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!

I bought FR eggs last week. Even though I'd just lost my job. It just felt wrong to buy battery eggs.

Old miserable git bloke watched me put them in my trolley and commented that 'All this FR stuff is just nonsense and a total waste of time'

I was having an AWESOME day so decided NOT to blight it by reacting to him as I'm sure he wanted. He's entitled to be wrong his opinion.

I do however feel that I got to the marked down strawberry cream slices before him though, was an amazing stroke of Karma.

I made a chicken stew last weekend with 8 thighs. Half were free range, half not (only one fr pack left). Preparing the thighs, skinning etc, one lot had slimy paper thin skin overlying slimy pathwtically sized poetions of meat. The other had thick, dry skin, easy to peel away from nice fat portions of good firm meat. Guess which was which?
Cheap meat is a false economy. Better meat goes much further and it tastes much nicer. I can't afford to buy meat very often but I make sure we enjoy it and get the most from it when I do.

PS Mintyy -

Even if you are on a tight budget, you don't have to eat chicken! And I don't believe intensively reared chicken is that healthy and nutricious anyway!

If you want a reasonably priced alternative, eat mackerel! Or tinned sardines which are cheap, healthy and an ethical choice!

It's very interesting when people say that they can't afford to make ethical choices...I think everyone can...

And BTW there is NO excuse for buying battery eggs, do they even sell them anymore?

And these people who say they can't afford the 60p difference, did I read "this was sent from my iphone" somewhere?

Hi Ohhdaddypig
don't worry, plenty of people do still care..I am one of those annoying people that don't buy Nestle, any coffee / chocolate that's not fair trade, or chickens / eggs that aren't free range / organic. We don't buy pork / beef / lamb except for special occasions because of the cost. We have eaten exactly 2 times in the past 8 years in McDonalds, and that's because we take our own sandwiches everywhere and a flask of tea to save cash! Diamonds easy to avoid as I can't afford! The only voice we have is what we buy - 'you are what you buy' and it's the only thing industry listens to. It's not about cash it's about what you care about.

I can't give a crap really if I am going to eat it anyway. I'll make the chicken super happy an then slaughter it?

I agree if you really care you would be vegetarian.

There are starving children and babies in the world. I don't care about a chicken with not much space

I'm the same Free

We get all our meat from a family friend who actually slaughters the animal, eggs from a friend with chickens etc. I also avoid MANY brands.

I also agree you can care about many issues. Animal welfare (NOT animal rights grrr) is a big deal to me. So is palm oil. Even if you don't care about the palm oil, think of what it's doing the rainforests.

Have you ever been poor OP?

I can't afford free range eggs or free range meat. Definitely not organic which I think is shit anyway

Do sainsburys really sell two different types of rotisserie chicken? I've never seen that anywhere.

Except that I guarantee that many of those poor penniless people (in which case why are they buying a roast chicken) can also be found buying disposable clothing in Primark on a regular basis. Poverty is relative

Have to say first I think I've bought them a couple of times when I've been there late and they've been marked down to about 50p for a whole chicken. Rotisserie meat is not something I'd buy normally.

I do however shop in Primark because its within my budget. I certainly don't see primark clothes as 'disposable' I have things I bought there about 16 years ago still going strong.

I don't buy much meat in supermarkets anyway as my local butcher is generally cheaper-thats my local halal butcher.

I would have thought there was enough on this thread to make even themost selfish of selfish people think twice about their shopping habits. There is a very easy solution to not being able to afford decent meat and eggs for your family. Eat much less of them. Many of us on this thread will buy a chicken once a month or less and make it last. Can you get four square meals for a family out of a water-filled broiler chicken? I think not.

I've never bought a broiler chicken water filled or otherwise.

I rarely buy whole chickens anyway because for what you get they are not that cheap compared to buying leg joints. If I do though all of it is used right down to the bones for soup.

I'm quite happy to keep being selfish by putting feeding my family economically before any self righteous competition of who can get the most meals out of one free range/organic chicken.

Everyone has different priorities and concerns surely. I don't eat meat of any kind, or drink milk (partly for animal welfare reasons, partly because I just don't like it), but I don't bother with organic produce as I'm not really convinced of the benefits, and have no problem buying Nestle stuff.

Don't shop in Primark personally but tbh I think most high street clothing stores are going to have the same ethical issues, it's very difficult to avoid. Singling out Primark for criticism seems to me to come more from a distaste for the 'kind of people' imagined to shop there, rather than it actually being any worse.

Its not that I don't give a shit. My mum was vegetarian and we only had free range eggs at home I know about the issues.

Its just that adhering to such principles is much easier when you aren't poor.

I'm too poor to have those principles anymore.

Quite honestly animal welfare is the least of my worries.

I also have a bit of an issue with people that eat meat but feel better about it because its free range. The end result is the same- a dead animal on your plate.

If you feel that strongly about it be a vegetarian.

(my dogs eat free-range meat though - it would feel a bit unfair to expect them to be vegetarians :))

Has this been said already?
There is most definately not 60p difference between a free range and a basics chicken
Do you mean 60p per grm?

I shop in sainsbirys and I am a veggie. My family are not so I am mindful of what meat I buy.

I look at prices and free range chickens cost a Tenner. Basics are £4 and you can get 3 for a Tenner.

That is the sort of price difference that would sway mst people.

I don't know why that woman on the counter was telling you such nonsense.

The end result might be the same, but the events leading up to it are not. Ie a happier life versus a very unhappy painful life. And it does matter. You could apply the same principle to humans, ah well, it doesn't matter what happens in life or how happy people are, or if they get shut up in a small cage and are tortured during their life, cos we're all going to die in the end anyway Just because it is known when an animal is going to die, doesn't mean it has to suffer on the way, DOES IT? If you cant afford cruelty free meat then don't bloody eat meat. Some peoples lack of empathy towards other species, is frankly quite disturbing.

If you cant afford cruelty free meat then don't bloody eat meat

So only well off people should eat meat?

As for empathy. I have loads for my fellow human. However hard I try I can't empathise with a chicken.

Ideally yes they should have a nice happy skippy life. But they are bred for meat for humans. They are killed so we can eat them. Does your empathy only go as far as how they live

Where is your empathy when they are being killed so you can eat them? Or is that part ok?

Just so hypocritical.

Much respect for the vegetarians.

Me too Tough. Many meals of beans or porridge when I couldn't afford anything else.

Now I have a bit more money I can afford a much more varied diet and that includes meat-just not free range/organice meat.

Should I really stick to beans and pulses until I can stretch to organic?

cruelty free meat? Hilarious. There's no such thing. Stop kidding yourself. If you care about animals, go vegan. If you eat meat it doesn't matter what sort of meat you are eating, it's still dead animal and it is not 'cruelty free'

Thats right amber. If you cant afford it dont buy it. I cant see how in any shape or form you find it acceptable to eat meat from such conditions, just so you can have meat.
And no, how they are killed isnt bloody ok either. Obviously

I think the problem is it is difficult to make a concious decision to only eat ethically prepared meat all the time it is easier to be veggie.

Which I have done rather than eat crappo meat when I was v poor.

Being someone on an average income and no children I can afford to occassionally go to my local butcher which can name the farms all the meat comes from and it is all without exception free range. I cook from scratch all the time to be able to afford this. But if I had children I imagine that would all go to pot.

But then I find I need a sandwich on a long train journey and have to go with the dutch bacon BLT.

Its v hard to avoid all the time without making a big ethical stance which most people don't want to, or don't think they should have to do.

Metab: dont you think some meat is more cruelly produced then others? Methinks you are fooling yourself. So entitled.

Save the raised eyebrow.

Thats right amber. If you cant afford it dont buy it
I don't buy it, I but the kind I can afford.

I cant see how in any shape or form you find it acceptable to eat meat from such conditions just so you can have meat

Surprisingly easily.

And no, how they are killed isnt bloody ok either

But ok enough for you to eat?

Noqontrol.
Are you a vegetarian?

I genuinely had no idea that so many people didn't give a shit about how animals are treated.

Sadly, almost every week, there is a case of animal cruelty highlighted in the news. I just hope all these here people who 'don't give a shit' about the life of these chickens, do not own pets.