to feel sorry that chickens' happiness isn't worth 60p to most people?

[oohdaddypig]

So - in my local Sainsburies you can buy pre-cooked whole chickens. Free range cost 60p more than the battery farmed variety.

Girl behind the counter told me almost no one buys the free range ones.

Now, I know things are very very tight these days for many families. But this is Sainburies where the average shopper is probably slightly better off.

Doesn't anyone care about where their food comes from now at all? Is the only thing that matters now the cost?

I'm not vegetarian - but I try to shop reasonably thoughtfully, locally when I can etc,

poor chooks!

My 'rich' cat got whatever meat I was having so, yes, free range. This cat gets supermarket dried food. I'm thinking of eating her

So you are lucky that you have the choice but alot of people dont have that choice even for their meals let alone what their dog or cat eats.

i have a cat, she is old and needs special food that costs more than the average multi pack. Maybe i should put my cat down and use the money saved to eat better myself, but i am not willing to do that either.

Then you are lucky now then aren't you.

It is possible, doesn't mean we can't decide to change our principles.

We had aldi non free range chicken for dinner last night, it was delicious. My principles are fine with that, and so is my purse, since the FR was double the price. Sure, I could have made lentils instead, but we enjoyed the chicken. I'm comfortable with that.

That's just it. They are your principles.

Not everyones

I think a lot of people?s indifference to these farming methods comes down to modern society being so far removed from the source of our food. It?s only in the last 50 years that factory farming has become 'the norm'. To many chicken is a smooth pink product that comes wrapped in cellophane. They are detached from the idea that has once been a living creature.

Ask children which animal we get ham from or which animal we get beef from, lots of them won?t know.

My grandad has chickens and they wonder all around the place. He buys them from farmers who day they are free range but if that's free then I wouldn't want to see what they did to battery hens!

You are just paying more for the idea that you are helping when infact you aren't because free range is a load of shit to get people to pay more when nothing as changed.

"...to get people to pay more when nothing as changed."

This is absolutley true. In microeconomics there is a phenomenon called 'price discrimination'. What this describes is the way that suppliers segment customers into different groups and charge them different amounts for essentially the same product. We see 'price discrimination' most often in things like discounts for Students and OAPs. Supermarkets also do it with labels like 'Value Range, Free Range, Organic. Yes there is a quality difference but not as big as the price difference that the customer gets charged to buy organic versus value range.

Its all about maximising profit in the end and if a certain group of customers signals that it is concerned about animal welfare and pay 50% more for that than the supermarket is only too willing to take your money. The supermarket management and shareholders really could not care less.

MoreBeta- Bit OT butWhen i was a student I had a holiday job on a ready meal production line.During the course of a day the packaging changed many times , but not the product.

AmberLeaf - an intensively reared low welfare chicken is a broiler chicken. For me it doesn't totally matter if the chicken is free range or indoor reared to higher welfare standards. I can't always afford free range but I never ever buy the cheap crap. Those who say there's no difference are utterly wrong. You only have to use your eyes, nose and sense of touch to know there's a huge difference in the rearing methods and the end product. And I will not feed crap to my kids no mattee how short of money I am - I would sooner skip meals myself, and frequently do.
Primark was a parallel example of fa another false economy. Again I go without rather than waste my money. And I'm afraid based on how busy those kinds of shops still are, day in day out, I seriously doubt many people are as poor as they'd have us believe.

AmberLeaf - an intensively reared low welfare chicken is a broiler chicken

I've seen chickens labelled as broiler chickens in the butchers. They are long and thin (they remind of dog toy rubber chickens) I've never bought one. I assume people buy them for making soup as there isn't much meat on them.

Re Primark. What are you on about?

I would love to be able to buy high end quality clothing but I can't I have to make do with primark.

Primark is bustling mainly because young people (teens) can get key fashion items for a fraction of the price of other stores. Those key fashion items change about 3 times a year. thats the sort of buyer that sees primark clothing as disposable.

Yanbu, i'm veggy but often explain to dh that if we can't afford better meat than we can't afford meat. I'm sorry but it is not unreasonable or classist to expect someone to eat beans if they can't afford to eat meat that hasn't been debeaked shoved in a cage while its legs grow around the bars because of the cramped conditions.

It is.

...And utterly ridiculous.

YABU, unless of course your dog eats meat from free range animals too?

Amberleaf, are you responding to vegans post there with your comment of ridiculous? I hope not.

Of course it is! You would end up with the well off eating chicken and the poor stuck eating beans.

It is ridiculous

I have primark clothes that have lasted longer than monsoon clothes btw.

It's only a 'false economy' if you are a snob and don't look after your clothes

Noqontrol. Yes I was and I stand by it.

Only the well off should eat meat so as to fit your principles.

That is ridiculous.

Yes it is unreasonable to expect someone to eat beans if they can't afford free range.

Totally ridiculous.

As for primark, what if your children need clothes and that's all you can afford? Should they go without?

Yes, of course, Moomins, they should make their children weave fabric out of grass clippings and fashion clothing from it. This will enable superior better-off people to tell at a glance which families to despise.

Additionally, since cheap beans are produced by exploited foreign labour using non-organic farming methods and shipped here at the expense of fossil fuels, grass-wearers must only eat ethically produced, seasonal, British produce which consists of turnips for 4 months of the year. The turnip-eating grass-wearers, by now wasted and malnourished, mustn't wear shoes because they're all made from unethical materials. Grass boots might be a bit uncomfortable in winter but, after a few years of this, most of the inferior poor will have died out. Leaving a highly ethical, superior, consumer Britain.

So as you can see, it's all in a good cause :)

Yes all of that garlic

and the chicken is still slaughtered anyway by the rich meat eaters

Garlic brilliant!