Do you REALLY buy ethically-raised chicken?

[morningpaper]

After reading the Emkana-eating-nuggets thread I was very surprised at how many of you claim to buy ethically raised chicken.

I DO buy is occasionally but it usually costs me between £10-13.

I don't BELIEVE that you all buy ethically raised chickens. Not for one minute.

Please justify yourselves.

I pick up a chicken from Asda's chiller cabinet - where it comes from I know not.

So shoot me.

Yes, I do. We spend a fair amount on food in the Inferiority Complex, and it's probably one of the reasons that I work, and so that makes me a Bad Mother But Nice To Chickens.

I would shoot you but I spent my bullet budget on a chicken

we buy organic or free range

we used to buy the cheaper stuff but not anymore

we just eat less chicken as the good stuff is more expensive

it tastes far better imo

and I am not a ponce

I think it may help paradoxically in my case that I used to be a vegetarian; now I eat meat, I think of meat (and fish) as expensive, I don't have a cheap basis for comparison.

How much do you pay for your chickens?

I tend to buy local meat from the butcher TBH but it isn't free-range (not the chicken anyway, the rest is probably fine)

Message withdrawn

We buy organic, free-range chickens.
Cost a fortune, so we don't buy them often.
DS2 has lots of food allergies, and gets an upset stomach from other chickens, but can eat organic, free-range ones without any problem.

£10 - £13 in price, BTW, from a local farm shop.

we pay about £4 to £5 for a pack of chicken breasts

I don't like legs or thighs

I think a whole bird is about £9 or so, not sure, very rarely do a roast

but if I go to someone's house for dinner I don't quiz them on where the food comes from, I eat it politely

and my children go to McDonald's and have a Happy Meal

but we try to make everything from scratch and eat well 90% of the time

yes. I only buy organic chickens.
I also raise chickens so don't buy eggs from elsewhere
I also have bred my own chickens and plan to eat several before xmas. they are very ethical!

I buy most of my chicken from the farmers market so I suppose I can feel smug about that. I don't think for a second that the chicken I eat in takeaways is anything other than unethical but I guess that's all part of the balancing act!!

I buy free range but not organic. I also buy free range eggs.

i buy my chickens from the local farm

so i can be 100% sure they are organic and free range and corn fed etc etc (although ive never asked them if they are happy)

it costs about £7 for one big enough to feed the 4 of us

PPH are you going to wring their necks yourself?

I buy organic free range chicken. The reason is that I have smelled a battery farm and it made me feel decidedly unwell. I do not want to encourage farmers to keep animals in such conditions as it is neither necessary nor desirable.

FWIW, you could buy free range as opposed to organic chicken. A lot of free range meat is, I think, very high quality. Meat doesn't need to be organic to be good. BUT chicken breasts are often injected with water to plump them up if they are not organic and I find that they then have an unpleasant mushy texture.

yes, free range eggs

but I don't buy into organic fruit and veg, think it a load of phooey

all our other meat comes from our local farmer

I am the same olive. I don't do organic but do do free range. I wonder if I ought to start doing organic meat.

nailpolish £7 for a big chicken sounds too cheap to be organic/free range

Also £4 for a pack of chicken breasts - that sounds way too cheap too

I buy stuff from the Farmer's Market but only certain farmer's markets are certified organic - the rest can be selling you crap they have shipped in from Holland if you aren't careful

I have no idea if our meat is organic but I see the animals running about in the field and the farmer is v nice and lets my children hold the lambs etc and poke the pigs so I am giving myself some points in the Ponce Chart.

oliveoil he probably just keeps a few as pets and imports his meat in a big truck from Holland and stores it in giant freezers round the back

I would like to declare PPH the outright winner of this Mumsnet Competition

CONGRATULATIONS

Please queue at the left to collect your prize

depends on the size of the breasts mp

organic ones in Asda can be from £4 - £7, same in Tesco's and Sainsbury's etc

Free range cheaper but still more £ than your battery stuff

Just checked on Sainsbury's website (ooooh, my life is exciting...)

£8.50 for whole chicken, £4.60 for 360g pack of breast fillets, £1.90 for 360g pack of legs. So my normal practice is to buy legs for most things with a whole chicken as a rare treat. However, it would appear, in the wonderful world of chicken accoutancy, that I would be better off to get a whole bird and joint it myself regularly....hmmmm.....

oooh you've won a six-pack of Fruit Shoots and a Robinson's tee-shirt

well done