'Hugh's Chicken Run' A Moral Dilemna for DFWs?

Frugal_Fox

Okay - so firstly hands up because I haven't actually read the whole thread...
However I do buy free range chicken (and organic fruit & veg as much as possible) and I have a tight food budget. Yes I probably could spend slightly less on my food - but I'd rather spend a bit more, knowing that I'm feeding my family decent food. We have a budget of £40 per week for 2 adults, 2 children 3 cats and a dog and I manage it. I do have to do a fair amount of cooking, so its a good job I quite like it! Anyway I have to go and do some said cooking or there will be nowt for tea and nothing nice for the lunch boxes tomorrow!

pania

novelli wrote: »

we should all consider ourselves fortunate that we have meals on the table and a roof over our heads, much of the world doesnt have that.
if we didnt eat them they would not be born in the 1st place. thats no excuse for making them suffer, but its true.

The rights and wrongs of eating animals isn't what this thread is about. However I am a firm believer that the world will feed us itself if we allow it to.
The chickens would be born as there would still be a demand, just not born into a life of suffering, stress, physical pain and torture.

One final thought though. If your dog, at the end of his natural life, were headed for the dinner table? would you treat him with the same contempt and cruelty? of course not! but look to china where an animal is a source of food and the manner in which they are treated. does it make it any more shocking as they are dogs and not chickens? sadly the answer is yes.
Just as an animal will end up in the cooking pot does not mean it has any less right to the life that it has or any less right to live that life in as natural manner as possible.

hooby_groovy

I watched the programme with interest, and there were a few things that stood-out for me:

1. The most cynical people interviewed were in the pub in the last show, they were saying that they couldn't afford free-range, but were drinking alchol and several were smoking. I find this interesting that as a society we're so wrapped-up in ourselves that buying something that ultimately shortens our lives is more important than how our food is produced.

2. Many of the people that cited cost on the estate only used part of the standard range chicken anyway, and when HFW cooked a risotto (surely a basic staple for most people) they stood around looking amazed. One guy had a whole chicken and took of the breasts and then threw away the rest - surely we're then in to a simple waste problem - that if food is so cheap its not even appreciated!

3. This is cruel, I know, but the lady on the estate that was so adamant that she could not afford free range was rather on the heavier side than is healthy. Perhaps rather than the bullish attitude she adopted a review of her diet and a focus on quality and nutrition

I can't help feeling from the programme and from the comments on here that we're losing touch with common sense on here. We're saying that we can't afford to treat our animals that are farmed better, but fast-food is springing up all over the place, especially in poorer areas.

The UK now has the shame of leapfrogging the USA as the country with the worst diet in the world, yet we're one of the largest economies and in real terms we compare to millionaires to those in other parts.

We can afford cigarettes, alchol, plasma TV's, Nintendo Wii's, Sky and all sorts of stuff - but apparently we can't afford £2 every week or fortnight to ensure our meat is kept to a basic humane standard.

In terms of moneysaving, to me there is no dilema. Money saving should always have morality as a caveat. It should be honest, decent and respectful of others, human and animal.

Burlesque_Babe

Well said hooby

gt568

The way I see is thus:

My wife and I are skint, however we love eating and I see food as a pleasure, not a means to an end. If in order to eat nice chicken I have to have it less then so be it.

Everything we eat goes into US, therefore I'll pass on the non-free range chicken plumped up unnaturally, stressed and often injected with water and god knows what chemicals.

redsquirrel80

"when HFW cooked a risotto (surely a basic staple for most people) they stood around looking amazed."

My quote button isn't working for some reason but I had to comment on this! Risotto is one of the first things I was shown how to cook, and I was brought up learning how to make all sorts of dishes from bits and pieces/ leftovers, using every bit of everything! That was at home though - cookery at school consisted very much of making things from scratch, mostly cakes, but when it was meals it was the traditional meat & two veg type - we weren't taught all that stuff I learned at home. A LOT of people I know can only do this 'school' type cooking and throw out their leftovers - if they were making a risotto they'd go out and specifically buy e.g. chicken breasts or strips for it, whereas for me it's always been something to do with odds and ends. I don't know if 'home economics' or whatever they call it now (it certainly wasn't about being economical then!) has changed but I definitely think there's a place for teaching kids/ students how to cook and eat on a budget - how to make the most of what they buy so that good food is more affordable and accessible.

Rant over (for now)

KangaRue

I'm a meat eater myself, and all my adult life I've only ever bought free-range eggs and since it's become widely available I only buy free range chicken. I will only buy good cuts of meat, but I just don't eat as much. I have been asked if I'm a veggie as I often cook non-meat meals... for people who want to keep eating meat, surely it's about balance?

Geenie

I agree with everything Hooby Groovy says. Some people don't have their priorities right when it comes to what they will spend their money on when there is a limited amount of it. I have seen trollies quite often in supermarkets filled up with booze, top of the range dog food, yet nothing but processed, antibiotic filled crap being bought for the kids. I have never felt that given my children an expensive bit of toy or software was more important then feeding them healthy food. They never got much of the former when growing up because it was never deemed essential to their long term health and well being, whereas decent food was.

I have been inside one of those battery chicken places, and nothing shown on TV can ever show you what a hell hole it really is or the smell.:eek: I didn't have turkey this Xmas for the same reason....Bernard Matthews put paid to that with what was found at his place earlier this year!

Triker

Hi all, just to add my bit.

I always try to buy free range chicken either pieces or whole. If I am particularly flush (lol:rolleyes: ) I may buy an organic one. That is if I find one reduced.:D

I am a particular fan of chickens as I used to have a variety of breeds for their eggs and now as we have a small garden have two girls who are funny and productive giving us 2 eggs a day.:happylove

My OH used to try and argue with me about my buying (when I did) free range eggs as he would get the bog standard cheap battery eggs. But I have always been very firm about this with all my family and they in turn now look for the free range stuff.

I'm glad this is in the public eye now and I know some people really don't give a stuff about where their food comes from as long as the price is right, however for me it's important.

Thats it really except to say I wish we had a chicken smiley.:D

wherediditallgo

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

I don't know if 'home economics' or whatever they call it now (it certainly wasn't about being economical then!) has changed but I definitely think there's a place for teaching kids/ students how to cook and eat on a budget - how to make the most of what they buy so that good food is more affordable and accessible.

I agree. I don't like to waste food either - I've been shocked at what some people have thrown away, because I know that adding a bit of rice or pasta could turn that food into another meal. I regularly make up some batter using flour, water, a bit of milk, pepper, thyme, & a finely chopped onion, make up some thin pancakes, then roll whatever leftover meat or fish there is in them. I hold it all together with cocktail sticks, & take it to work for my lunch - it takes all of 10 minutes to do, as the meat/fish is already cooked, & I can either heat it in the microwave or eat it cold.

I used to call my mum's cooking "Resurrection Pie" because she could start with a whole chicken on a Sunday, & use every bit of it so well that with a bit of encouragement the wings could probably have still flapped on the Friday. My cousin used to ask her "Aunty, is that bird ever going to die & stay dead?"