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!

6op? I find that hard to believe. I don't buy FR chicken, its twice the price, and from what I've heard its a big con anyway, they aren't actually free range.

Sainsbuy's is the only supermarket, that is in our town centre. It is a small one. People have to drive to use the two Tesco superstores here, as they are based out of town (though the town has grown around them both).

So YABU to say that Sainsbury's are for the better off... people who can't afford to drive use it

I'm pretty sure free range is not only 60p more in my local sainsburys

Yanbu. I also find it very hard to stomach that people do not care about the welfare of animals.

TBF to the OP Sainsburys target demographic is the slightly more affluent and that's reflected in their overall product range.

However like all other supermarkets ( including Waitrose etc ) they also want a slice of the budget market.

Can you guarantee they really are 'free range'? I would say not, unless to have visited the chickens in their surroundings. For instance, I'm sure many have seen the "Happy Egg Company" advert. In reality, they are no better than a battery farm www.viva.org.uk/mediareleases/display.php?articlepid=269

Op... I care. I would spend the extra 60p. Or we could... And do, go without

When I'm shopping I tend to look at price first though. Except I hated buying caged bird eggs. That's stopped now hasn't it?

And that was because some MNer posted a link to a video about conditions they were kept in. I cannot bear animal cruelty, but I am ignorant. I am happy to be educated further on this

Anyone with a link to shock us into thinking a bit more about it?

A vegetarian diet is not suitable for everybody, particularly some young children whose bowels haven't developed as quickly as they should and need a high calories from fat, low fibre diet.

YABU.
A hell of a lot of people can't afford 60p right now and that's all there is to it.

Sparks they vary their target and the products they stock depending on post code, There is one in most post codes, the range or products on the shelves in Hamstead (And therefore price range) will be different to the range on the shelves at mine

Tescos do this too

whereas Asda for eg always targets the budget end and Waitrose/M&S always target the higher end regardless of post code, Sainsburys doesn't target the higher end specifically, only does if it is a branch in an affluent post code

YANBU People should buy high welfare meat occasionally rather tahn battery meat all the time.

Meat is not an essential part of the diet, and just because you are skint doesn't mean you shouldn't give a shit about where your food comes from.

www.viva.org.uk/mediareleases/display.php?articlepid=269

how do you know the Free Range one was happier? It might have been a right miserable bastard. That's Batteryist that is

I visit a hatchery regularly,( I need supplies of day old chicks). This one hatchery in one day kills between 4 & 6,000 newly hatched male chicks. This happens 6 days a week. The males are a 'waste' product.

*Sparks they vary their target and the products they stock depending on post code, There is one in most post codes, the range or products on the shelves in Hamstead (And therefore price range) will be different to the range on the shelves at mine

Tescos do this too

whereas Asda for eg always targets the budget end and Waitrose/M&S always target the higher end regardless of post code, Sainsburys doesn't target the higher end specifically, only does if it is a branch in an affluent post code*

I accept that. But the fact remains their reputation and marketing IS built on the slightly more expensive market.

Anyway, it's a side issue! Personally i think the whole organic / free range thing has been botched by the supermarkets and they've lost customer confidence in the products.

I'd far rather go to a butcher every time.

YANBU.

I'd rather buy chickpeas than battery chicken. (anyhow, ethics apart DH can't stand the taste of anything except M&S freerange or some organics - chicken fed on nasty food tastes nasty).

Free range usually means the chickens have 'access' to the outdoors.

Unfortunatley, this means far less outdoor than everyone thinks as others have said.

For example, in free range egg laying houses the hens can get outside but usually only to a muddy patch and worse than that there are often 'boss' hens that guard the hatches and many hens do not venture out at all.

That said, free range is better than intensively reared indoor chicken.

Conditions are also better nowadays than they used to be even for the intensively reared chickens. Constant feeding of high dose antibiotics, death rates measured in thousands per week and living space so close the chickens cannot flap their wings in air so toxic that humans had to wear air filters while walking among them used to be the norm.

People will buy the 38 frozen chicken breasts from Farmfoods recession or not. I think people use the recession as an excuse.

So many people post on this threads having not read all the posts, so I'm just going to say:

VEGETARIAN FOOD IS NOT SUITABLE FOR EVERYBODY

Everybody is different, including their insides!

Equally, if you think any kind of intensively farmed animal is swanning around having the time of it's life, you might want to read a bit more about how the process works.

If you're that fussed rear your own, it's the only way you can guarantee the kind of life the animal has.

I get annoyed if DH buys non-fairtrade bananas etc too ... I know we can afford it and welfare of people matters as well as animals.

Why do people need an excuse for buying something?

The non free range ones aren't battery farm chickens. Battery farm chickens have been outlawed for some time now and even before the ban meat chickens wouldn't have been battery chickens.

In reality there isn't a lot of difference between a free range broiler and a non free range ones. I know someone who keeps "free range" chickens and he says they don't go out the barn, even though the sides are open. So are actually no different from the barn chickens.

People are saying that it's the 60p saving that would swing it for them. I don't think that's true in a lot of cases.

YANBU - we're not particularly well off but I only buy free range chicken and eggs (though I will admit to the very occasional KFC )