Are all chickens created equally?
River Cottage Treatment
I recently watched a television programme hosted by chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It was called River Cottage Treatment. Now, I had never seen the show before, but it caught my eye.
Anyway, this particular episode had a group of 5 people brought in to stay with Hugh at his River Cottage for a week. They were specifically looking at battery farm chickens versus free range and organic chickens.
The point of the whole week was to help the 5 visitors see exactly what the different kind of farms were like, compare prices of buying the different kind of chickens, compare the flavor of fresh cooking versus the flavor of microwave meals, and even witness a chicken being killed. I think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s hope was that he could change each person’s mind to be more aware of the humane treatment of animals and make better decisions when buying food.
It was absolutely fascinating to me (although disturbing at times too.) Just being able to see what the different kinds of farms looked like was enough to keep my attention.
Battery farmed chickens
I’m sure most people have heard that battery farmed chickens do not live good lives, but have you ever actually seen what the farms look like? Well, the one viewed during River Cottage Treatment had 40,000+ chickens in it. The structure they were kept in was not enough space for the chickens to move very much. They don’t get to go outside. Many of them looked injured, overweight, and deformed. It was devastating to see. These chickens were forced to grow to a “sellable” size in half the time of other chickens.
The men running the farm talked about how they have to grow the chickens as quickly as possible in order to make profits. They said if they get 3p per chicken, they are happy with that. Yes, 3p per chicken. Can you believe that? And what do the supermarkets charge for them? Maybe £1 per chicken breast on average. Of course the farmers have to squeeze those chickens out as fast as they can – even with 40,000 chickens, that is only £1,200 of income for the farmers. And that is without taking out overhead costs. Pretty crazy.
But, is that an excuse to treat chickens like that? Is that humane? I don’t think so.
Don’t Forget about the Chickens
This was quite a wake up call that made me think about what I’m eating even more than before. It is easy to forget (for meat eaters anyway) that what you are eating was a living creature at one point. But, don’t forget it! It is so important to remember that and if you’ve got children, teach them where their food is coming from.
One of the women on the show really stood out. I don’t remember her name but she took the longest of the 5 people to make a change in her way of thinking. She really stood by her original attitude that the cheaper she could get things, the better. She said that she couldn’t afford to feed her family if she bought organic. But, it actually came out at one point in the show that she DID buy organic duck. Why was that? Because ducks are cute!!! Okay, so she thought it was more important to buy well treated ducks because they are cute, but it was okay to support battery chickens because they aren’t very cute.
I’m pleased to say her mind was changed by the end of the week, but it took her watching a chicken be killed at River Cottage to finally show some kind of emotion for chickens.
So, what can we all do? Be mindful of where your food products come from. Yes, organic products are more expensive, but surely there are one or two things in your budget you could change to accommodate this. Think of the chickens (or any other animal or animal product you choose to consume.) It isn’t fair for animals to live such a terrible life, even if it’s just for a few weeks. And buying organic, or even free-range, will help your family avoid ingesting antibiotics that may have been used when farming the animals.
To your health
Kimberly
