Free Range is the coolest thing ever, right?
According to the USDA “Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.” That is it. That is all that is listed in the FSIS-USDA’s Consumer’s Education and Information Center. So, usually a farmer or producer wants to keep a young chick indoors for the first five years of its life (to keep it healthy, and safe from disease and danger.) Then you just throw the chicken into the barn or building, and have a door somewhere that leads into a pen outside (with little to no specifics on what that should entail) and you have a certified free-range chicken. So, no, I don’t think free range is that cool.
