campaign for free range chicken!!!!!!! Please.

[fordfiesta]

Please check out www.chickenout.tv or watch Hugh's chicken run tonight at 2100 channel 4.
you can sign up for his campaign on the above address.... sorry dont know how to do the link.
If you have been watching the program you will know how important it is!
thank you.

edam

thats a lovely bedtime story.

What do folk think about eating roadkill?

Supermarkets screw tenant farmers. I'm a tenant, too, I can relate.

So I don't buy their stuff, when possible.

I'd like to grow our own, but I don't know how, in this climate, and this isn't our house.

Someone gave us a blueberry cutting, but I don't know what the fuck to do with it - It's in the kitchen window sill, facing East, but it looks sort of dead. Help!

We only eat free range or organic meat and bulk it out with Quorn, beans or Mori-nu tofu.

My dad grew up mostly vegetarian because they were very poor and he is half-Mayan and his mum didn't have much meat growing up and made all sorts of stuff without.

Now, even he won't eat meat that hasn't been produced from farmers he knows.

It's not so hard. It's a matter of balances.

People say, 'I can't afford it' but they're in a pub drinking pints at £2.80 a pop.

I can't judge them. Life is tough and you're dead a long time.

But at the same time, I can't go there.

If not for the chickens, then for the farmers.

Watch 'The Lie of the Land'. Just see how they're getting so screwed, especially dairy farmers.

And think again.

There but for the grace of God, I say!

is that really how much a pint costs these days - I remember drinking G&T (don't touch the stuff these days) as a teenager and it was only about £1.50!!

Heeheehe, IceQueen. We got a break for the wee ones when the parentals were here and gave us £££ to buy pints in a pub instead of at home.

Yeah, about £2.80. I reckon it's more in some places.

Spirits?! Nah, that's been donks since we bought those in a pub or bar.

Expat - blueberry needs acid soil. I'm not great with cuttings so cant help. Up where you are you'd need a polytunnel of some description.

Garlic and blackberries do pretty well up that way though I gather.

EMail me if you want to know more?

good god - I'm in shock - and very pleased that I don't have the chance (or disposable income) to go out drinking very often - I don't drink beer (never liked the stuff) so it would be excruciatingly expensive obviously!

fordfiesta - you made a good point earlier, If it was dogs/cats/horses etc you would be prosecuted what is the difference?

Did you see the news tonight? There was a farm in Amersham where they found 100's of horses in apalling conditions being bred for meat. One of the horses shown was found standing in shit on dead carcasses, they also found decomposing bodies and skeletal remains!

Those surviving horses have been taken away by the RSPCA.

Why does the RSPCA allow chickens to be treated like this?

K, I'll email, because am very interested in growing garlic.

We have a small greenhouse, bought in a sale in PoundStretchers back when we were in Edinburgh, that DH wants to use for tomatoes, too, in a growbag.

Soil is black, but very thin. There is rock soon underneath.

I don't think this was ever good farmland, here in Argyll. To the East, yes, but we're here now.

We had some good beers there the other day, when I found the folk music group .

No worries

A lot of the free range isn't a great deal better than the basic battery ones

Found this

Label Birds / sq m Slaughter age (days) Average price
Red Tractor 18 40 £2.20
Freedom Food 16 50 £3.80
Free Range 12 56 £5.90
Organic 10 81 £8

When you look at that chart, for 6 less chickens per sq m and 16 days longer life, you have to pay 3.70 more! Free range also only has to be the chicken has access to the outdoors for at least half their lifetime during daylight hours.

I buy organic free range as I can afford it, we also eat a lot of meat (can't have fish in the house as son is allergic)

How anyone can berate people on a tight budget is beyond me. Unless you have been there you have no idea. I say good for them in managing to feed their families, with whatever they can afford

TIQ - osrry to keep picking up on things you say. You say that beans on toast isn't a satisfying meal for your family. Can't you just double up on the beans and slices of toast? Add cheese to the beans?

I think the eating meat everyday thing is a matter of habit and once you commit to making a change and find a small repertoire of veggie/fish meals that you can cook easily and your family enjoy, then THAT becomes habit. I'd spend a fortune if I suddenly started buying meat for us to eat every night.

Growing up in the 70s my mum was on a strict budget. We probably ate more meat than my family eat today but it certainly was not quality meat. Mince (I guess cheap chicken is the new crap mince). Meat pies. A roast dinner was a treat. On Sundays when there wasn't a chicken or piece of meat to roast, my mum used to make a meat pie with braising steak and put a flaky pastry crust on the top. That was still considered a more special weekly meal for us.

I rarely eat chicken these days. I could afford to buy chicken every week if I really wanted to (and sacrificed something else) but I too look at the prices with wide-open-eyes and feel unable to justify it on such a frequent basis. The difference is I just exclude chicken from my diet and keep it as a special thing when we'll buy a decent whole free range, corn-fed one.

I'd rather people said I don't care about the chicken's welfare enough to exclude cheap chicken from my diet than said they really really care but they are going to buy it anyway because there are alternatives to eating chicken. It's not mandatory.

That sentence didn't make sense.

I'd rather people said "I don't care about the chicken's welfare enough to exclude cheap chicken from my diet" than said they "really really care but they are going to buy it anyway", because there are alternatives to eating chicken. It's not mandatory.

minority has a good point.

I still come back to this time and time again. If you are struggling on a tight budget, perhaps you are a student single parent or just on a low income, a pensioner or whatever. You come across a fat chicken for £2.30 and a smaller scrawnier one for £5.90 that is free-range. Of course you are going to go for the cheapest! You can't say to that person that they should simply not eat chicken! Nor can you berate them for going for the cheapest option, we all do that.

Yes if you follow your conscience the world would be a much better place. We'd all make sure our clothes were fair trade, our products localised, our meat organic and free-range. But for some that is more of a choice than others.

No-one has any right to tell others what they should eat or feed their family. Nor do you have any right to dictate to anyone what they spend their money on. I'm sure we're not all perfect and frugal with our pennies.

So stop targeting and berating consumers and start targeting the government and supermarkets.

And for the record, a pint around here is £1.50 - £1.80. And if you're a true veggie, should you be drinking at all?

well I have trawled though this wind-bag fest and agree with Blu way down there

if you are used to a meat and 2 veg diet, then to go over to mainly lentils etc then it will be difficult

for eg, if I was on a budget, I could easily go for veggie curries, chillis etc, I love spicy foods and if it wasn't for dh, could easily go veggie (and was for years)

my dad could and would not, he is old and set in his ways and demands his traditional food

you CAN eat well and cheaply on a budget but that mainly means that meat is out unless you know how to cook cheap cuts

and by cheap I mean decent meat but cheap cuts

oh you know what I mean

DP came home last night and had beans with 3 slices of cheese on toast.
He had muesli for breakfast, ham sandwich for lunch, and that for tea
He is a big guy, and it was not even the whole tin.
But QOQ it's individual choices, my dp and ds1 (13) will not buy non free range chicken either. So it is only with their support and input that we have managed to radically change our food intake.

2 yrs ago it was an average weekly menu
shepherds pie
spag bol
macaroni cheese
chili con carne
roast chicken
chicken fried rice
and pasta with sauce
stir fries

Now owing to our buying only free range meat and not wanting our food bill to go sky high we all compromised and nutted out and tried out recipes we could get on with, in order to eat meat 2 x week we had to have plenty variety of good affordable meals without compromisign quality taste or quantity.
We have done that
But thoroughly appreciate that £50 is effing tight for a family of your size.
But that said I've lived on £27 a week with me and ds1 and we never ate battery chickens, we were aside from the odd mince treat eating simple veg meals.

That's great and useful info from minority and totally back Rhubarb up.

No way should people on low incomes be targeted for this, as someone else said after watching the single parent thing last night I am in awe of anyone who manages to stick to a lower than low food budget - however if you can afford to make the transition (either by going without something else or by eating less chicken, or if you're lucky enough to be able to afford the extra £4-5), please do as the more of us that buy free range and organic birds, the cheaper they will become and then everyone will be able to afford them.

(Piffle - I asked on the other thread for your roasted chickpea receipe, could you post if for me please?)

I bought an organic 3 bean soup from a tin to have today before I rush out to work. Just tried eating it and it's bloody awful! Very watery and no taste at all, I'm afraid it's in the bin now and that's a waste. I hate wastefulness!

Am now dreaming of chicken sarnies.

Rhubs, you could have just added it to a veggie stew or something if you didn't want to waste it.

I can't understand anyone who buys soup though- it's so cheap, quick and easy to make, not to merntion far tastier and healthier. At the end of the week I always make one with whatever is left over from the veggie box, adding anything from the new veggie box if I don't think I'll use it elsewhere, it lasts us the whole week for lunches/ snacks - anything surplus gets frozen or taken round to my elderly neighbour.

OO I'll post it here hope that's ok.
Now with Indian food you need to putlay a godo spice cupboard I buy bulk online, but appreciate for tight budgets some ingredients are hard to find or order.
FWIW buying online in bulk has cosr me far less than toddling out and buying stuff from the supermarket willy nilly. But then we eat a lot of spiced food

Anyway
2TBSP veg oil
1tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1-2 -3/4 tsp red chili powder
1 1/14 TBSP coriander powder
1 tsp dried mago powder (can be found from online or from good ethnic food markets or you can leave it out I did at first)
3/4 tsp garam masala
can of chickpeas rinsed
salt to taste (do add it, tis grim without)
2 Tbsp water
bit of fresh coriander

heat oil in non stick pan, add cumin seeds, fry for about 40 seconds until aroma comes out, add other spices and salt and cook for 10 seconds or so, add chickpeas and stir well to coat in spices., cook for 2 more mins, then add the water and coriander leaves.

Now I serve it with warmed pita or home made chapatis, plus a good mango chutney and plain yoghurt with grated cucumber in it.

wisteria.... can you give me a recipe for a really nice veg soup..... have tried making soup in the past and have never really liked it.... ate it because i made it basically.
we get a veg box and what is left at the end of the week usually goes in the compost bin so if you could give me a recipe that would be great!!!!

piffle - 3 slices of cheese on toast and beans would be a snack for my DH - certainly not a meal. and the DS's would eat 2 slices of cheese on toast and baked beans just for their lunch too!

He's just had a bowel of muesli for breakfast (one of those big soup bowls full). He'll probably have a cheese and honey, or peanut butter and honey sandwich before he leaves for work in a while, then he'll take an egg, cheese and ham sandwich with him to eat around 5pm then he'll have dinner when he gets in around 10ish and then a snack before bed. He'll also eat a few snacks (fruit, cereal bars, chocolate etc) while at work.

If I make scrambled eggs on toast for the DS's lunch I use 4 or 5 eggs (6 if I'm having some too) and they'll have 2 slices of toast with it. Followed by fruit and other stuff.