Well I'm quite long in the tooth now and not well off.

I have always tut-tutted at factory farming but still bought cheap chicken off the shelf without a glance at the label. To be painfully honest I had no idea at all what goes on and I would like to commend Hugh (and, seemingly, Jaimie) for what they are trying to do. I'm convinced and have already cancelled my online grocery order from Tesco this week. Interestingly I received a "covering rear-end" letter from Sainsburys today , referring to these upcoming programmes, setting out their philosophy and delighting in telling us their chicks are British.

Too late chaps!

It's free range from a known source for me from now on - even if I have to eat chicken (or any meat/eggs for that matter) much less frequently and in smaller portions. I'll just have to get my little vegetable patch working overtime.

as a chef I am gutted at the fact that I did not take into account what happens to the food I prepare and eat before it reaches me and my family I have changed to free range chicken,eggs and organic milk for an extra £4.00 a week on my shopping bill Idon't drink or smoke and I am quite happy to pay the extra thanks hugh you have achieved a great deal even though it must have been a tough journey thanks

will def read the small print on labels now. those pictures of grassy fields and blue skies are outrageous. well done hugh

Anyone who claims they are too poor to be able to afford free range is wrong. Years ago I lived on £250 a month(no state benefits or other help), it had to cover rent, bills and all living costs. I never skimped by buying cheap food and always ate well. My (higher-earning) housemates claimed they couldnt afford proper food and ate meat-flavoured crisps as substitute for learning how to cook. Anyone who says they cant afford £2 extra for a free range chicken is deluded or lying no matter how poor they are. If you want to afford it you will. If you dont want to afford it you will come up with any number of good reasons why you cant.

GET REAL PEOPLE its a bloody chicken it has the brain the size of a pea. If god had of wanted the bird to be free it would of given it wings it could actually use !!

Free range, organic, battery, it all ends up the same way. DEAD !! Down the slaughter house & eventually on your diner table with a ball of paxo up its jacksey.

If you care that much why dont you start to train people in the art of chicken counselling that way the distressed birds could have a friendly ear to "squark to"!

Ive had free range, organic, corn fed & imho it doesnt taste that much better certainly not worth the premium in price.

I dont see the battery hens as suffering that much yeah ok they are cramped conditions but on now account were they allowed to suffer, its cost effective, disease free & feeds the nation (apart from there obvious pining for the fjords)

If people start to bouycott the battery hen in this country then supernarkets will then import the birds from abroad where health & safety issues are no where near as stringent as ours (a nice bit of bird flu with your roast missus) & to think there are famillies living in this country in as cramped conditions as a friggin chicken.

Middle Class rubbish !!

quote:

Originally posted by Farmer-Picken:
I am so pleased to see people reacting so well to this. i have struggled to get people to watch it!! I dont understand why people find it so hard to watch a chicken going through a cycle of life and death and on to thier plates when its because of them its happening. If you dont like seeing an animal being killed then don't eat it!!
I keep chickens in my garden and its wonderful. They are happy and they reward us with eggs!
I couldn't care less wether your on benefits. Everyone can afford what they can afford but nothing has to suffer because of it. We cant afford to buy a chicken every week but that's how its always been. Its only recent that chickens have become so cheap!!!
If you are on benefits then don't smoke, cut back on drink, stop buying so much rubbish for each other at christmas and spend money where it is supposed to be spent. For our childrens sake we have to teach them about food and the whole cycle. respecting food comes from our parents. Grow your own veg too. you only need a windowsill and you could grow insane amounts of lettuce or beans or peas, a balcony will give you a sack of potatoes, strawberries.
eating these chickens is a disgrace to our human nature!!!
chav's get off your high horse and stop whining about your bloody benefits. You can afford more than most of us, buy free range!!

Good point well made, I also noticed the people objecting about the price could afford to be down the pub!, don't think the benefit system is meant for that. My good friend, single mum of two can do it so the argement holds no water really. : /

Top Work. Am a convert to freerange due to your show. Brilliant idea, supermarkets have got way to much power. Seems the only way to get them to really listen is to humiliate their PR departments. PR people take note have some moral courage – stand up to your monster masters.

I'm so pleased with what Hugh has done. Not only have our own free-range sales increased but for farmers who make the free range choice it's great news! Good on you Hugh for sticking your neck out and facing ridicule if it failed. We often hear the cost argument but it's usually because we have got out of the habit of prioritising food in our spending and care less about what we put in our bodies than on them!

at the end of the day we all have to eat, and i shall be eating free range from now on ,i did not like hugh at the start ,but by god he has show us the truth,

this is my mums site but i have to say somthing i am 10 years old i will never eat chicken again because it's mean.

quote:

Originally posted by 01803suzanne:
this is my mums site but i have to say somthing i am 10 years old i will never eat chicken again because it's mean.

Not all chicken is AS mean though. Killing animals to eat can not ever be romantic and without pain. BUT... You saw the free range were well cared for in life.

I watched the programme as I am huge fan of Hugh and totally support his ideas and work. I became vegetarian 2 years ago as I researched intensive farming of all animals, not just chicken. I decided that unless I can afford to eat good quality meat that has come from an animal that had lived a decent life (no matter how short) I wouldn't eat meat. I haven't missed it!
I have read many of the comments that have been posted and although most of them are in support of free range, it worries me how many don't care. The attitude that it's just a chicken and it doesn't know better is terrible, we as the consumer and carer of these animals do know better!
All meat that is produced is of a young age, lamb is around 6 months old and beef is 2 years. In relation to these species life expectency they are young. As long as the animals short life is a good one I do not have a problem with them being killed, humanely, for meat. But to say that as long as they don't know better it doesn't matter is disturbing. Many children are born into poverty and don't know better but it's not right!

Hugh Fearnley - the man who put the (SH) in to Whittingstall.

Literally.

hi hugh , i was a great fan of yours but the way you behaved in the tesco store was nothing short of school bulling .i shoot and fish {like your self]and you are just like those that are trying to ban our sport !what was the mortality % off each flock off birds ? what happened to all the other "free range "birds you processed as only 200 and odd were sold ? your bio-security was terrible going from flock to flock and having every tom dick and harry in the sheds! what if somebody took in bird flu, newcastle disese or other and the birds got infected would that be the supermarkets fault also ????? stick to mushrooms and veg please .

just a question is k f c, are ther chickens organic or ,

please tell me i have not been eating crap for years

quote:

Originally posted by 01803suzanne:
please tell me i have not been eating crap for years

No there all hand reared in there own en-suite chicken coup with a colour tv & some of that calming icelandic mood music to calm there nerves before there taken to be SLAUGHTERED.

quote:

Originally posted by 01803suzanne:
just a question is k f c, are ther chickens organic or ,

What do you think! Anything that has that many enumbers on should be avoided if you want to be healthy and ethical.

thanks for that at least now i can enjoy it

devon girl i was just asking a question

i will never aet k f c again ok ,well hugh already turned me anyway

quote:

Originally posted by Devon Girl:

quote:

Originally posted by 01803suzanne:
just a question is k f c, are ther chickens organic or ,

What do you think! Anything that has that many enumbers on should be avoided if you want to be healthy and ethical.

yes i,m so good i do everything by the book?,i went on this forom because i,m going to change my way,hugh change this,but all you lot are spoiling it

Don't be discouraged Suzanne. You can take heart in the knowledge that many people, after watching Hughs programme, will be thinking a lot more about what they eat from now on. My family have gone free range now and I'm sure it won't be easy but we're determined to try.

Chicken Run Jan 08 by Richard Millar
I have been involved with the poultry industry for 20 years. This is my take on Hugh's programme. Generally a good programme, reasonably fair, though obviously biased. I will cover this later.
I have read many of web postings and a number of people have not got the correct picture on several issues.
There are basically two types of chicken, just as there are basically two types of cow. Broilers are reared for meat just like beef cows and layers are farmed for a product - eggs, just like dairy cows are farmed for milk. Battery hens (as mentioned in some entries) are layers. Broilers are not kept in cages (batteries). Both have been specifically and selectively bred for their respective purposes. We have been practising selective breeding for thousands of years - read the first book of the Bible - Genesis - where Jacob grew his own herd of sheep/goats from his father-in-law's herd by selective breeding and understanding genetics ("O" level Biology).
The 3p a chicken is NOT what the supermarkets pay for chickens - it is the profit the farmer (if he/she is lucky/efficient enough) to make from a chicken. Supermarkets squeezing the farmers has already been talked about.
The biased part of the 3 programmes was showing things like the culling of birds from the intensive side but not showing it from the free range side, though they did say they had to cull from the free range birds. In fact it would be interesting to know what percentage were culled from each side!!!??? They also showed the mass slaughter of the intensively bred birds, but not the free range birds. The mass slaughter pictures will stick in people's minds as being distasteful and associated with intensive farming. The free range slaughter they did show were the individually slaughtered birds. There were as many people crying about the slaughter as going inside the intensive side of the shed!! Hugh did not take people into both sides of the shed at night where the free range birds are cooped up at night - just like the intensive birds - though at a lower sticking density. At night the free range birds live on their own faeces - boy - what would Jamie say about that!!!!!
Have any of you seen free range in winter??? Rain, snow, mud, filthy chickens. I promise you it paints a very different picture to the lovely white chickens walking on lush green grass!!! Have you seen the grass - or lack of it in the second summer??
Intensively reared chickens are not force fed. Fresh chickens do not have water pumped into them.
Here are the facts about the difference between the two systems - intensive and free range.
First few weeks - essentially NO DIFFERENCE. Though the free range are at a lower stocking density the stocking density does not become a factor until the birds are about 4 weeks old. They ALL live in their own faeces for the first few weeks and at night (I say again - what would Jamie say!!!!). They all have the same medications in their feed and the same vaccinations against disease. During the day the free range birds are let out, BUT at night back into the shed in the same conditions as the intensive birds. Culls - maybe the same but probably more from the free range as (said in the programme) they are more susceptible to disease.
The only real difference is that we feel better about seeing the chickens going outside for a small portion of their life.
Free range are more tasty – they are older. Lamb is more tender – mutton is more tasty!!
Hugh - if the whole country went to free range and - horrors of horrors - we had a bad dose of AI (Avian Influenza) the chances are that not only would a massive portion of the poultry industry be devastated, which would have knock on effects to the national economy (remember foot & mouth), the risk to us humans would increase a hundred fold.
Fact - millions of us love meat but are so far removed from farming that the sight of slaughtering any animal is abhorrent. Buying it from a supermarket shelf is simple and free of judgement!!
I have already gone on too long - if any of you have read all this. The economics is another whole page!!
PS Hugh - swearing is not attractive, nor funny, or clever - it just makes me think less of you.