Free Range Chicken

kj*daisy

Sainsburys had a load of freedom food chicken in today - so assume that's free range.
Organic chicken is free range as well.

rosy

thriftlady wrote: »

That sounds OK to me, I'm perfectly happy to buy chickens reared in this way, Waitrose' chickens are from a similar system. It is a shame this method doesn't get more publicity from Hugh F-W and co. Surely it is easier for farmers who are currently using the cruel intensive methods to swap to a decent barn operation than a fully free-range one.

M/S Oakham chickens also raised in this way ( I have to admit I'd always assumed they were free range but the ones that are are clearly labelled, the majority of the Oakham chickens in my local M/S today weren't free range). The RSPCA have a Freedom Food label for this method of rearing chicken; there's more about it here
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RSPCA/RSPCARedirect&pg=chickenscampaignfacts&marker=1&articleId=1177591302454

Edited to add - just crossed with kj*daisy's post above - from the RSPCA site it suggests that the Freedom foods label doesn't necessarily mean it's free range, it could be barn raised but with better conditions

~Chameleon~

kj*daisy wrote: »

Sainsburys had a load of freedom food chicken in today - so assume that's free range.
Organic chicken is free range as well.

Having the label Freedom isn't necessarily the same as being Free Range, but the living conditions are a lot better than the intensive chicken farms we saw on tv last week.

This site explains what Freedom Food means - http://www.supportchickennow.co.uk/freedomfood/


Btw, Tesco DON'T SELL FREEDOM FOOD products! :rolleyes:

davetaylor

It looks like the programmes last week have really had an impact. I'm glad people are buying free range.

These cheap chickens are just disgusting. The meat is so unhealthy IMO. The chickens don;t exercise at all, the meat is full of fat.

Surely if we all demand free range chickens, they will find a way of producing them en masse and reducing the cost?

Dave

~Chameleon~

davetaylor wrote: »

Surely if we all demand free range chickens, they will find a way of producing them en masse and reducing the cost?

Dave

They're never going to be able to produce them as cheap as the current standard chickens, that's the whole point of the campaign and why chickens are produced in such terrible conditions already!

The poor farmer only receives 3p per bird, hence having to produce as many as he can, as fast as he can to try and make some money!

What needs to happen is that pressure is put on supermarkets and the like to raise the amount they pay for these birds to ensure the farmer can produce them to a minimum standard of Freedom Food levels, and preferably free range, but we as consumers must be prepared to pay more money for this too.

JoBethO

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Hi, CM! I think there's been a run on them following people's shock after the programmes last week. Hope it continues :T (the shock, that is, not absence of FR chicken ).

I bought one in Tesco, after discovering that my butcher's aren't free range :eek: :eek:

Keep trying - unless we continue to boycott intensive chicken, nothing will change long-term

Penny. x

I have tried all week to buy free range chicken breasts for a meal I am cooking for friends tonight, I asked in Asda yesterday and they told me that they are selling out as fast as they get them in and the best time to go is around 8.00am when new deliveries have arrived - I then went to |Morrisons (they had none in last week) and was able to buy some (and some for the freezer), it's free-range or none at all for me now!

Badger_Lady

davetaylor wrote: »

they will find a way of producing them en masse and reducing the cost?

That's how we ended up with intensive farming in the first place - "how can we make the process cheaper and move efficient? I know, let's stick them in a tiny shed with the lights on all the time so they don't go to sleep!"

In fact, the free range farm that HF-W set up was nothing like"traditional" free-range farming (like his shop rears) - it was a modern, efficient system that differed from the intensive farm only in space and environment. They still had the modern feeders and shed overnight, but with more floorspace and access to the great outdoors during the day.

There will be little that can be done to make free range much cheaper without compromising animal welfare.

SALOPMAN

Yes be careful with ASDA, there is a slightly mor expensive chicken with a farmers face on it and the Union Flag but it doesnt state free range either so suspect that it isn't - I found difficulty buying a free range in Telfords ASDA or TESCO this week but the 2 x £5 were still in our tesco on Wed.

davetaylor

I should have explained myself better. I never expected Free Range chicken to be as cheap as the 2 for a fiver range. I just meant that if more people were buying it and demand went up, the price would come down a bit.

If the Supermarkets are paying farmers 3 pence per chicken, and then selling them for say £2.50. Does that mean they are making £2.47 profit?

Dave

Badger_Lady wrote: »

That's how we ended up with intensive farming in the first place - "how can we make the process cheaper and move efficient? I know, let's stick them in a tiny shed with the lights on all the time so they don't go to sleep!"

In fact, the free range farm that HF-W set up was nothing like"traditional" free-range farming (like his shop rears) - it was a modern, efficient system that differed from the intensive farm only in space and environment. They still had the modern feeders and shed overnight, but with more floorspace and access to the great outdoors during the day.

There will be little that can be done to make free range much cheaper without compromising animal welfare.

~Chameleon~

davetaylor wrote: »

If the Supermarkets are paying farmers 3 pence per chicken, and then selling them for say £2.50. Does that mean they are making £2.47 profit?

Dave

No because, there will be other people involved all taking their cut, i.e. transportation to the abbattoir, slaughter and preparation for the supermarket shelf then transportation on to the supermarket. I doubt very much that the supermarkets make much profit at all on the standard chicken and use them as a loss leader in their price war against each other.