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Chicken out?

If you haven't yet come across the intensive versus free-range chicken debate, you're about to get an education.

Britian's number one eco foodie, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is on a mission to educate the UK public about the chicken they consume.

Fearnley-Whittingstall established his 'ethical-eating' platform with his River Cottage cooking series on Channel 4 for which he had to produce all the ingredients himself on his nearby farm. He also focused on rearing and slaughtering of turkeys, pigs and lambs.

Now Fearnley-Whittingstall is tackling the commercial chicken farm industry and is trying to wean the UK public off cheap intensive farmed chickens through his "Chicken Out!" campaign. The campaign aims to encourage the UK public to start thinking about where their food comes from and ultimately eating free-range instead of intensively farmed chicken.

According to an article published in The Independent, 95% of the chicken eaten in the UK has been intensively farmed as UK farmers are under enormous pressure to produce poultry as quickly and cheaply as possible. Broiler farms conditions are not optimal or humane for that matter. Chickens are raised in a highly controlled environment with limited space, often living in total darkness for up to 40 days, subjected to rough handling, crowded transport and stunning tactics to render the birds unconscious.

Stressing his point even more, Fearnley-Whittingstall along with celeb chefs, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, ran three episodes in Channel 4's Big Food Fight called Hugh's Chicken Run where he created three chicken farms; intensive, commercial and free range to fully demonstrate his argument.

He built an intensive farm, and crammed as many chickens in a 17 per square-metre cage and starved them of natural daylight. He compared that farming method to the free-range alternative where he slightly reduced the number of chickens and altered the environment which improved the conditions and ultimately the taste of the chicken.

For more information on this topic and Fearnley-Whittingstall buy, The River Cottage MEAT Book.

What do you think – should we start investigating SA broiler farms as well?

CHICKEN FARMS and more It is essential that the lies about farming conditions are exposed - see the latest Farmer Brown TV advert as an example. We needn't create the conditions, they already exist. The public has turned their backs on the horrors of animal farming for too long, while doting on their pet birds and animals who they would never consider treating in such an appalling manner. YES we should be investigating and changing the manner in which food animals are living (if one can call it that) and dying. For many reasons, not just the taste! - toni brockhoven   Factory Farmed Chickens Yes of course we should investigate SA broiler farms & egg producing farms & I believe people have tried, its a very, very cruel industry! Gone are the days when chickens were allowed to have dust baths & enjoy the sun on the farm. Anyone with a little compassion would not support them! - Ingrid   The myth of free range Sadly, Hugh has been misled by the burgeoning 'free range' and 'organic' meat industries to believe that Free Range actually means what the PR wing of these industries implies it does. The truth is that 'Free Range' birds are still debeaked with a hot iron, force molted, transported in inhumane conditions, etc. And, sadly, the industry is largely self-regulated, with actual legislation being ambiguous, flimsy and token. Finally, from an ethical perspective there is absolutely no difference between Free Range and battery chicken production. Clearly Hugh has never looked up the word 'ethical' in a dictionary. - Aragorn23   solve the debate The easiest and most effective way to stop the suffering and terrible lives and painful traumatic deaths of chickens, baby cows, lambs and piglets along with their parents is to stop eating them. Free range chickens also suffer and useless males (non laying) are discarded like trash, often ground (live) for animal food and fertiliser. The fact that humans want more and more for less and less has turned living, feeling, thinking, emotional beings into a slab of something to be dunked in batter and fried, or put between two halves of a bread roll. It is ironic that we celebrate so many rituals of peace, love and spiritual growth with the corpses of the innocent. - vivacious vegan   Chicken debate Definitely investigate the way chickens are reared, I certainly only buy free range, would never buy a chicken crammed in confined space and literally force fed! Why would any decent human support that, certainly not worth the saving! - Kerstin   chickens If I earned as much as Jamie Oliver I would also eat free range, organic and eco-friendly chickens. - Solly Almeleh   Chicken debate Its all very well insisting on buying properly reared chickens but what about poor people who simply cannot afford this? - Solvej   Chicken out Vivacious Vegan is dead right. Stop the cruelty perpetrated by the entire livestock industry, contribute to reduction in greenhouse gases and improve your own health, just by avoiding meat, chicken and fish and their by-products. - John   Free Range/Broiler - Chickens So, if Aragorn23's comments re Free Range conditions are correct - let one and all chicken farmers be investigated - Free Range that's not cruelty free is tantamount to misleading the public - just another marketing ploy?? - Vanessa Hurlimann   Chicken Licken All advertising is misleading from chickens to to motor vehicles etc. Vanessa Hurlimann is right a proper inspection of chicken to be instituted against chicken farmers with respect to the rearing of Free Range chickens. The public has a right to know after we are the consumers and want to know that we are buying what the label says. - Don   The grand chicken debate As animals at the top of the food chain we eat meat. I suppose that if we were all vegetarians and vegans this would not be an issue, but as we are not, we unfortunately have to make do with what we have. The majority of commercial farming is not what this article is making it out to be. If we want to feed the nation, at an affordable price, we need commercial farming. - mark   Free Range Chicken Yes, S.African Chicken Farms should be constantly investigated to find out how the chickens are being reared. I certainly would only buy free range chicken if it were not so expensive! Hopefully this mode of rearing will be made more accessible to chicken lovers in the very near future. - Cristina Brady   Our Choices Make a Difference Yes, I do believe factory farming as a whole should be exposed and abolished. Even for those of us who eat meat (some more than others!), we can choose to eat meat, chicken and fish that has been produced in a humane and environmentally-sound way. You don't have to be a vegetarian to make a difference. I've done a lot of research into factory farming recently and, if we all took the trouble to find out a bit more about this practice, the free range and organic choice would be a natural one for any decent, compassionate human being. - Lee Cahill       Name Email Subject Comment