Even before I visited Kiichi Sato’s Kelp Poultry Farm in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, I had a chance to try the chicken and the eggs he produces there. At Ryotei Tatsuyabashi, an upscale traditional restaurant in Koriyama, I was served a sort of eggnog aperetif made with fresh eggs and local sake. Masami Terai, the restaurant owner, proudly informed us that the eggs were from the Kelp Poultry Farm. The drink was more delicious than it sounds.

The chicken was one of several dishes served in a four compartment bento box. One corner of the box held a single large clam, a prawn and a bit of omelet made from Sato’s chicken eggs. The next compartment held sea bream and blue fin tuna garnished with a piece of simmered kelp. A third compartment held taro, snap peas and octopus. And The fourth compartment held mosit and tender slices of the Kelp Farm chicken garnished with lotus root and fava beans in a miso sauce. It was perhaps the best tasting chicken I have ever eaten.

So widely acclaimed is Sato’s chicken in fact that it sells for three or four times the price of conventionally grown chicken. Michelin three-starred restaurants in Tokyo serve his chicken exclusively, and Sato says he has a 6-month waiting list for new customers. He prefers to sell locally, restaurants as far away as Kyushu sell his chicken. 

Before he started raising chickens, Sato did soil research as a graduate student in both the U.S. and Australia. The focus of his research involved using kelp as a soil additive to increase levels of nitrogen. Kelp extract is widely used in Japan as an essential component of instant dashi, the basic stock that is a part of so many traditional Japanese recipes and as an additive to cosmetics and fermented health drinks. Some research was already underway to utilize kelp as a supplement for animal feed and Sato became involved in that research.

“The animals getting the kelp supplement were so healthy,” he said “That I decided to abandon my laboratory work and start raising animals and feeding them kelp meal.” He started in the early 90s with cattle but shifted by 1995 to chickens. He raises both laying hens for eggs and frying hens for restaurants.

When I visited his farm, one of the first things I noticed was the unusual number of dogs, at least 15 of them, one tied up outside each of his chicken houses. “We live in the country,” he said “and a lot of people drive dogs out here to abandon them. I just take them in to keep them from starving.” The dogs earn their keep by protecting the henhouses from marauding foxes and raccoons.

Inside each of the spacious greenhouse-like structures that house the laying hens, a couple of hundred chickens are free to roam around on the clean sawdust and sand covered floor. Sato’s background in soil research prompted him to pay special attention to the size and composition of the sand on the henhouse floors. “The chickens eat the sand along with their feed,” he explains, “and the right size grain can aid their digestion.” Each house has a rooster and the hens lay their eggs in wooden bins along the sides of the house.

“Please smell the air,” says Sato,” a tall thin man who blinks regularly and nods his head in a kind of modified bow reminiscent of the gestures his chickens make. “It doesn’t stink. That’s a sign of healthy chickens,” he says “Only unhealthy birds stink.” Indeed the air is infused with a comforting warm animal smell that is very pleasant, not odor-free but definitely clean. And the birds themselves seem vibrant with health.

Sato never keeps more than 15,000 chickens and culls their number to less than 3000 in winter. He has no desire to expand.

“Sometimes at night,” he says and I’m not sleeping so well. Maybe I didn’t get enough exercise. I wonder if my chickens are getting enough exercise. What might make them sleep better? Do they have enough space to run around? I don’t want to crowd them.”

Sato maintains an organic vegetable garden where he raises carrots, daikon, leeks, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and green peppers. The vegetables, along with rice from a local farm constitute the bulk of his diet. Vegetable scraps from the garden go to the chickens. Once a month or so, he might eat a chicken which he prepares simply with only salt for seasoning.

“Everyone knows that people should eat locally grown foods because it's good for your health,” Sato said. “Local food is also good for the chickens.”