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

wherediditallgo

I think him giving publicity to how non-free range chickens are reared is a good thing, but like many who start these campaigns, he didn't properly take into account the population he was trying to educate. It's all well & good Hugh talking about it only being another few extra pounds per pack, but he can afford to say that - that's a lot of money for some people to find. A man on the show said that the average wage in Axminster was about £12,000 p.a. if they were lucky. If the family income is low, especially if they're living on benefits, it'll be all they can do to afford meat at all, never mind pay extra for free range. I have to eat a lot of protein so I have chicken at least 4 times a week. I'm certainly prepared to give free range a try, but I suspect I won't be able to bear the extra cost long-term. I rarely drink, don't smoke, so there's not a lot I can give up to make the cost more bearable.

And how chicken tastes does also depend how it's cooked. If someone's a poor cook or doesn't season the meat properly, then the better taste of a free range bird will largely be lost on them. It's therefore pretty pointless going on about how tender the meat is etc if the person doesn't know how to cook it properly in the first place.

Just before the end, Hugh said, "I stll believe that every chicken deserves the right to a life outdoors". If that's his ideal, he should be advocating them living as long as possible & not being slaughtered at all. A local in the pub was more direct - he said "if you're that bothered about a f***ing chicken, then don't eat the f***ing twatting things then. All become vegetarians, simple as that." It would be nice to think there was a middle ground between the two viewpoints.:)

pania

novelli wrote: »

i its regretful if the animal has had to suffer for me to buy it at that price, but hey at least its been put out of its misery!!

But why should it have to suffer misery before it dies? for the price of a bit of sunlight? it is still a life no matter how minor.

novelli wrote:

people come first im afraid and in this country we have a very very long way to go before we should be concentrating on the chickens!!! Thats life im afraid, especially when u are on a tight budget.

farm shop chickens are cheaper than tesco chickens and taste nicer and the animal has had a good life. "thats life?" why not make your dog suffer then? or put your cat in a room with no sunlight? it's still a life. why different for a chicken than a pet?

No of course we shouldn't spend above our means but your outlook seems a little callous. if you ever get the opportunity go visit one of these places, or visit an abbatoir. your opinion on how farm animals are treated will change in a second.

There are people in this world that CAN stand up for the animals and nothin gis being taken away from children by them doing this. things CAN be changed for the better, look at the banning of veal raising in this country. numerous voices can acheive masses for very little or no cost.

rog2

novelli wrote: »

theres nothing wrong with the chicken/pork/beef etc that i serve up on a sunday, its delicious and doesnt cost me an arm and a leg!!

I'm sure there isn't, novelli - as there is nothing wrong with the meat that we eat, which is also mainly supermarket bought and price driven.

In fact, I'm sure that we have an 'idyllic' image of 'free-range' animals, which is fuelled by our belief that they all eat corn, and are free to 'roam' at will, when, in all probability, the truth is not like that at all.
When I was at school all dinner waste was put into a 'swill bin' and was collected twice a week, by a local farmer to be fed straight to his pigs. The bins smelt absolutely vile and were a magnet to flies - couldn't have een much of a 'treat' for his pigs. :eek:

boredofbeingathome

I like everyone else on the forum, is budgeting hard- i have long been into buying the best value i could afford the table, and to me wherever i can i will always buy free range or organic, i have also had the 2 for 5 offer at tescos and i have to say that in terms of taste and wastage i got better value from the free range simply because left overs were so tasty that they were literally picked to the bone and the carcass used for soup. I can honestly say that the cheaper battery hen was wasted as it was only partially eaten, and even the left overs dont taste the same in a curry. i have also had cheap birds from aldi and farmfoods and netto- again it is matched to budget. After watching the programme, my kids now refuse to eat battery chickens or eggs and would rather have less chicken, better quality, free range. So i think it will work out cheaper for me in the long run. Also we are fortunate to have good quality farm shops nearby so the budget will have to go there for meats - she also gives a discount for certain quantities and at the same time i will stock up on cheap veg which beats most local shops, i hope that cosumerism can raise the standard of living for these animals whilst at the same time keeping prices down- after all supply and demand will do that.

pania

I don't understand why the extra cost, the chicken still costs the same to purchase, the slaughter cost would still be the same, the barn would require grain to be pumped round and artificial lighting, free range that isn't required, the barn takes up land, make the barn smaller and allow outdoor space for the chickens. Surely the costs would be comparable, it is purely a marketing reason that the cost is higher on free range. mr tesco or miss sainsbury should recognise that and make the changes themselves.

rog2

wherediditallgo wrote: »

It would be nice to think there was a middle ground between the two viewpoints.:)

Very true, wdiag.

Toto

I struggle a great deal with this whole thing. I was veggie for 12 years then vegan then vegan macrobiotic. It all started when I rented a house in a lovely rural area, only to realise that there was an abattoir right at the back of the garden (yes I know I should have noticed before but I was young and things like checking areas weren't a priority). Anyway, every morning I would hear the sound of the animals go in, moo-ing baa-ing and the rest of it. But by the afternoon it would be silent and I hated that.

So, I stopped eating meat. But I am a bit of an obsessive sort and always seem to find something else that pushes things a bit further, so I decided dairy was wrong... and became vegan. Then I read about macrobiotics and realised I was poisoning myself with things like tomatoes. Before long all I was eating was brown rice, it became lunacy. So, I forced myself back to plain old veggie.

The years of touring gradually made a carnivore out of me, because it's really hard to eat catered food as a veggie (there isn't a menu ). And if I'm honest, I just didn't enjoy being veggie at all, even now most things on a veggie menu leave me cold. But I feel bad about it, so like the majority of the meat eating public I don't eat animals, I eat those plastic wrapped packages in the chiller cabinet. On the occasion I do get the idea there was an animal involved I've even thought to myself 'well, it's dead now, I should do it the honour of at least eating it so it didn't die for nothing... how crap is that justification?

I didn't watch the show tonight, I avoided it. I do very much agree though that it's all very well people who are so rich trying to tell everyone to eat expensive foods, but some people just can't afford to. And not everyone has a garden to grow things in either, I don't, nor do the vast majority of people who live in London.

I think it's time the laws changed on intensive farming rather than playing the guilt card with the consumer. There should be cheap food which has been farmed in a responsible manner and these factory farms should be forced to change.

rog2

pania wrote: »

I don't understand why the extra cost,

I don't understand it eiher, pania.

wherediditallgo

pania wrote: »

I'm not sure it's laziness. I think it's more that a lot of consumers couldn't physically handle the idea of killing pinky or henrietta, if the meat comes in a polystyrene tray with no blood or gristle attached then there is a massive element of disassociation of what that product actually is.
If you gave a person a chicken and said kill it, pluck it, gut it and cook it you'd suddenly have a vegetarian on your hands!:rotfl: I think as the older generation grew up with keeping gobble for the christmas table they didn't have the element of squeamishness around today.

I agree. When I was a child, my parents used to keep several rabbits. We also used to have rabbit stew on a Saturday or Sunday. I never made the connection between the two until the day I saw my uncle wring the necks of two of them - when I went downstairs, I asked my mum why he'd killed them & she told me "For tomorrow's dinner". I haven't eaten rabbit from that day to this, a good 30 years on. My parents come from the West Indies, where they laugh at people who name animals, let them sleep on the end of the bed etc, because animals are supposed to work for their food, earn their keep. Perhaps if children were given a more honest introduction to how animals live & die, there'd be less cruelty shown to them.

postingalwaysposting

I think hugh would have done a better job trying to pusudae the legislation to change in govenment to allow chickens to be raised this way. I think if someone can find a middle ground between 'outdoors' and 'mass produced' that still keeps the price relitively cheap then all will be happy ~ i hope. However there is a big but, work out the price to keep loads of chicks in a glorified shed with food and water and the price to keep less chicks in a shed on land and the price rockets.

No matter what anyone does/says people will vote with their feet and as i sit here today i am 100% sure if someone was given a choice between two chickens in plastic trays covered in celophane, with a price difference of £2 between the two. I know which one the majority of the UK will buy. Sadly this is the world we live in today, i would love to raise my own food/grow my own food. But when you need to earn at least £1k per month just to live a basic life in a town these days many of us have no choice ~ cheap food = more money for us = better life :rolleyes: