to ask MEAT EATERS if you buy free range or standard chicken?

[Granllanog]

I got attacked on my last thread for saying I buy standard supermarket chicken. Considering only 4% of all of the chicken produced in the UK is free-range and only 1% is organic I don't think I am unusual in doing this?

YABU = I'm a meat eater and only ever eat/buy free-range chicken.
YANBU = I buy standard chicken.

@Mamamia7962

forinborin - You can tell the difference just by looking at a corn fed free range chicken. It's a different colour and doesn't have that plumped up look.

The colour of the carcass / fat (and the yolk, by the way) is explained fully by added pigments in the feed and, in case of the carcass, the genetics of the chicken - from the common heritage breeds, for example, rhode island reds will be "yellow" and sussexes will be "white" on the same diet.

Also, if you are a large producer, you can ask the feed mill to add pigment to the feed to target exactly the colour of the carcass / yolk you want. You can actually pick it from a catalogue - like below.

www.riverina.com.au/yolk-colour-vary/

Source: an (ultra low welfare, non-UK) chicken farm in the extended family.

I did buy an organic chicken at Christmas. It's tasted marginally nicer but not vastly

free range meat isn't that much more expensive

I pay £4.49 for a standard medium chicken, the same weight free range is £11.14. Organic is "only" £12.25. Might as well buy the organic as you get more bang for your buck as it were.

Free range is therefore hugely more expensive.

I'm a pescatarian but my family are omnivores. I'd say 90% of the meat I buy for them is organic or free range.

I feel it’s just another attack on the poor tbh.
Wages aren’t high enough, loads of people in poverty, guilt trip the poor for not buying the £5 - £10 chicken, they are only allowed savers bread and pasta.
I would like to think that the majority of people would buy free range/organic if they could afford it.
It’s just another stick to beat the poor with imo.

No we don't, unfortunately we can't really afford it.

"I have been told in this thread that not being able to afford organic is not an excuse, and another poster telling me to eat meat free alternatives instead"

That ^ might be a reference to a post I made earlier; not sure, but in any case, what's wrong with meat-free alternatives?

@Powertothepetal

I feel it’s just another attack on the poor tbh. Wages aren’t high enough, loads of people in poverty, guilt trip the poor for not buying the £5 - £10 chicken, they are only allowed savers bread and pasta. I would like to think that the majority of people would buy free range/organic if they could afford it. It’s just another stick to beat the poor with imo.

Yup.

My children like chicken. I want to feed them that, not lentils every night.

But because I’m poor, I should be a vegetarian. Nope.

@IsabellesMissingSock

"I have been told in this thread that not being able to afford organic is not an excuse, and another poster telling me to eat meat free alternatives instead"

That ^ might be a reference to a post I made earlier; not sure, but in any case, what's wrong with meat-free alternatives?

Because I actually like chicken.

@BringPizza the chickens you see freely wondering down the side of the farm shop are likely to be layers, not broilers. Broilers are culled at eight weeks.

Ok @XenoBitch, you enjoy your skanky cheap carcasses 😋

@IsabellesMissingSock

Ok *@XenoBitch*, you enjoy your skanky cheap carcasses 😋

I will and I do.

@ducksalive

There are less than 200 responses on this thread. There are obviously many thousands of people who buy free range or organic meat, free range meat isn't that much more expensive. So it seems perfectly possible that this number of people chose to answer the question. They are more likely to answer the question than standard chicken eaters as they are going to be more invested in it.

100%. I doubt that the majority of people know or even care where their meat comes from. If it’s available at a low price people will buy it. I’d rather skip luxuries for free range meat and if needed would make more veg dishes. But I can’t say the same for DP.

[quote elbea]@BringPizza the chickens you see freely wondering down the side of the farm shop are likely to be layers, not broilers. Broilers are culled at eight weeks.[/quote]
Really? Oh bollocks, I thought I was getting ‘good’ chicken

Free range from the farm shop, generally about £15.

It comes with giblets, so they get made into stock, for risotto, then we have the roast and a chicken stir-fry the following day.

So not quite the MN chicken.

I only buy organic meat but not very often as it's costly. I'd rather eat vegetarian than some ghastly battery farmed chicken though.

@IsabellesMissingSock

Ok *@XenoBitch*, you enjoy your skanky cheap carcasses 😋

What, like 95%+ of the population!!

Do you have an actual point to make, @Comedycook ?

I buy cheap meat. I also buy cheap eggs.

I don’t buy chicken from Lidl or Aldi as i find it tasteless and full of water - but Asda is fine.

Could I afford to spend more money on meat? Possibly. In all honesty I don’t really care that much about animals reared for meat.

I buy organic and free range if it is available but as I almost always shop in supermarkets it isn't always possible in which case I buy and eat the next best thing.

@IsabellesMissingSock

Do you have an actual point to make, *@Comedycook* ?

Your comment was rude and unpleasant. No need to sneer at people, and considering vast majority of birds sold aren't free range, the particular poster you were sneering at is hardly unusual.

I'm genuinely quite surprised that only 4% of chicken is free range, I was under the impression that it was increasing and more people were choosing it/supermarkets were raising welfare standards.

I made this point on the other thread, but for those who don't care about chickens or animal welfare, the problems with factory farming go WAY beyond that. Factory farmed meat is worse for the environment, worse for human health, worse for nutrition, worse for farmers.

@Comedycook I wasn't sneering. If you want to infer that from my posts, perhaps you're just projecting. Dunno 🤷🏻‍♀️

Local, organic, free range from a farm we know, but we are mostly vegetarian so it’s an occasional treat rather than a staple we have to pay for every week. Appreciate that others need to make different choices.

YABU. Have you seen the living standards of “free range” chicken? Shoulder to shoulder in a giant barn. No cages, but not massively better.