Theresa Albert Joins Chicken Feeds Blog

August 18, 2009- The act of cooking has been slowly chipped away at by convenience foods and ready-to-eat meals. Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC), along with Registered Nutritionist, television personality and best-selling cookbook author, Theresa Albert have taken to social media to help this generation better provide for themselves and their families.

August 18, 2009- The act of cooking has been slowly chipped away at by convenience foods and ready-to-eat meals. Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC), along with Registered Nutritionist, television personality and best-selling cookbook author, Theresa Albert have taken to social media to help this generation better provide for themselves and their families.

The campaign utilizes the CFC blog, dubbed "Chicken Feeds ," launched this spring, as well as a video podcast series that will be promoted on the CFC website and blog. The content is designed to be instructional and simple, keeping the focus on how to make healthy food choices, while saving money with minimal time in front of the stove.

"These days, we're working longer hours, and spending less time than ever preparing food," says Albert. "The problem is, we've gotten so used to high-fat and high-sodium convenience foods, that we've forgotten how simple and rewarding cooking can be."

In an article for the New York Times, In Defense of Food, author Michael Pollan notes that the amount of time we spend cooking has dropped approximately 40 per cent since 1965. He also notes that it's likely that this trend will continue, since with each generation, some basic knowledge of cooking is lost.

"I learned to cook from my mother, and from my aunts and uncles," says Albert. "Are kids today getting the same education at home? It's not likely. The reality is that we learn from our parents, so the less focus the current generation puts on home cooking, the less the next will know about it."

CFC chose the podcast as the channel for the information because of its capacity to create conversations online, the high number of Canadians actively using the internet and its relatively low cost.

"A few years ago, getting a message like this out to people across the country would have been next to impossible with a small budget," said Mike Dungate, General Manager for CFC. "As we experiment more with social media, we're finding that we can reach more people for less, allowing us to focus our content on teaching, rather than just selling. That makes a big difference to people."

The video podcast will run every month for the remainder of the year along with blog posts from Theresa Albert. Both are available at http://www.chickenfeeds.ca .