Where does your chicken come from?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Has anyone seen the programme on channel 4 with Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Fowl Dinners.

It showed the conditions that battery hens and standard bred chickens live in.

Battery Hens
http://www.aact.org.au/images/battery_hens/Pitts%20Farm.JPG


What annoyed me was when people in the audience said that free range eggs are too expensive when they are on a tight budget. Sorry, but free range eggs work out at 26p each, is that much?

[Drew]

Tescos.

I don't know whether my mum buys free range or battery and quite frankly I don't care. When chickens can run a country, create an economy and so on, then it'll bother me.

I watched Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's programme, interesting, but I didn't understand why he didn't do a taste test?

[rah]

I only buy free range and we are on a tight budget. Its not that much extra.

[RaikkonenRules]

Only free range too. Saw the programme, all those chickens in that shed are horrid. :eek:

[Hazell B]

There was a chicken farmer on TV moaning about the changes due in a few years time that will stop battery farming. He said they only had five years to completely alter their entire farm to meet regulations.

Rubbish - it was agreed in the late 90's that battery would eventually be outlawed by 2009. Now it's going to be 2012 (I think, though expect it to be longer) and I'm pretty sure ten years was more than enough warning :mark:

[anthonyvop]

Yep "free range" is the way to go!
I want my eggs from chickens which nobody has a clue what they have consumed.

Doesn't really matter as I prefer Milk fed Veal for my protein intake

BTW I am a Charter member of PETA.

People
Eating
Tasty
Animals.

I buy organic free range chicken and eggs. I read today that five big UK supermarket chains have promised to ban or phase out battery eggs due to a consumer backlash sparked by Jamie Oliver's campaign. NZ supermarket chains are starting to respond - slowly. Am sure Jamie O's campaign will have a trickle down effect here. I often buy my organic veges and eggs at one of the weekend farmers markets.

[Daniel]

You think it looks horrible?!?!?!?! You should try actually walking into one of these sheds where they intensively grow chicks into chickens with the most amount of meat on them in the shortest time. The smell is truly horrendous. My family in South Africa have 2 large chicken sheds each which can house about 10,000 chickens in them. The stench is something truly horrendous. Seeing chickens which have eaten so much that their legs can no longer hold them upright is pretty wrong. I don't tend to eat eggs much tbh.

[J4MIE]

Call me cruel but it doesn't really bother me. I eat huge amounts of chicken and eggs. Where do people think chickens come from? It's like that programe on BBC3 the other week where they killed a pig and cooked it in the studio, designed to shock people.

[rah]

Yep "free range" is the way to go!
I want my eggs from chickens which nobody has a clue what they have consumed.

Doesn't really matter as I prefer Milk fed Veal for my protein intake

BTW I am a Charter member of PETA.

People
Eating
Tasty
Animals.

That would make the assumption that you know what foods other types of chicken eat.

Don't get me wrong, one of my first loves is eating other animals, but free range eggs are the egss for me.

[wedge]

Call me cruel but it doesn't really bother me. I eat huge amounts of chicken and eggs. Where do people think chickens come from? It's like that programe on BBC3 the other week where they killed a pig and cooked it in the studio, designed to shock people.

Same here, I don't have much empathy for chickens because at the end of the day I'm going to eat it.

My gran rears her own chickens. Admittedly it does take some nerve to slit its throat the first few times I did it because you look after chickens like a pet. I'd be quite happy to do it again now because I still love eating chicken.

[Daniel]

That would make the assumption that you know what foods other types of chicken eat.

Don't get me wrong, one of my first loves is eating other animals, but free range eggs are the egss for me.

I'd love to see your CV.

Hobbies: Motorsport and eating animals :p

Chickens kept in these sort of conditions are pumped full of steroids and anti-biotics and shortly before they go to market they get fed on more "normal" feed so they'd not so pumped full of rubbish.

One thing that never ceases to make me wonder is that when you go somewhere and buy chicken at a restaurant it's always breast. Why?!?!?!?! The breast is the driest, most stringy and tasteless bit of the chicken. I much prefer thighs. Brown them in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil, cut them into strips and cook for a little longer and then add some sliced mushrooms and a touch of salt and you've got a rather tasty and quite healthy meal if you cut the bulk of the fat off and don't have the skin either.

[veeten]

aw, c'mon. what's wrong with breasts? I like them. ;) :p :

[Roamy]

Yep "free range" is the way to go!
I want my eggs from chickens which nobody has a clue what they have consumed.

Doesn't really matter as I prefer Milk fed Veal for my protein intake

BTW I am a Charter member of PETA.

People
Eating
Tasty
Animals.

Yea I have to laugh - While seeing a major protest against fur coats in Aspen, the meeting adjourned and everyone sat down for a wonderful steak dinner. Many of the guys were wearing authentic cowboy boots and the city slickers were wearing alligator loafers. The nice thing about veal is they don't have to stand is sh!t all their lives and the are fed well. Thank you Provomi !!

[Daniel]

Yeah Fousto. Because the meat of a cow gets smothered in excrement now doesn't it. The best thing about Veal is how they lock them up in a tiny cage so they can't move and therefore make themselves stringy. Yeah that's really humane now isn't it.

[leopard]

My favorite also the breast, and the most I dislike is the wings or head and they are uncommonly to eat, I can eat the claw of foot as snack.

You can eat any animal, but never try the wild ones, they can do the other way around ;)

[tmx]

My family had a short period of chicken farming here in US. The chicken gets to go freely in a very big house, ofcourse it's a contract with the coorporate that buy the eggs from us. Base on the chicken house condition, cleanliness, air conditioning, etc, we get paid more. The hens tend to stay on the top left and right wooden frames floor (craps goes down and after seasoning cleaning, gets dried out and sold for good money), around their hatches, being too afraid to be in the middle with the rooster. I tend to get flying Bruce Lee kicked by the roosters every time I go through the house, those are the ones that tend to peck/kick other hens. They're smart *******s, they only kick you when you turned around, usually ended up as dinner for the night. Also chicken has really short term memories, they would peck and eat their own eggs if it breaks.

My parents used to have livestock before we move to America, and I loved to eat ducks, but I never really liked chicken, especially once I got over to US. They are so slimmy and have so much fat. I have to say that these chicken that gets to walk around have such better meat, with lower fat, less slimy, and their eggs are better too. Although I did like the chicken legs they made at Korean dimsum restaurant.

I am against animal torture, but the bottom line is, these animals, chicken and cows, are domesticated as food long ago, so that we can build civilization and not be nomads. These specific breeds most likely would extinct if we didn't domesticate them. If all were to be an overbearing animal lovers than we would not produce enough for the such a large consuming mass today. Although I am a bit skeptical of cloned animals: There is a rumour, and probably true that my military brothers talks about how KFC bread chickens with no heads and four legs. Also that they had to revert to KFC, and not Kentucky Fried Chicken since the creature is not technically a chicken.

Funny thing is with rallying, the guys runs over animals all the time, if you watch the ITV4 WRC Crash special. Haha, I wonder what animal lovers think about that.

[tmx]

but i have to admit the condition from the picture posted by the OP is really bad.

[rah]

I'd love to see your CV.

Hobbies: Motorsport and eating animals :p

Chickens kept in these sort of conditions are pumped full of steroids and anti-biotics and shortly before they go to market they get fed on more "normal" feed so they'd not so pumped full of rubbish.

One thing that never ceases to make me wonder is that when you go somewhere and buy chicken at a restaurant it's always breast. Why?!?!?!?! The breast is the driest, most stringy and tasteless bit of the chicken. I much prefer thighs. Brown them in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil, cut them into strips and cook for a little longer and then add some sliced mushrooms and a touch of salt and you've got a rather tasty and quite healthy meal if you cut the bulk of the fat off and don't have the skin either.


Lol yeah: motor sport, eating animals, environmentalism.

Can't agree with you more on the legs. Luckily my missus likes the breast so we work well.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Battery Hens are due to be outlawed in the UK in a few years, but consumers will complain that the prices are two expensive (10p extra an egg :rolleyes :) and probably just buy imported eggs.

The same thing happened with bacon. Pigs farmed in 'sow stalls' were banned, the price of British bacon went up so now everyone buys Danish bacon where they still have intensive pig farming.

If on the box of 'battery eggs' it had a photo of the Hens living conditions and on the free range eggs it had a picture of a Hens in a field then I think many consumers would change their ways.

[Daniel]

Battery Hens are due to be outlawed in the UK in a few years, but consumers will complain that the prices are two expensive (10p extra an egg :rolleyes :) and probably just buy imported eggs.

The same thing happened with bacon. Pigs farmed in 'sow stalls' were banned, the price of British bacon went up so now everyone buys Danish bacon where they still have intensive pig farming.

If on the box of 'battery eggs' it had a photo of the Hens living conditions and on the free range eggs it had a picture of a Hens in a field then I think many consumers would change their ways.

Hens which are free range tend to produce nicer eggs with richer more yellow yolks. The upshot of this is that they taste nicer.

We try to buy bacon from our local farm shop as it's tastier than the Danish stuff we get from Sainsbury's even though that is still quite nice :) But the farm shop stuff is nicer although sometimes the thickness varies within one piece of bacon so you get really thin edges :mark:

[Mark]

I dislike the current trends of "oh you must pay £xx more for something because of this that or the other". For some of us on very limited budgets chicken is the only meat remotely within our price range. If it wasn't for chicken I'd be eating very little meat at all.

As for Johns comment about 10p extra :rolleyes: , well you may not care about that but for some people 60p extra on half a dozen eggs is a lot of money. It strikes me that people who come out with these sort of things, and not least the likes of Jamie Oliver have no concept whatsoever of living on a limited income.

[Daniel]

The thing is though if horrible cramped chicken sheds are outlawed then free range chicken farming will become more widespread and probably cheaper. Right now your supermarket has to give dedicated space to free range birds which makes it more costly as the supermarket has to stock two different lines.

At the end of the day chickens which will hopefully have less antibiotics and steroids in them will be better for you and they'll taste nicer.

At the end of the day I always think you get what you pay for. We've started buying nice heavy cast iron Le Creuset pots. Yes they're expensive! But they'll last for aaaaaaaaages, they don't burn food, cook food more evenly, you end up with nicer tasting food because it's cooked evenly and not burnt to a crisp and they look much better. Good value for money I say!

[Gurl Racer]

And how many of you know that free range chickens attribute to global warming?

Laugh at me all you want, but everyone is all "oo global warming we must stop it" but no one knows the real reasons. Everyone thinks its the cars/planes. But thats only 30-40%. The sun rays cause 50% of global warming and animals cause it to, including us. We all fart. Free range chickens are found to produce 15% more gas than battery hens, which on a world scale, is huge! If countries are to meet their targets, they have to look at some kind of medium. So, in the end, it doesn't matter a toss what you buy. They're both doing bad and good things.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I dislike the current trends of "oh you must pay £xx more for something because of this that or the other". For some of us on very limited budgets chicken is the only meat remotely within our price range. If it wasn't for chicken I'd be eating very little meat at all.

So it's £2-£3 for a typical standard chicken, for that price you can get around 3 pork chops or 2lb of pork sausage (about 24 sausages) or about pound & a half of minced steak (Booths supermarket prices so you can get these for lower prices). Keep in mind that pigs and beef are kept in better conditions than chickens, if other farm animals were farmed as intensively they would be far cheaper. Traditionally chicken was a premium meat, not a staple one.

[Dave B]

If I'm buying whole chickens they come from M&S or a local butcher. If I'm just going to chop up and marinade fillets to make curry, fajitas or whatever then it's cheapo stuff from the supermarket.

I buy on taste and price, not what condition the chickens are kept in. Sorry if that makes me cruel, but to paraphrase Peter Kay: it's the chickens' fault for being made out of meat.

[Captain VXR]

And how many of you know that free range chickens attribute to global warming?

Laugh at me all you want, but everyone is all "oo global warming we must stop it" but no one knows the real reasons. Everyone thinks its the cars/planes. But thats only 30-40%. The sun rays cause 50% of global warming and animals cause it to, including us. We all fart. Free range chickens are found to produce 15% more gas than battery hens, which on a world scale, is huge! If countries are to meet their targets, they have to look at some kind of medium. So, in the end, it doesn't matter a toss what you buy. They're both doing bad and good things.
Animals come above the environment in my morals :)

[Bebee]

We buy free range eggs. A friend of my Dad's sells them cheaper than what any type of egg costs at the supermarket. I think the last time my Mum bought eggs from a supermarket was about ten years ago.

As for chicken, I don't think we get the free range or organic stuff. As far as I can remember, there aren't many Halaal butcheries that sell them.

[Erki]

I am against animal torture, but the bottom line is, these animals, chicken and cows, are domesticated as food long ago, so that we can build civilization and not be nomads.

Don't Mongolian(or someplace) nomads have some animals too? I recall seeing a TV programme and there they were with goats or some other animals. Of course it would be rather complicated to carry chickens and rabbits with you though.


These specific breeds most likely would extinct if we didn't domesticate them. If all were to be an overbearing animal lovers than we would not produce enough for the such a large consuming mass today.

I didn't quite understand you here now. Free range animals are still domesticated, they're just freely roaming around, instead of being in those cages pictured in the first post. Consuming less is one solution too of course.


Funny thing is with rallying, the guys runs over animals all the time, if you watch the ITV4 WRC Crash special. Haha, I wonder what animal lovers think about that.

All the time? :confused: I can only remember some Kangaroos getting ran over in Oz a couple of years ago and Seb hitting a cow. Roadkill by usual traffic is huge compared to those animals killed by rally/racing cars.

[jim mcglinchey]

We've started buying nice heavy cast iron Le Creuset pots. Yes they're expensive! But they'll last for aaaaaaaaages,
. Good value for money I say!

About 15 years of week in-week out use and the oval casserole dish is about done, it does roast a chicken lovely. ( kisses bunched finger tips)

[stevie_gerrard]

ive never really taken notice of what ive been buying in the past. Now since watching the programmes, im making more of an effort to eat organic and free range stuff. Having had it before, it does taste a lot better :)

[nicemms]

All our meat comes from a local butcher and I have to say it tastes alot nicer than meat from Sainsburys.

[schmenke]

There is insufficient "free range" on the planet to feed 6 billion people :mark:

[veeten]

23rd Jan 08 14:30schmenkeThere is insufficient "free range" on the planet to feed 6 billion people :mark:

and that is the crux of the matter...

While folks like to wax romantic about 'free range' animal husbandry, the main problem is in the question of land use and costs involved, with taxes and sanitation concerns being high on the list.

But don't worry, I'm sure that those will be done as with all business costs - pass them on to the customer! :s

One also has to remember that there is sufficient competition for land use, highest on the list is for residential development followed by industrial use. Agriculture may find itself in quite a bind, especially when those self-same followers run afowl (pun not intended) with the same ecological rules that they crafted long ago.

talk about hoisted upon one's own petard... :dozey:

[Erki]

But don't worry, I'm sure that those will be done as with all business costs - pass them on to the customer! :s

Who else then? It's after all the customer who wants that chicken.

[Captain VXR]

There is insufficient "free range" on the planet to feed 6 billion people :mark:


23rd Jan 08 14:30schmenkeThere is insufficient "free range" on the planet to feed 6 billion people :mark:

and that is the crux of the matter...

While folks like to wax romantic about 'free range' animal husbandry, the main problem is in the question of land use and costs involved, with taxes and sanitation concerns being high on the list.

But don't worry, I'm sure that those will be done as with all business costs - pass them on to the customer! :s

One also has to remember that there is sufficient competition for land use, highest on the list is for residential development followed by industrial use. Agriculture may find itself in quite a bind, especially when those self-same followers run afowl (pun not intended) with the same ecological rules that they crafted long ago.

talk about hoisted upon one's own petard... :dozey:

There sure is enough - are we sending chicken to Africa etc

[slinkster]

We've only ever bought free range eggs... it's in the meat area that I start to understand people's complaints about being on a budget. It doesn't sound much when you break it down no, but for some people every penny counts.

After seeing these programs we're trying to be more vigilant about checking what we're buying.

[Dave B]

deleted, I can't read or write today :p ;)

[rah]

There is insufficient "free range" on the planet to feed 6 billion people :mark:

Sure there is. There always has been. Its all about efficient land use and reduction of waste.

[leopard]

Factory farming, usually but not always, has high productivity than free range, while free range farming strongly related to hobbies, utilizing free space in backyard, utilizing free time etc, instead of commercial value of the business. Although the bigger scale of free range will earn a lot of money.

We may say free range has lower productivity as it spent more space for the chickens roam in the farmyard. It needs more difficult maintenance such as when scheduling vaccine we have to catch the chicken while they are freely playing, and quite possible that they were medically not medicined.
Hence, factory farmed chickens and its egg has better hygienic standard than the free range, as long as they are cultured in healthy and proper sanitary environment.

We do free farming local chicken which has better characteristic on taste, despite of its low productivity such as the size is small, growing up slowly, etc. And for this characteristic we have to pay their product more expensive than those factory farmed.

[Drew]

There sure is enough - are we sending chicken to Africa etc

Send chickens to Africa? Ridiculous. Now instead of having to have them delivered by truck from a miles away they have to arrive on a plane from thousands of miles away. There's also a few problems with famine and that, in some places there's barely enough food for people, let alone a million chickens to run around. That is if they're not killed by snakes, lions and the like.

Get real!

[Daniel]

Lions don't attack chickens :p

[Drew]

Lions don't attack chickens :p

If they're hungry enough they will

:p :

[leopard]

Leo eat chickens without having to attack them :)

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Send chickens to Africa? Ridiculous. Now instead of having to have them delivered by truck from a miles away they have to arrive on a plane from thousands of miles away. There's also a few problems with famine and that, in some places there's barely enough food for people, let alone a million chickens to run around. That is if they're not killed by snakes, lions and the like.

Get real!

I think what Captain VXR was trying to say was that not every one on the planet has roast chicken, therefore there is enough free-range birds to go around.

[Captain VXR]

I think what Captain VXR was trying to say was that not every one on the planet has roast chicken, therefore there is enough free-range birds to go around.

yep was in a rush when i typed so wasn't very clear :)