To think that if you cannot afford free range chicken/turkey meat and eggs...

[LolaTheShowgirl]

...then don't buy at all?

I mean the suffering these birds go through in cramped, dirty sheds is unbelievable. There is usually no natural light and the birds are usually ill before they're culled.

If you can stomach it, please look at these:
WARNING: NOT NICE PICTURES!
HERE

rose elliots vegetarian meals in minutes is quite good for veggie meals that don't need too many ingredients and are child friendly (ime anyway). It is a lot cheaper than eating meat! I'm not a veggie, but do subscribe to the "eat better meat less often" theory. Better for me, too!

The housekeeping (ie, food, household goods such as loo paper etc etc) budget for my family of four equates to £10 per day. I am not talking about young children,I am talking about adults and teenagers, who when it comes to food, might as well be adults. We do not eat loads of meat etc, but when we do have chicken or red meat, I cannot afford to buy organic and keep within my budget. I happen to think that providing three meals a day on £2.50 per person, without using ready meals, burgers, chicken nuggets etc is actually pretty good. especially as I do not have time to spend all day either searching for bargains or cooking as like so many others, I have to go out to work to earn the money to pay for our luxurious lifestyle. I do not therefore, appreciate the attempts of some posters, to make me feel guilty for considering the needs of my family above those of a chicken!

£6-7 for a chicken IS expensive. It's ridiculously expensive. You're lucky that you can afford to just buy free-range stuff. The OP is being very U - just because you take one particular side of a moral debate doesn't mean you can force your opinion on other people, regardless of how you justify it. It is not illegal to buy battery chickens; and anyway, have a go at the farmers, not at the people who buy the end product for feck's sake.

MummyDragon, the legality or illegality of a matter is hardly a reasonable defence. For example I recently discovered that emotionally abusing one's partner is not 'illegal' and you cannot be arrested for it.

The whole point about us having to think about our actions is that we the consumers are driving the market. If we use our pounds in favour of compassionate farming, the farmers will respond in turn by changing their approach to rearing animals. Yes, they are responsible, but so are we.

ssg that is a good suggestion for a thread.

I also second stickylittlefingers' Rose Elliot book recommendation.

Actually 6-7 for a chicken isn't ridiculously expensive. It may be a lot more than we are now used to after so long having cheap food available but when you consider the costs that go towards producing this food then 6-7 pound is pretty fair.

has anyone started that thread?

If the supermarkets didn't physically stock the cheaper chickens then consumers wouldn't be able to buy it. It is in supermarkets, so people will buy it. End of.

The buck ultimately stops at the retailers.

or they wouldnt stock it if people didnt buy it and they made money out of it

vicious circle. Now supermarkets arent going to change, they are after profits. Thats what they do so instead of always expecting others to make the great changes that change the world why don't we as consumers make the changes ourselves. People power and all that.

That would never happen in reality though. There will always be people that would buy it if it was sitting on the shelves and imo, the only way to stop people buying it, is to remove the opportunity to do so.

You can provide the most powerful argument in the world but if it's there, people will and can buy it.

It only needs a certain percentage though to stop the factory broilers being financiably viable and that is possible. Hard but possible (read last few lines)

I appreciate what you're saying bronze but I still think that if something is on the supermarket shelves and it's cheap compared to its alternatives then people will buy it.

I wholeheartedly believe, that if something isn't available to buy then by definition, people can't buy it.

You can never educate or persuade the whole population but people will become educated or swayed if they have no alternative than to buy well reared meat, or to go without.

supermarkets/business haven't got a conscience. The government and individuals should have. They are the ones who can being about change.

We used to survive without cheap chicken. When I was growing up, a chicken was a luxury. We ate a lot of mince padded out with red lentils and pearl barley. And liver. Lots of healthy cheap alternatives even then.

When I was a student in a shared flat, we rarely ate chicken because the food budget per person per day was £1 and a chicken quarter cost 45p. This was nearly 30 years ago.

I don't often buy chicken now (because DH doesnt like it) but at the weekend bought a couple of chicken quarters from our local farm shop, not the cheapest place but emergency purchase (thats another story). I was very suprised to find they only cost £1.01. Presumably I could have got them cheaper from a supermarket.

So, given the amount of inflation there has been in the last 3 decades, it seems that chicken is ridiculously cheap. We really do not need it to survive. No one does.

hels - I agree with that.

Some people may not really even be aware of how badly treated the animals are. TBH before all the Hugh campaign, I didn't fully really know how bad it was.

The supermarkets need to take more responsibility.

i don't understand the a chicken was a luxury thing. we had one mid-week and beef on sunday. weren't particularly well off.

We might have had one chicken every other week but it provided at least 2 meals plus soup for a family of 5. Nowadays people seem to expect a whole chicken breast or quarter each.

Obviously we must have eaten quite a lot of veg with it. Not difficult 'veggie food' - just lots of veg, a little meat and proper gravy. It ain't rocket science.

Supermarkets and governments can change things as they are the ones in power. You can preach to the masses all you like about ethically reared meat but if it is avaialable to buy then of course there will always be some people that buy it.

I stand by my earlier comment, that if the choice of buying it isn't there in the first place then it goes by definition that there wouldn't be a need for it.

You can tell the people not to buy fruit shoots or sausage rolls but if they're available then of course some will buy them

this thread has really pissed me off.... I have only read the first few pages.

I dont have a massive food budget. Im on my own with two children and to ensure they get a healthy balanced diet I have to buy cheep meat.
We dont have it everyday, just a few times a week and I can often stretch a portion of chicken out over 2 meals.
If organic meat was made more affordable then I would be happy to buy it but we live in very uncertain times, I need a job and I cant find one and I am not going to spend extra money on organic meat when I dont know if im going to even be able to feed my kids in a few months time with beans on toast, let alone friggin organic meat.

Spookycharlotte: I hate to say it but I don't think cheap meat actually does give children a healthy diet. It is filled with toxins and unnecessary fats. Much better to use that money to buy leafy green vegetables or kidney beans or something.

YABU. I don't like crulty. But people stil need to eat and they need to buy what they can afford. If you are poor then your family should come first whatever your principles are.

I completly agree, we don't realise how cheap food has got. Meat is a luxury and if you can't afford to buy with a conscience then don't eat it. That was the way it always used to be. I am also on a very limited food budget with kids to feed but I make well sure I do not go down the road of value cruelty driven foods.

But leafy green vegetables and kidney beans aren't going to give charlotte's children a varied, balanced diet, chaya.

I think charlotte should be congratulated for giving her children fresh food, not criticised for her budgetary choices.