Hugh's Chicken Run.............

[epops]

Originally Posted by coasty

Surely the simple answer to this is what I do and support your local butcher and get locally produced products, A decent butcher will know where stuff has come from and will value his reputation...The chickens wont be on little plastic trays and wont be cling filmed and artificially plump. My local butcher doesnt supply organic chickens but they are locally produced from a small supplier. They are supplied with feet on and yu can tell from their feet that they are a few months old...

Good quality meat of all types is out there but you wont find much of it in the supermarkets.

its ok if ya got a local butcher but having said that we use one in colchester who not only stock all the usual stuff but also various game when in season wild duck and any other meat you care to mention peronally id rather by meat from there than any supermarket stuff.

[coasty]

Originally Posted by epops

its ok if ya got a local butcher but having said that we use one in colchester who not only stock all the usual stuff but also various game when in season wild duck and any other meat you care to mention peronally id rather by meat from there than any supermarket stuff.

The simple reason why Butchers are hard to find is they went broke because everyone dumped them for cheaper meat from the supermarkets

[hannahpanda]

Originally Posted by coasty

The simple reason why Butchers are hard to find is they went broke because everyone dumped them for cheaper meat from the supermarkets

Thats not always true.
The village i live in and surrounding villages have been opposing plans to build a tesco in one of the villages, for many reasons, mainly we dont want it here as we have no reason for it, road traffic is bad enough without tesco lorrys plus alot of the roads are very difficult for big vehicles to manuver around, and it will spoil the area.
But of course the local council approve it, gave them a slap on the wrist when they cut down some ancient protected trees, and has approved for them to IMPORT some mediteranian red slates for the building They have changed most of their original proposals, including using local building materials, opening a certain number of hours etc. We wanted a health centre but the local council wouldnt make as much money off that. I think they might be building a small one next to tesco but that hasnt been approved yet.

Most people in these villages will be continuing the support and shop at their local butchers, bakers, green grocers etc although of course some will probably start going to the Tesco.

Anyway back to the program, i personally dont think being on a tight budget is an excuse not to buy freedom food or free range if they would prefer to rather than they dont want to change to freedom food or free range, as 50p could be taken of 4 other shopping items such as spend 50p less on shampoo or whatever. I'd personally rather not eat chicken than eat battery farmed or intensivly farmed chicken (Dont want to make anyone angry but thats how i see it)

Has everyone shown their support on Chickenout

Kayleigh they are not banning battery farming, they are just changing the cages, that will make a whooollle lot of difference
EU legislation will soon be changing to allow more chickens to be packed into smaller spaces.

[honeybee]

Just signed the chicken out petition thing, thanks H.P

[Kayleigh]

well, if every one stopped buying battery and intensively farmed meat then there would be no Demand and like Hugh said the meat industry would have to sell food at a more realistic price. That would be better for the animals and better for humans.

[Rats]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

well, if every one stopped buying battery and intensively farmed meat then there would be no Demand and like Hugh said the meat industry would have to sell food at a more realistic price. That would be better for the animals and better for humans.

Exactly!! But, that will never happen, there will always be people who just don't care enough.

[hammock monkey]

anyone who says they cant eat cheaply probably just doesn't cook

[wendygro]

I too watced Hugh,s program but what about Jamie Olivers last night these two chefs together could and should change this terrible treatment of chickens I have recently rescued 8 battery hens (Like those on TV) they are now able to walk flutter their wings and scratch etc their feathers are coming back and they are happy if my garden was bigger I would have more . What the program didn,t say was on the egg chickens where are they reared until point of lay which is about 16 weeks I would be interested to find out

[Stewy]

Originally Posted by Xanadu2

I missed the first programme and wonder when it wil be repeated.

Today on C4 at 5.35pm.

[Susie]

These programmes must definitely be having a positive effect as there wasn't a single organic or free range chicken in my supermarket when I did my weekly shop this afternoon.

However, that didn't help my plan to eat free range/organic this week to see if we could afford it. So chicken was off the menu and I bought venison in it's place. I was shocked to see that it had come all the way from New Zealand!!! There are loads of deer farms around here, one just half a mile from where I live, so I don't see why the supermarket's stock couldn't be locally sourced. Anyhoo, I got just enough meat to get me through the next few days but from now on I shall be doing my meat shopping at the butchers in Cranleigh or Horsham.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Susie

These programmes must definitely be having a positive effect as there wasn't a single organic or free range chicken in my supermarket when I did my weekly shop this afternoon.

However, that didn't help my plan to eat free range/organic this week to see if we could afford it. So chicken was off the menu and I bought venison in it's place. I was shocked to see that it had come all the way from New Zealand!!! There are loads of deer farms around here, one just half a mile from where I live, so I don't see why the supermarket's stock couldn't be locally sourced. Anyhoo, I got just enough meat to get me through the next few days but from now on I shall be doing my meat shopping at the butchers in Cranleigh or Horsham.

At least the supermarkets will have to get more organic/free-range in.

Lets hope when all the publicity dies down everyone will keep on with organic and not slip back to the old ways.

[Susie]

I imagine most poeple will slip back to the old ways of eating cheap meat. It is too early yet to say if I will be one of them.

I am suprised that the supermarkets aren't doing more to promote free range and organic though, I imagine there must be a bigger profit margin in it.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Susie

I imagine most poeple will slip back to the old ways of eating cheap meat. It is too early yet to say if I will be one of them.

I am suprised that the supermarkets aren't doing more to promote free range and organic though, I imagine there must be a bigger profit margin in it.

If the supermarkets can sell two chickens for £5 how much do think they buy them for. It would cost them more to promote free-range. They can't make a bit less for sake of a better life now can they.

[Dutchess]

Well as a guideline to profit margins, on Jamie's Fowl Dinners programme screened last night, we were informed that the farmer makes just 3 pence per standard chicken

[stripee]

Originally Posted by Dutchess

Well as a guideline to profit margins, on Jamie's Fowl Dinners programme screened last night, we were informed that the farmer makes just 3 pence per standard chicken

Maybe, but if you add up all those 3 pences....in my extended family there are chicken farmers in the north. They are rich from battery chicken production. They even like wildlife. But as far as they are concerned chickens = money. I don't think they think of chickens as creatures at all.

I recently read Peter Singer and Jim Mason's book "Eating", although they are American, and industrial farming is on a much larger scale there, his chapter on the hidden costs of cheap chicken - where he writes about slaughtering 80,000 chickens a night mostly for KFC it is totally horrific. Much better, spend a bit when buying chicken, and avoid processed food if possible. Processed and ready meals are quite expensive anyway.

[Xanadu2]

Originally Posted by hannahpanda

Anyway back to the program, i personally dont think being on a tight budget is an excuse not to buy freedom food or free range if they would prefer to rather than they dont want to change to freedom food or free range, as 50p could be taken of 4 other shopping items such as spend 50p less on shampoo or whatever. I'd personally rather not eat chicken than eat battery farmed or intensivly farmed chicken (Dont want to make anyone angry but thats how i see it)

I'm sick of people saying the chickens don't matter so long as they can get their cheap meat or eggs on their very limited incomes. I bet they haven't got less money than me!

Anyone would think it was a straight choice between chicken and junk food!

Has everyone shown their support on Chickenout

Kayleigh they are not banning battery farming, they are just changing the cages, that will make a whooollle lot of difference
EU legislation will soon be changing to allow more chickens to be packed into smaller spaces.

My computer always shuts down Windows IE whenver I try to access that page! <grrrr!> Where did you get that dreadful information about the EU?

[Xanadu2]

Originally Posted by Stewy

Today on C4 at 5.35pm.

Thanks but Arrrrgh! Had a great day out and got back at 6pm. I didn't check this board straight away!

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Susie

I imagine most poeple will slip back to the old ways of eating cheap meat. It is too early yet to say if I will be one of them.

.

Honestly its not difficult once you've made the decision not to fund intensive chicken farms, when funds are tight I buy minced beef instead of chicken.

The only problem I have is that you can't buy free range KFC which is my personal weakness......

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by The Black Rabbit

I am very aware that there are many (including me once) who REALLY cannot afford free range and organic food.
I often find it amusing / bemusing / dismaying though, when many of the people shown on television who claim this, seem very often to be clinically obese...

Doug

I must admit this crossed my mind too.....

[Paul mabbott]

But why should there be a 'processing plant'? Surely those who eat meat can get it directly from their butchers who get it directly from the wholesalers. Why 'process'?

Yes, as you point out, the processing of meats to add weight (mainly water but also exotic proteins) is appalling..... and dangerous ... especially if some of the introduced chemicals come from diseased or rotting animals.

Glad to see you have reduced eating meat and I think this is the general answer - many people say that they can't afford organic meat but if they only ate it once or twice a week then they could.

I remember when our household stopped eating meat, we were able to eat all sorts of exotic and "expensive" things - but none as expensive as meat! A weird thing is that while we were paying vast monies for meat, we considered olive oil a 'luxury' to be used sparingly. Give up/reduce meat usage (especially cow meat) and you'll be able to afford far more interesting, nutritious, non-toxic foods!

Originally Posted by peppermint

I think the next step would be to do something similar but in the processing plant.

I have recently read a book called not on the label by Felicity Lawrence and the first chapter was about chicken. I was quite horrified by how much water is pumped into the chickens, i am sorry but i cant remember the percentages, and that also proteins from various other animals such as pig and cow were being injected to the chicken in order to make the chicken able to hold more water, to add weight and hence cost. Tests can be done in laboratories to detect the adulteration of the chicken in this way but as reported in the book i mentioned (which came out in 2004) the processors have come up with a way to add cow/pig proteins which can escape detection when tested. If they can do this, it makes me wonder how their methods have progressed and what else we are blissfully unaware of.

I personally dont eat much meat these days, maybe once a week. I like to know where if possible my meat has come from and that it is free range, or even better, organic. Money is a bit of an issue but i would rather not buy meat than eat the cheap stuff that has been so cruelly reared with no space, very minimal light and riddled with health problems.

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, I would agree, if you can trust your local butcher! A big ask with some of the meat-traders I've known. In my experience, I wouldn't trust some of them past the nearest dogs home. But some are good (we have a couple such in Sheffield) and will know what you want, what they have got (in the literal sense: they should be able to trace their meat back to a particular animal) and how to deal with it.

One of the problems for younger people is that they start off from the meal (that they've had in a restaurant or seen on the telly) and work their way backwards rather than asking their butcher (greengrocer or fishmonger) what is good and in season, and economical and then working a recipe on from that ...

Originally Posted by coasty

Surely the simple answer to this is what I do and support your local butcher and get locally produced products, A decent butcher will know where stuff has come from and will value his reputation...The chickens wont be on little plastic trays and wont be cling filmed and artificially plump. My local butcher doesnt supply organic chickens but they are locally produced from a small supplier. They are supplied with feet on and yu can tell from their feet that they are a few months old...

Good quality meat of all types is out there but you wont find much of it in the supermarkets.

[Kayleigh]

Our butcher is really good. We went buy some lamb and he told us to wait as the price is high and to come back when it dropped. He also keeps beef and sheep so you know where it has come from. He is also cheaper than the supermarkets as there is less packaging that you are not paying for or bringing home to put in the bin.

You talk about chicken but its all supermarket meat that is intensely farmed and the animals living in appalling conditions. Support your local butcher that's what I say..

[Stewy]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

You talk about chicken but its all supermarket meat that is intensely farmed and the animals living in appalling conditions. Support your local butcher that's what I say..

I'm sorry but that is untrue, not all local butchers only stock/sell free range meat, especially pork and chicken.

Unless one of these are your local butchers of course.



Sheepdrove Family Butchers shops in London and Bristol - Sheepdrove Organic Farm