Cheap chickens - morally right for OS?

KittyKate

I've seen chickens at Asda/Tesco etc for £1.99 and £2.99 (size dependent etc). Is this *too* cheap? I watched a programme a few months back on how these mass produced chickens have had a terrible life, are nutritionally deficient (to us) and are often covered in burn marks where they have been sitting in defecation.

I cannot bring myself to buy these cheap chickens (I inspected one in Morrisons, and one in Sainsbury's, and recognised the burn marks) no matter how economical it is or how many meals they make etc. When I do buy chicken it's legs or breasts from my local organic butcher - and I honestly am happy to pay more. How cheap do these chickens have to get - 99p a go before consumers start to question how supermarkets can make a profit on them, and how they are sourced?

Am I not being very OS

hornetgirl

I don't buy them either. OS or not, I don't want to eat animals that have suffered unnecessarily just so that I can buy them cheaply. I think it is just as OS to buy more expensive, humanely reared meat but less of it, and stretch meals with other ingredients.

KittyKate

Thanks hornetgirl I've heard a lot on here about soya mince - it seems very cheap and goes a long way - does anyone use this, and is it a decent mince substitute? (I also saw on the program about what is in value/frozen mince, and now OH only buys 'finest'. It's so expensive! Can I pad it out without him cottoning on?!)

jinty271

Wouldnt touch them with a barge pole. They are pumped full of hormones, reared on maximum light (23 hours per day), however, unscrupulous rearers will switch light on and off during the day, to fool the birds into thinking its a whole new day, time to eat and drink again, therefore un-naturally "growing" them, for quicker turnover.
I work in a Butchers, and would only eat free-range organic chickens. My husband is an ethical chicken rearer/ breeder.

fizzel81

i dont want to get in to an arguement etc over whats wrong and right etc.

i would love to only buy organic or free range meat, at the moment i really try not to think too much about it, having to feed my family on such a tight budget well i would struggle to if i looked into the morals of the meat i was buying

Boomdocker

Was it Hugh Fernley Whittingstalls programme by any chance coz I havent eaten regular chicken since I saw that. (about 6 months ago) :eek:

Im not a lover of chicken but if I was to have it now its free range/organic but its rare for me to have it TBH.

Virtually cut out junk food since then too, by that I mean processed ready meals. Very, very occassionaly I might have a ready meal but compared to what I was like its minimal. I am now cooking meals from scratch where I never did before.

I think you can still make etchical choices and have a reasonable budget. I am no vegetarian or have any particular moral crusade but I know what feels right for me, I guess you have to work out what fits you and your family.

fizzel81

Boomdocker wrote: »

Was it Hugh Fernley Whittingstalls programme by any chance coz I havent eaten regular chicken since I saw that. (about 6 months ago) :eek:

QUOTE]

it was on the other night more 4, i had to turn off

jinty271

I would rather do without than eat it, I wouldnt want to fill my kids full of the growth/sex hormones that are added to these chickens, through their food and water.

It is not a financial decision, on my part, I would rather give my kids toast and jam, than feed them this. I know what goes into them, first hand, and it aint going in to me or my kids.

KittyKate

Boomdocker wrote: »

Was it Hugh Fernley Whittingstalls programme by any chance coz I havent eaten regular chicken since I saw that. (about 6 months ago) :eek:

I have seen that, but it was a prog called Supermarket Secrets or something like that. I love Hugh

KittyKate

fizzel81 wrote: »

i dont want to get in to an arguement etc over whats wrong and right etc.

i would love to only buy organic or free range meat, at the moment i really try not to think too much about it, having to feed my family on such a tight budget well i would struggle to if i looked into the morals of the meat i was buying

I never intended to start an argument!

To be honest I think you do have a choice - sticking your head in the sand is not the answer. I appreciate we all have a tight budget but I'd rather feed my family alternative cheaper cuts of meat than unethically reared chicken - for example, my local organic butcher does four pork chops, 2lb mince, 8 chicken drumsticks and tomato and pork sausages for £8 - surely that's far better value than a few cheap chickens - and far better for your family.

SnowyOwl_2

As far as I am aware, the whole business of "growing" chickens in this method is a fairly modern technique. Taking the phrase "Old Style" literally, then it wouldn't be Old Style to eat a chicken produced in such conditions, as they wouldn't have existed in the good old days. But I am not going to get on my high horse about it - few people have an unlimited budget for food and this mass produced meat may well be the best that some people can have. In years gone by, didn't people use the rubber chicken method - splash out on a whole chicken for Sunday dinner, then eek out what was left for another two or three family meals? That to me is old style - buy good quality and make it last (or am I just old-fashioned?)

KittyKate wrote: »

I've seen chickens at Asda/Tesco etc for £1.99 and £2.99 (size dependent etc). Is this *too* cheap? I watched a programme a few months back on how these mass produced chickens have had a terrible life, are nutritionally deficient (to us) and are often covered in burn marks where they have been sitting in defecation.

I cannot bring myself to buy these cheap chickens (I inspected one in Morrisons, and one in Sainsbury's, and recognised the burn marks) no matter how economical it is or how many meals they make etc. When I do buy chicken it's legs or breasts from my local organic butcher - and I honestly am happy to pay more. How cheap do these chickens have to get - 99p a go before consumers start to question how supermarkets can make a profit on them, and how they are sourced?

Am I not being very OS