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.

OO - that's what I did - the DS's and DH LOVED it........I thought it was ghastly

I don't see why people should go without a pint if they want one though - if it bothers you, then you make the change, if it doesn't, you don't - the people in the pub weren't bothered about the chickens!

Same as I would never dare to slate anyone for smoking when they are on a low income; it's miserable being skint and a fag helps - there shoot me now

What did you all think about the prices people were reporting Hugh was selling his chickens for (£18-22 a bird) - I noticed that he didn't actually deny it although he said 'rumours', you couldn't see how much he was actually selling them for ......bit of bad PR at any rate!

oooo I'm so glad you wrote your 2nd paragraph Wisteria - I was just about to say I'm off for one of my roll-ups before picking DS2 up from nursery

Wist I knew he would be selling them at that price-everyone has been talking about it down here-his shop is EXTREMELY expensive..I UNDERSTAND about the rearing of organic chooks but I feel that price tag is way over the top-he didn't do himself any favours with that I feel.

IQ, tbh I wouldn't 'allow' my dh or dc to insist that they eat so much meat or to get their own way so often.

I don't know how old you both are but you need to think about BP and cholesterol levels.

fab post expat!

I think it is important that we all understand exactly where our food comes from - including what it ate, how it lived and how it was killed. We have some of our own beef in the freezer - and this horrifies some people, and yes I can't say that I wasn't a bit sad when we had to send him to the abbatoir, but I have piece of minsd knowing that he had a good life with a clean bed of straw in the winter, freedom of a field in the summer and plenty of good quality food......

also going back to the comments on milk lower down.....at the moment we are getting around about 25p per litre for milk minus transport costs..(not long ago 16p was average!) You work out how much the supermarket makes on that!!

and also i may be wrong, but I think you will find that most chickens/ turkeys etc are plucked by machines....

what a twat - that makes me quite cross actually as I've always been rather a fan of his attitudes - how stupid.

At one time I rather fancied myself as a Mrs FW.

I agree with most of his views,but Axminster and surrounding areas are (as one guy said on the prog last night)are pretty poverty stricken-wages down here aren't in line with even the national average...

Great, open up a nice deli style shop but don't sell product sooo expensive joe public can't even contemplate buying -its very stupid imo.

Mercy - Sausages with the full works is the only meal I let them have full say over - it's a real treat because of the cost and they love it. So I hardly think that agreeing not to feed them vegetarian sausages with that meal is "giving them their own way" all the time .

where is axeminster posh??? You say 'down here' i always thought it was 'up there'..... somewhere. Sorry am a bit thick!!!

ducks are expensive you know

Actually our butchers often has great deals on fillet steak - So I'll sometimes buy them as my "free" pack when I buy 5 "value" packs of meat for £20 (they're usually £5.99 a pack - but it's 2 for £10 or 5 for £20 ).

Come to mention it I actually have some in the freezer - just haven't decided what to do with them yet as we don't have them that often (probably more frequently that I buy a whole chicken though!).

And also - too much red meat really is bad for you so another reason not to buy it often

if they know what it entails and still choose to buy it, then at least it is an informed choice (not one I would make, but each to their own)
It is the people that cannot even be bothered to find out what happens that baffle me!

Duck are yucky - or perhaps I just cooked them badly as I was feeling like sh*t.....or perhaps they tasted yucky as I couldn't taste anythng properly............hmm - maybe they're ok when you've not got the flu LOL.

Axminster is in Devon ford

I gave up reading the thread, but even without watching the programme although have read/listened to some of the debate, I have made a decision to start buying all my chicken free range. I already buy organic free range eggs (Sainsburies now only sotcks large eggs that are organic) and whole chickens free range (occasionally organic) for roasting, but was still buying "cheap" chicken thighs and chicken breasts. However, I have realsied that this illogical - and am in the fortunate positon of being able to afford to change my buying habits.

I do take pride in not spending too much on our food - but that takes the form of using Lidl as much as possible and only buying my "luxuries" at Sainsburies - like free range chicken .

IceQueen - have you tried getting a shoulder of lamb from the butcher? You could get a rolled shoulder - or alternatively, a shoulder on the bone is really tasty and is much cheaper than leg of lamb. You may need to get him to prepare it for you especially (I can ask my Dad - a former SOuth African cattle farmer) - what you need to ask for, as he often has to give instrucitons to the butcher to get what he wants. My dad swears by a roasted lamb shoulder ashe says you get so much more flavout when something is cooked on the bone.

Also, lamb shanks are a cheap cut and are really tasty. If you order them in advacne from the butcher, he can "collect" them up as he is preparing his other cuts, as often they are just thrown away.

Might be nice for an occasional treat - although I relasie you are working to the sort of budget I have never had to.

Can't remember who metioned pheasants - but they are amazingly good value - and are the ulitmate free range bird! Not from a supermarket though (they put a massive mark up on them) - you have to get them from a fishmonger.

a fishmonger - for pheasants??? ! ok.....

oh and you should read the thread - there's a fascinating bit somewhere up (I flip my threads ) there about gardening

Icequeen, 20 pints = 11 ish litres, so you are looking around an extra £1 a week for Organic milk.

now lobster - that's one thing I've never tried.........

probably a butcher IQ but maybe some fishmongers??? All I know is that ithas to be somewhere with a liscence to sell game..i.e pheasant, partridge, venison etc

hmm - might give the Organic milk a go (next month - I'm skint this month - £55 to last me to the 29th) but I'm not sure if Morrisons do the 6 pint ones....and it work out hellish expensive even buying "normal" milk if I always buy the 4 pint ones.....

The crucial argument for me is nutrition. The increase in intensive farming has meant that the "normal" chicken that people eat has an increased percentage of fat compared to protein.

I agree that a lot of people cannot afford organic. So they continue to buy this cheap meat, feeling that they are doing the best and only thing that they can do for their family. Because, yes, they care about the welfare of animals but of course that cannot come about the health of their family.

But then you find out that modern intensively farmed chicken now contain more fat than protein thanks to no exercise and poor breeding.

The supermarkets say that they are giving people what they want but it's not normal for people to be eating 2 chickens a week! When did chicken, a food that should be raised properly and eaten as a treat occasionally, become something cheaper than dog food? When did it start being grown as a crop rather than an animal?

We buy only organic, but we normally buy it reduced, near date then freeze of joint it.