or Rhode Island Reds) as “rubber chickens” because there was so little meat on the bones, and what was there was tough and stringy, requiring several days of aging in the fridge to get anything remotely edible out of it. Not to mention the several months it took to feed the animal to finish weight, all for a mediocre product at best.
That’s not to say that our way of doing things is always the best. I know plenty of people who love raising heritage or dual purpose breeds, claiming that the flavor of the chicken is far superior to that of Cornish Crosses. However, the devil truly is in the details, and in this case, I think the details that matter most are what the chicken is fed.
Chickens are monogastric animals, meaning they cannot survive on a diet of grass and forage alone. They do require some supplemental feed and are innately omnivorous.
While we do provide our chickens with feed, we’re always amazed at how much grass they actually consume while they’re out on pasture (there are lots of farmers who will claim chickens don’t ever eat any grass, but this is simply not true).
Although they don’t digest plant matter as well as ruminants, they’re still getting movement, along with nutrients they may not have tapped into otherwise. And don’t forget about all the tasty bugs and grubs they’re nibbling on!
They say you are what you eat. And while there are lots of folks who aren’t fond of the Cornish Cross breed, for whatever reasons (in my personal opinion, many of them somewhat misguided and puritanical), they’ll always have a place on our farm, and on our plates.
And no. They aren’t “Franken-birds.” They’re just pleasantly plump.
Want to learn more about raising chickens? Be sure to check out these articles!
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