Hugh's Chicken Run, etc.

I wonder why we don't eat mutton anymore.  It's meant to be quite tasty.  Give the poor lambs a chance to live a little....

Eh, they live, they die, we eat them.   

Thanks for the inside scoop, Mindy! 

I stayed out of it as long as I could.

It is not something I advertise.

Well, yes. Mindy, the farmer's daughter. Just imagine the jokes. 

Well, yes. Mindy, the farmer's daughter. Just imagine the jokes. 

Hee!

I figure that if I'm willing to eat meat, then I have to be willing to accept what happens to put that meat on the table.  Sure, I'd love for someone to come up with a way for animals to die peacefully and happily in their sleep in their prime, but until then...

Hee!

I figure that if I'm willing to eat meat, then I have to be willing to accept what happens to put that meat on the table. 

That's why I don't eat lamb. I don't eat veal. I could never get beyond those fluffy little faces that used to gambol along when I lived in Devon... 

I think Jamie's programme was great, and I am very pleased to have been able to watch it withough feeling guilt    However, it has made me think even more about the nasties we eat, and when the current batch of salad dressing etc has run out I shall be thinking VERY carefully about what I replace it with.  I am slowly coming round to the idea that if I can't make it myself I will go without.

Big up to Mr Hellmans and Mr Waitrose for appearing on the show.


Vicky

Did anyone read the article which had a comment from a farmer who actually did let Hugh in to his farm (in Sunday's Daily Mail, sorry its the only paper available at the gym)? He gave the cameras full access to the farm, but Hugh conveniently left all of that footage out of his doc.  I guess he was there filming for a few days.

Article also had a comment from Channel 4 about this, apparently at the time they claimed that 'no farmer would allow us to come in and record', no farmer had allowed them access.  It was after this filming that they were allowed into a farm--so that made the claim stand true.

I think its BS.  Selective reporting....

But I do support organic and free-range.

Well, if the statment was true at the time the programme was made, I don't see a problem.

They showed footage of the farm that Jamie was allowed into.  I don't think that the whole series put the famers in a particularly bad light - they were going for the supermarkets and the consumers, so I don't think farmers have anything to complain about.

Vicky

Well, if the statment was true at the time the programme was made, I don't see a problem.

They showed footage of the farm that Jamie was allowed into.  I don't think that the whole series put the famers in a particularly bad light - they were going for the supermarkets and the consumers, so I don't think farmers have anything to complain about.

Vicky

I agree, but they were allowed in to the farm during the making of the program, they just chose not to include that footage (maybe because Hugh didn't see anything wrong with what was going on, thus no need to 'uncover' anything).

I find it disturbing that chicken sales rose even after these shows were aired.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2241277,00.html

...but tesco profits are down!

 

I think Zoe SWilliam's article misses the point.  Jamies wasn't saying that we should all spend £25 on organic chickens, he made very clear at the end of the show that he doesn't think that is possible.  What he did say was that we should spend that extra one or two pounds on chickens which have been reared in the more spacious cages, which are far less cruel, and which is a more reasonable thing to demand of consumers.

I also think he is right to try to change consumer opinion rather than trying to get the law changed.  Before that programme, no one would have been aware of the issues, but now it is a talking point then any attempt to get the law changed will have greater public support.

Vicky

...but tesco profits are down!

 

I think Zoe SWilliam's article misses the point.  Jamies wasn't saying that we should all spend £25 on organic chickens, he made very clear at the end of the show that he doesn't think that is possible.  What he did say was that we should spend that extra one or two pounds on chickens which have been reared in the more spacious cages, which are far less cruel, and which is a more reasonable thing to demand of consumers.

I also think he is right to try to change consumer opinion rather than trying to get the law changed.  Before that programme, no one would have been aware of the issues, but now it is a talking point then any attempt to get the law changed will have greater public support.

Vicky

Absolutely.  And the author takes it for granted that we all knew prior to the broadcasts, the cruelty of intensive farming, and just didn't care.  I for one, certainly was not aware, and I definitely care.  I'm happy to spend the extra ££ and just not eat so much damned meat!!

Interestingly enough, our butcher - who I believe has always sold free-range poultry - has all of a sudden put up a window sign advertising 'free range poultry sold here'...the week/weekend after the program ran.

Interestingly enough, our butcher - who I believe has always sold free-range poultry - has all of a sudden put up a window sign advertising 'free range poultry sold here'...the week/weekend after the program ran.

When we did our big shop last Saturday (still early in the day), we got the last of the free-range eggs, and one of the last free-range chickens.

At Morrisons today (and for dinner tonight), I bought a 'Freedom Chicken' (production supervised by the RSPCA) - thinking this is a good thing.  In reading the RSPCA-approved sticker you peel up, it says the chickens are raised in 'well-managed indoor systems' (RSPCA-approved humane conditions -- room to run around, etc).  So strictly speaking, I guess this is not a free-range chicken?