'Are cheap chicks chic?' Poll discussion & results

LouBlue

Davesnave wrote: »

'We had a battery chicken breast in the freezer, and I also had a free range one.'

I think it likely that you had an intensively reared chicken breast here rather than a battery one. Battery hens are so knackered & thin by the time they take them out that they can't even be used for school dinners, unless disguised as chickenburgers, pies, soup etc. ...Which brings me back to my point about processed products. Unless there is an overarching standard for all chicken keeping, intensive stuff will slip into well-meaning people's diets through the back door.

Sorry, just meant that I had a free range one and a non free range one.

Davesnave

Sorry, just meant that I had a free range one and a non free range one.

No need for apologies. You knew what you had, more or less. I still picked up some chicken sandwich stuff a while ago, but being so intent on choosing between chilli or tikka, plus looking at the sell by dates, I completely forgot about the likely origin! Most people go into supermarket trance mode and forget the basics sometimes, even when they mean to do the right thing. We have stuff proudly labelled 'non-GM,' so it would be good to have the choice of 'non-intensive' too.

MARTINS_DOLL

Wanted to let people know that this programme is being repeated on More 4, it is on at the moment, for anyone who missed it.

It was this programme which sparked the original debate on how these poor Chickens are treated.

Badger_Lady

Sorry to bring this back up again, but I had a discussion with a friend the other day that made me feel quite angry. Unfortunately, she's not the sort of friend who takes criticism / healthy debate, so I had to just let it lie...

Somehow, we got onto the subject of healthy male chicks being put down in egg farming, and my friend mentioned the free-range chicken campaigns: "It's all very well people saying that, but people like me (single mums) really just can't afford it. I mean, I get £118 a week - that's all I get for food and clothes!"

Now, there are two reasons why this made me angry, as an ethical MSE:

1) We all know by now that eating free range doesn't mean upping your food budget - it means eating less chicken. There's no way that eating more pulses / beans / vegetarian food would be too expensive for her.

2) That £118 a week is disposable! She pays no rent, no utilities or taxes, and never has. She has one 1-yr-old child, and yes I understand that he gets through nappies / clothes / food too, but where else does that money go? I'm not suggesting that this week has been a typical one, but I've seen her go clothes shopping twice, eat out twice, get two takeaway meals and buy a bottle of champagne (not sparkling wine, champagne).

I would never tell her off because her life is her own choice, but am I wrong to just feel a bit miffed about her comment? I would never eat a product of the intensive farming industry, and I would never complain about "only having £118 a week" - I've lived on a quarter of that whilst working two jobs!