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Original poster

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

593 replies

fordfiesta · 09/01/2008 17:22

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.

OP posts:
CountessDracula · 09/01/2008 18:28

Why not buy cheaper cuts of meat that is not intensively rearer eg lamb, pork etc and just cook them for longer? And make chicken more of a treat and make sure you buy free range

nutcracker · 09/01/2008 18:29

Lamb and pork isn't cheaper, and I already buy the cheapest I can find and cook it in a slow cooker so that it goes from tough as old boots to nice. Can't afford to buy lamb at all tbh.

FluffyMummy123 · 09/01/2008 18:29

Message withdrawn

filthymindedvixen · 09/01/2008 18:32

Let them eat peasant instead

(£3 big breasts for £3 down our way. Blinking lovely)

nutcracker · 09/01/2008 18:32

Honestly, if I could buy free range I would, end of.

Meat and fruit are luxeries to me, even crap meat, but thats how it is.

Can ust imagine saying to my kids 'oh sorry, no meat anymore, we are too poor, just add it to the list of other things you can't have/do etc'

Like hell would I do that.

filthymindedvixen · 09/01/2008 18:32

Shit!!!!
Meant to say Pheasant...

Carmenere · 09/01/2008 18:33

I'm not sure if this link will work Asda affordable chicken

nutcracker · 09/01/2008 18:34

Nope it doesn't work. Can you tell me what section they are in please ? I did look but I can't see them.

nutcracker · 09/01/2008 18:34

Or sub section even, as obviously they are under poultry.

southeastastra · 09/01/2008 18:35

i do think we're getting our knickers in a twist about chickens alone. the farming industry isn't nice as a whole is it? it would be lovely if we could all get together and grow our own veg/rear our own animals, but that'll never happen will it.

some of the animal cruelty that goes on worldwide is so much more awful.

jorange5 · 09/01/2008 18:35

filthymindedvixen - organic does mean free range. You cannot call a chicken organic if it is kept inside, even if it is fed organic food.

Carmenere · 09/01/2008 18:36

It doesn't work sorry but basically it shows that at Asda (who I am very suprised to be supporting btw) ordinary chicken legs which are drumstick and thigh are 2.79 per kg and the free range ones are 3.00 per kg. It is just .21p a kilo in the difference, oh and they taste better too.

filthymindedvixen · 09/01/2008 18:36

no, I know, I have alreaDY HELD MY HANDS UP FUIRTHER DOWN. i MEant to say, people pay a lot for organic chicken when simple free range will do!

poshwellies · 09/01/2008 18:37

I feed my kids peasants all the time [smiles] @ vixen.

dejags · 09/01/2008 18:37

I agree with Carmenere.

The amount of shite pumped into these poor animals is what worries me most (they are fed animal by-products, sometimes forcefed, given hormones and antibiotics etc). I would FAR rather my kids get their protein from alternative sources than give them chicken/meat that is full of crap. Aside from that there is also the cruelty factor - and lets not kid ourselves it is very much cruelty. If a puppy down the road was treated this way, there would be an uproar. Somehow because it's a dumb chicken it's not so important

Because it's expensive we are now down to eating chicken twice a week and red meat once a week.

Nothing elitist about it.

filthymindedvixen · 09/01/2008 18:38

yes, there is a limitless supply, poshwellies

Original poster
fordfiesta · 09/01/2008 18:40

Do you feel got at on here nutcracker??? Sorry if you do.... we all have to make the best desicions we can for our own (and families) wellbing and i guess you are not against the principle of what we are saying. If we have to blame anyone for having poor moral's it is the government who allow it to happen in the first place and!!!

OP posts:
handlemecarefully · 09/01/2008 18:42

I buy organic free range but I am in the fortunate position of being able to afford it. It is significantly more expensive than intensively farmed chicken, and I struggle with lecturing people about it. Very divisive and elitist.

I read an article in one of the Sundays where Jamie Oliver was discussing it. He intimidated that the knew free range wasn't an option for everyone but there was a middle way - can't remember the terminology, something like 'enhanced care' chicken ( it wasn't that, but something similar). I.e each chicken is allocated more square feet of space and there is access to an outdoor exercise area (although not continuously). This is dearer than intensively farmed but cheaper than free range and worth campaigning for.

It doesn't have to be a black and white stark choice between intensively farmed or free range

Haven't read whole thread so sorry if repeating

Original poster
fordfiesta · 09/01/2008 18:44

southeastastra.... if you were a chicken you would be getting your knickers in a twist. It might seem a small issue to you but if we cant change something like this (which is actually a very easy thing to change in the scheme of things) how do we have the right to question and try to change some of the much bigger issues.

OP posts:
perpetualworrier · 09/01/2008 18:45

Sorry if it's already being said, but I don't get the we can't afford it argument.

I bought an organic free range chicken last week. Cost under £10. Yes I know that's significantly more than a battery one, but our family of four had 1 roast dinner, packed lunches for 2 next day, pickings from the carcass made a delicious chicken and veg pizza, then chicken noodle and sweetcorn soup from the carcass. Four meals for less than £10 on the meat. Bargain!

We need to learn to use all our food, then we don't need to buy so much.

handlemecarefully · 09/01/2008 18:46

Try buying boneless skinless chicken breasts from Waitrose and then you will see what I mean

TodayToday · 09/01/2008 18:47

"I also wonder about the nutrient content in an intensively reared bird? Surely if all they do all day is eat, drink, barely move, get no sunlight, pee and poo on themselves then the protein and nutritional value would be of a much lower standard than of a free-range bird?? Or am I oversimplifying things?"

Ready - I totally agree. How could anyone eat something that spent its life looking sickly and so freakish?

handlemecarefully · 09/01/2008 18:47

Tell me that's not significantly more expensive than the similar (but intensively farmed) product from Asda...

nutcracker · 09/01/2008 18:49

Not got at no, just poorer than I normally feel which is hard LOL.

I do agree with what people are saying and if I were even a bit better off then I would at least try and buy free range. As it is, it just isn't an option.

I did just look at the price of a free range chicken compared to non free range and the difference was about £1.50. I agree that £1.50 isn't a huge amount of money in general terms, but in terms of my food budget it is, because something else essential would have to go. I already buy the bare minimum of food each week, and i'm quite often depressed at the state of my cupboards/fridge, and so i'm not willing to take yet another thing off our menu.

southeastastra · 09/01/2008 18:49

to me though, free range doesn't look a whole much better than battery farmed. organic is probably the only right ethical way to go.

some organic chickens in tesco are the size of a hedgehog. i really don't reckon that chicken had a great existence. it was tiny.