Comments on: The week we talked chicken: Hugh’s Chicken Run and Jamie’s Fowl Dinners

By: Sophie

Sophie — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:37:31 +0000

Hi Sally – thanks for letting me know about that. I’ve been trying to find out if the killing of male chicks is standard practice on much smaller farms but it isn’t the kind of thing that is easy to find out about
Michelle – I haven’t read this book, sounds interesting. Personally I’m still all for people eating chicken, just not all the time and not with poor welfare standards

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:56:16 +0000

After reading John Robbins’ The Food Revolution I just can’t look at a piece of chicken the same way. It wasn’t hard to cut chicken out of my diet after that.

By: Sally Parrott Ashbrook

Sally Parrott Ashbrook — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 23:31:12 +0000

I live in Atlanta. I buy chicken from local (100 mi or so radius) farmers who use permaculture methods. They might eat the roosters, but I guarantee they don’t gas the baby male birds to death. That’s amazing that the mainstream media covered that issue at all, though–props to the Brits for that.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 19:32:49 +0000

Some of the press coverage suggests that chicken sales overall have gone up but within that free-range and organic have gone up substantially more.
Only anecdotal evidence but we have seen the same as you Wendy. Our local supermarket had run out of all free-range/organic just after the programmes (last weekend) and Nik made us a quorn pie instead of the planned chicken! This weekend there was definitely a much bigger dent in the free range shelf than there used to be (and lots of couples hanging round debating which to buy).
Fingers crossed!

By: Wendy

Wendy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:27:19 +0000

Kathryn mentioned that she’d read supermarkets were selling out of free-range chickens. Well, it’s true! I decided at the last minute today to have chicken for myself and my sister’s dinner. Butcher’s were closed so I went to all three supermarkets in Inverness and every single one was out of free range and organic chickens. There was a huge amount of battery chicken on the shelf though. Seems the programme has really made a difference, for the moment anyway.

By: Helen

Helen — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:46:08 +0000

I completely agree with you and I am totally supporting the campaign of course. It seems as if we have taken battery farming out of the spotlight in the past few years… I agree with Janet Street-Porter, if we treat meat as a special ingredient then we can all afford it. Chicken isn’t supposed to be cheap – it’s not real chicken!

By: kathryn

kathryn — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:12:50 +0000

Sophie, I read about these programmes on the NY Times website. I’m so interested and encouraged by their impact.
The NY Times mentioned supermarkets were selling out of free range chickens and eggs after Jamie’s broadcast. And now I’m delighted to read in your post that people are talking about it.
In general we know so little about the food we eat – where it came from and the conditions under which it was produced. The demand for cheap food seems to have overshadowed every other consideration – including taste, ethics and our farmers earning a fair wage.

By: Christina

Christina — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:49:17 +0000

What a great post, Sophie — and what a great program that must have been. I wish they’d show something similar here in the US. If people bother to watch.
Anyway, I recall some years ago when there was a similar discussion about cattle being transported all across Europe. They were stressed, exhausted and mistreated something terribly. I don’t mind a French cow or where ever it’s from — when I am in said country. It just makes no sense to me, both ethically and financially that we transport our food like this.
Same thing goes for the chicks. And why we, as humans, are so obsessed with cheap food is beyond me. How can we not question the reality in these prices?
Yes, I’ll go for organic chicks from here on.

By: sophie

sophie — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:36:13 +0000

Hi Wendy – it’s a shame you didn’t see the programmes, they were really good. They were upsetting but in a good way if you know what I mean – it was all done in a fairly matter of fact made it easier to bear watching. I know what you mean about you not being their target audience – happily it sounds like plenty of the unconverted were watching too!
Lucy – I’m really chuffed that you showed the post to your step-sons! Part of my theory in writing a bit about the programmes was that although they are all over the british media, the rest of the world might not get chance to see them. The big difference seems to have been made by getting high profile people like Jamie Oliver involved (and in a surprisingly hands on way). Maybe the trick will be to get Bill Granger or Donna Hay to do the same for Australian chickens!
Johanna – I’m squeamish too normally but I’m glad I made myself watch it in the end. I’m guessing that egg and poultry farming in Australia is much the same as here (i.e not at all like when you had your own at home) though I might be wrong.
Hopefully the programmes will reach Australia eventually but for now YouTube has a short video from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Vbf1ykXsY

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:08:09 +0000

I am with Lucy in hoping the show is shown in Australia – although I am a little squeamish about watching such things. I grew up with chickens in the backyard and always have this image of them when buying eggs which is probably a little naive – there is something very disturbing about our food production practices that is very hard to be aware of.