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

[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.