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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:
TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 20:13

and it does get to me this "supermarket" driven stuff - I don't buy supermarket meat - too darned expensive - even the "cheap" stuff!

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 20:24

mind you had a very timely conversation with DS1 (initiated by him) this evening as he was tucking into his I have no idea if they-- were ethically produced chicken thighs. There was a bit of "cooked blood" (as I like to call it) - you know on the outside where it goes black when you cook it.

He asked what it was and if it was burned (cheeky sod). Told him it was cooked blood

him: Oh ok (continues tucking in)

me: continue trying to catch the food that DS3 is trying to dispense with over the side of the high chair

him: This used to be alive didn't it mummy

me: yes

him: And then someone killed it like when I saw that chicken being killed in (won't mention the name of the country as I've recently been accused of always talking about it. She killed it and pulled all of its feathers out and then cooked it.......it was very yummy.........and cool to watch

me: yes darling......

VanillaPumpkin · 09/01/2008 20:25

I buy free range chicken to eat (or turkey) for ethical reasons but also because it tastes SO MUCH NICER.
The crap that used to pour off the cheap birds when they were roasted and then I tried to make gravy with yuk yuk yuk. We need less meat as a result for the dishes I do as the flavour is so much better. Cheap chickens taste of water.
It is not cheap but well worth the extra money for me, (and we are on a budget.) I wish there was a way round the cost thing though.

MicrowaveOnly · 09/01/2008 20:35

I'm not convinced by the cost argument. If you can buy a free range for £5 (as shown on tv) and a battery is £2.50., that is, as Jamie 'all right mate' Oliver said, about 50p a meal more.

How much is an unhealthy pack of crisps?
how much is a drink down the pub?
how much is a packet of cigs?

etc etc. Its criminal that a pint of lager drunk in 30mins without thought, is MORE than a chicken.
FGS cost for the majority is a non issue.

Don't you think that it is battery chickens that are just cheap rather than free range that is expensive?

TodayToday · 09/01/2008 20:36

We had sausages tonight and we were talking to DD (5) about the meat of sausages coming from pigs, like ham.

She asked "Are sausages the legs of pigs?"

I had to try so hard not to laugh out loud at her sweet innocent question. What a mental picture it create din my head.

Sorry I hijacked the thread with a sausage story.

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 20:41

MO

I don't eat crisps, yes I smoke - I spend approx £15 a month on tobacco (roll-ups), wouldn't have a CLUE how much a lager is as a) I don't drink it, and b) I don't go out to the pub........think my last trip to a pub was ermm, err about 3yrs ago?!?!

And I've never got a £6 free-range chicken to last more than 3 meals (including the stock) - and that's with DH (who is fastidious.....I think that's the word I mean) about not wasting food (particularly meat) getting every last scrap of meat off the carcass for me before I make the stock.

I can however make a £5 chicken last for 4 meals.

LOL today - that's sweet

TodayToday · 09/01/2008 20:45

"
Don't you think that it is battery chickens that are just cheap rather than free range that is expensive?"

Yes. Chicken was always an expensive luxury in the past.

MicrowaveOnly · 09/01/2008 20:56

Ice £15 a month entitles you to an upgrade on 6 of your battery chickens per month!

and you get a clear conscience plus you and the chickens have a healthier life

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 20:59

but I don't buy 6 battery chickens a month .

And besides - it's the only "treat" I buy myself - we don't have takeaways, go to the cinema, go out for meals/to the pub etc etc....so I think I'm entitled to "something"........besides it's my 5 minutes peace from the kids - roll a ciggy and retreat to the end of the garden...

VeniVidiVickiQV · 09/01/2008 21:15

Carmenere is speaking oodles and oodles of sense.

Cheap chickens are cheap for a reason: They arent as full of meat as perhaps you might think - lots of water that evaporates when you cook it - lots of fat that drips off into the roasting tray when you cook it.

So buying cheap chicken is, to all intents and purposes, a false economy.

As CD has already said - you can make a good, free range, healthy chicken that has lots of muscle on it from all the activity it gets whilst free ranging (muscle is what meat actually is), go a very long way. It's not all about breast - chicken thighs - much underated IMO. You can roast one day - then have soup the next - freeze that if need be, have chicken pasta/salad, chicken sandwiches, chicken and rice. A good, healthy raised chicken has so much meat on its bones it is worth buying.

I cannot afford meat much either. HOWEVER - when i buy eggs I buy free range - the quality and flavour is so much better its unbelievable. I ONLY ever buy organic milk - taste a bazillion times better than the watery horrid usual stuff. I'll always buy free range chickens now too.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 09/01/2008 21:18

How about you treat yourself and your family to a proper chicken

Rhubarb · 09/01/2008 21:20

You can't compete with 2 for a fiver. If you're struggling on a budget and what some meat in your diet, you're gonna go for pork and chicken - cheap.

Even if it's fluffed up with water. It's all you can afford.

Or you get one measley small free range chicken for a fiver that won't even given you sandwich meat afterwards.

I agree with the campaign. But how about paying farmers a decent price for chickens in the first place and then they wouldn't have to cram their sheds with so many chickens just to make a profit.

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 21:21

so how come I can only get 3 meals out of a medium freerange (for approx £6) but can get 4 out of an extra large for approx £5???

I don't waste any of it.......DH won't let me .

Mind you - this is mostly theoretical as I now don't buy any meat at the supermarket - and as I've already mentioned have no idea how "ethical" the meat from our (very cheap) butchers is.....haven't tried his whole chickens yet........they're £5 too - although they don't look very big

Rhubarb · 09/01/2008 21:21

To compare, I can get a largish chicken from Asda for £3.50. That will provide a roast meal, a curry the day after and sandwich meat.

Or I can pay £5 for a smaller chicken that will make a roast and some sandwich meat if I'm lucky.

Waswondering · 09/01/2008 21:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Rhubarb · 09/01/2008 21:25

If you can afford to then all very well.

But if you can't. Well then you're made to feel guilty for being poor. Again.

Make it affordable or pay farmers more to make conditions a bit more bearable.

Farmers are struggling for a living in this country but all we can bang on about is the plight of the chickens.

VeniVidiVickiQV · 09/01/2008 21:26

QOQ - I'm becoming more and more inclined to go to our local butcher who gets his meat from locally from reputable (and ethical) farmers.

Waswondering · 09/01/2008 21:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 21:28

waswondering - i'm sorry but that's utter crap I WANT to afford free-range meat, I WANT to afford fairly traded food too......I can do one but not the other. I consider the welfare of the people that produce the food I eat just as important (and slightly more) as the welfare of the animals which I eat. I can't do both (at the moment).

Once DS3 goes onto cows milk (normal I'm afraid as I REALLY can't afford organic milk with the quantity consumed in this house) I will hopefully be able to afford to buy more free-range meat AND fairly traded products.

The tone of your post makes it sound like those of us that don't currently buy free-range meat have no interest in doing so and would rather "waste" our money elsewhere.........hmm let me see - electricity, water, gas??? which one should I stop paying in order to buy the food I would LIKE to buy??

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 21:29

VVV - I'm not sure that our butcher sells particularly ethical meat - it seems too cheap to be ethically produced.......but at least I feel better knowing I'm not supporting the supermarkets

perpetualworrier · 09/01/2008 21:29

Wasn't the man with the Range Rover and 2 kids' quad bikes a chicken farmer? Ok I'm running now

Rhubarb · 09/01/2008 21:32

TIQ, this is what I mean by making people feel guilty.

Free range is bloody expensive! And you CAN get more meals out of a cheaper, bigger chicken.

I'd love to buy all organic and ethical and fair trade stuff too. But I can't. I'm poorly paid. Why should I feel guilty for being poorly paid?

Waswondering · 09/01/2008 21:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 21:35

exactly Rhubarb - I do my "bit" by not buying my meat from the supermarket - so although it's still almost certainly battery farmed at least I'm supporting local business and not the big supermarket chain. And I buy fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar and hot chocolate (and bananas) - I can't do everything.

TheIceQueen · 09/01/2008 21:38

choices??? - waswondering - what choices do I have??? Do you think that the welfare of PEOPLE producing things I consume is less important than the welfare of the animals I eat? That's why I choose to spend my limited money on fairlytraded things instead of freerange. Because although I consider both to be of GREAT importance I honestly believe that people should always come before animals.

Which bill do you propose I "choose" not to pay in order to pay for free-range meat? The gas, or perhaps the electricity?