I have been watching the Chicken Out campaigns and Jamie's Fowl Dinner on Channel 4 this week and have been struck most by the intransigence of people on the program regarding the purchasing of free range chickens and eggs. Endless cries of "I'm a single mum, I can't afford free range chickens" became almost a defiant mantra in the face of the presenters' revelations of the hellish conditions that battery and intensively farmed chickens go through. However, the people who protest the most about their inability to purchase the "expensive" free range chickens are invariably very overweight themselves, which leads one to the question: what are these people actually eating in order to bring about their obesity? Surely several large chocolate bars and lard-laden desserts a day add up to more that than the extra £1 or so required in order to purchase free range chickens? Free range versus battery hens appears to be more of a class issue than a financial issue, with some people viewing free range produce as "middle class" and snobbish. The soooner this can be changed the better!

I totally agree with this post, I fail to see how an extra £1 or so per bird can be so unaffordable to so many people. (it annoys me too, as the above poster has pointed out many these people tend to be of the obese variety.) Even if you had roast chicken every Sunday, that would only amount to an extra £52 per year! A small price to pay really.

The way economics works the more people who buy the free range birds, the cheaper they will become. Obviously they'll never be as cheap as the couped up value birds, but it will bring the price down a little I would have thought?