I've long been a fan of HFW and fully agree with what he is trying to do, but I was a little perturbed by his reaction to accusations from residents in Axminster that he charged extortionate prices for free range chicken in his shop. Figures of £18, £20 & £22 were mentioned, but Hugh didn't contridict them, just said they were outrageous. If I owned a business and someone accused me of overcharging I would say no I dont I only charge.....etc. But Hugh didn't, well Hugh what do you charge for a free range chicken? Because affordability is at the core of the problem, free range chickens obviously cost more, but how much more? People on low incomes struggle and this is why they buy intensively farmed chickens at two for £5. Will Hugh take a lead and set an example by selling reasonably priced free range produce in his shop.?
thought this programme was wonderful. people need to care more about what they put into their families bodies. i was highly annoyed at the woman in the series who showed no compassion for the chickens lives or for her son's upset at the sight of these tortured birds. there is no excuse not to go free range with all the advice on budgetting, i myself am a student and a single mother and manage to feed us on free range eggs and meat
best wishes for a free range future generation hopefully x
do you remmeber when you were lucky to have a chicken at christmas? or as a special treat?...yes thats right..just once a year! because they were raised like that..free range and it was worth it! it was special and a treat!
i am dismayed at the obesity problem in this country...i ama big woman but i am not FAT!..fat due to people putting far too much food into one end of their body!....fat because a BOGOF offer is too mcuh to turn down?
FAT due to plain old GREED!...we use far too much of everthing and we all suffer for it!....
I also noted the way he mentioned that rumours had escalated, but didn't go on to prove them wrong - either an edit problem, or the rumours aren't so far out.
Our local butchers charge about £9 for a locally sourced, free range, non water injected chicken.
Local supermarket does a Wye Valley Freedom Food (RSPCA approved) chicken for less than £5 - not free range, but not intensive 39 day old chicken either.
well, one thing may be that the prices may be down to weight, e.g. £15 a kilogram. The asda website sells chicken in that way, and at a glance, it makes it look extortionate as we are used to chicken in generally pre-weighed packets of say, 200g.
if you don't notice the per kilogram, say by glancing through the window its possible for that to have happened. For someone to have started a rumor and its spread. Just a theory.
-------------------------------------------- "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire ----------
I have to admit I was not a HFW fan at all, in fact I used to think he was just a snobby cook who's programmes were only suitable for the well off. Hugh's chicken run programme has completely changed my opinion of him. He may still sound posh & he may still have an expensive food shop which could be considered exclusive, but I felt he came across as very genuine on screen & I would be interested to watch more of his shows in future.
I don't know if you say his really early stuff before Rivercottage (Chef on the wildside etc) but they were basically him going round the UK trying to live off nothing. Pretty interesting.
Originally posted by Parson's nose: Will Hugh take a lead and set an example by selling reasonably priced free range produce in his shop.?
Hugh charges £4.99 per kilo for slow grown free range chicken at his shop.
as a price comparison, producers at my local farmers markets are currently selling similar slow grown free range birds for £5.25/Kilo and Organic at £5.50/kilo, so I dont think Hughs prices are excessive compared to those.
-------------------- Just because it works, doesnt mean its safe!
Hugh charges £4.99 per kilo for slow grown free range chicken at his shop.
as a price comparison, producers at my local farmers markets are currently selling similar slow grown free range birds for £5.25/Kilo and Organic at £5.50/kilo, so I dont think Hughs prices are excessive compared to those.
Hey thats pretty competitive, well done Hugh. Now, if only there was one local. Hugh do you offer franchises?
I was annoyed to find today in my local Tesco that the only free range chickens on sale were French. This put me in a dilemma - I want to eat free range chicken, but I want to eat British chicken. In the end I didn't buy a chicken as I felt I couldn't eat an intensively farmed bird, but neither could I bring myself to subsidise a French farmer. So much for choice
I don't know about you, but I certainly don't relish a return to chicken only at Christmas, fruit only when this country can produce it, and grow your own veg; well done the supermarkets for giving people choice all year round. If you don't like cheap chickens, don't buy them. But they'll always be on the shelves because plenty of other people want them. We can't all afford organic. And if we can't afford it, we should not have to go without.
Yes, I agree we don't want to take a retrograde step foodwise. However, whilst organic chickens are out of a lot of ordinary people's price range, free range are not. I bought a small free range chicken last weekend for £5.04, fed a family of four for Sunday lunch, chicken sandwiches for Monday lunch, boiled the carcass and used the fresh stock through the week (and also froze some stock). So I would hardly call that "Christmas only indulgence". Families think nothing of having a takeaway on a Saturday night of, say, chicken curry - for a family of four this would come to at least £20 - but are horrified at the idea of spending £5-£7 to feed same family of four a decent Sunday lunch of roast chicken??? And I also agree that if we were to only eat ony local produce in future, we would miss the delights of tropical fruit and veg and we'd have to stop drinking tea and coffee. Where would that put the growers of the countries who rely on the export of these items?
