Comments on: Chicken Out Campaign

By: deb

deb — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:58:26 +0000

wheather ists intence reared or not, if you still eat it your still particapating and passing the message on thats its ok to take a life , long before its time is over. and when you say humane killing, that answer should be never,

By: Mrs A Leahy

Mrs A Leahy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:42:53 +0000

I am pleased to know that people and groups are still compaigning for better standards in rearing poultry – keep up the good work.
Ann

By: Peter Crowter

Peter Crowter — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:24:11 +0000

I’m not sure if you post mildly critical comments but here goes.
When I was a schoolboy back in the forties a chicken meal was the height of luxury and only enjoyed on rare occasions. Then in the fifties the broiler, a fast growing meat-producing bird was introduced from America. Very soon the intensive, indoor rearing of broiler chicken became big business and producers were able to provide birds in large numbers at a price everyone could afford.
Back in those days free-range was usually a life enjoyed by laying hens. Poultry houses contained something like a couple of dozen birds. They were on wheels and were frequently moved around the fields giving the hens a constant supply of fresh ground. In the autumn, when the cornfields had been cleared the houses were pulled out onto the stubbles for the birds to clear up the grain left behind after the harvest. Their eggs had rich, dark yolks and tasted infinitely better than those laid by battery hens.
The modern concept of ‘free-range’ is very different and I wonder if in some cases it is just a tag used to extract extra money from the customer. In Hugh’s TV experiment there were standard broilers housed in one half of the shed and free range in the other. His free- range birds often appeared on screen pecking around in lush green grass 2 or 3 inches tall. I am sure many of the commercial free-range birds do not enjoy this luxury.
Rules for free-range production state the outside pens should be ‘mainly covered by vegetation’. For how long I wonder? There is no limit on flock numbers in free-range units and flocks can number many thousands. According to the Soil Association some flocks are ‘so large many never venture out of doors’. Is the quality of life for many of the ‘free-range’ birds much better than that of the standard bird? A little maybe because they have more space but the difference, especially in the large flocks is not as great as some would have us believe.
You have probably heard of the RSPB’s Freedom Foods and their member- producers are strictly monitored. In their system the birds are kept indoors but enjoy 25% more space than the legal minimum, brighter lighting and a proper dark period. I suspect these birds lead as comfortable a life as their so-called free-range counterparts and they are cheaper to buy (£3.80 as opposed to £5.90). I believe the RSPB have got it right and my advice is beware of the so-called ‘free-range’ chicken and go for the Freedom Foods label where the welfare rules for the birds are strictly controlled.

By: john davies

john davies — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:27:35 +0000

good work hugh. lets hope the change comes soon.
i have worked in a chicken factory and the farmers get payed on the waight of the birds not how many they deliver some of them birds are in no fit state they are culed as soon as they get to the plant
this plant where i was does 3/4 of a million a week and 3000 a day are just put in the bin.
i been looking at this now for months and found that there is well over a millon a week reared just for this one factory with 250.000 want rven reach the shop now thats bad

John

By: darren

darren — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:09:59 +0000

i have 170,000 chickens and i can honestly say they are kept in good conditions , they have play bales to play on , the litter is kept dry and topped up and they never go over stocked, yet the farm makes no money.if the price of chicken was higher and the public would pay the price , the conditions would improve more ,its the supermarkets who are the winners not us farmers….. if i worked out how many hrs i did i would be on way less than the min wage

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:14:08 +0000

I saw that program, it should be made law for anyone that keeps chickens, or any poultry, even one chicken TO LET THEM OUT, my chickens would never be treat like that.
Ray of Hull

By: sophie and craig

sophie and craig — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:11:26 +0000

we think it is fantastic that someone is finally opening peoples eyes to what happens in this country and what we call excepitable. we will always eat free range thanks to you. keep up the good work we are behind you all the way..xx

By: Ben Sanderson

Ben Sanderson — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:42:22 +0000

It’s unbelivable!!!im a student at University college Falmourth studying Fine art and am definatly going to do a project on this!people have to stop buying battery farmed chickens!

By: simon phillips

simon phillips — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:21:11 +0000

Having seen this well thought out and seemingly well balanced campaign, I do have soem sympathy for those concerned that they cannot afford better treated chicken. However it does make you wonder how low income people fed themselves when in the not too distant past chicken was much more expensive anyway. Also a lot of the people I have heard claiming that 2 for £5 is all they can afford to feed their kids also smoke and drink a lot, both expensive vices!
It is true though that free range chicken needs to be cheaper to really get people behind it, but if the volume is there then the price will fall.

By: LYNN

LYNN — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:56:31 +0000

I have just been down to our local
Co-Op to buy a free range chicken. No free range on the shelf. I asked a member of staff why and was told that they were on order but could not be supplied. They did however have 4 portions of free range chicken breast tucked away in a corner surrounded by shelves of standard chickens. This can’t be right. I asked where would the free range chicken normaly be displayed and was told that there was a space on the bottom shelf (enough room to put 2 chickens side by side). The ticket had been turned around and the space used for standard chickens rather than keeping the space empty. I then spoke to a member of staff on the check out about the lack of choice. She was very polite and understood what I was saying but added that the standard chickens where brought up in barns that had hay bales and a little natural light and that they tasted ‘JUST AS GOOD’ Not quite the answer I expected. I was also told that they had actually had your programms running in the shop. Now I am convinced
that the supermarkets are bullying us all into buying what they want to sell and not what we want to buy. We as customers must question supermarkets and demand the food we wish to eat. So from now on FARM SHOP HERE I COME.