Hugh's Chicken Run - tonight, C4, 9pm

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

I think that's because they want people to think more about what is an acceptable age for an animal to be killed for food.

The first series dealt with pigs, cows and I think chickens

[kiery]

I never thought of that - If it does make people think and engage their brains then that's good.

[red]

unfortunately only too often the people that claim food is too expensive are buying ready prepared food.. potato waffles, oven chips, shake out of a cardboard box onto the oven tray, tinned veg.
I do understand the elderly or disabled using this items.. it becomes clear to me that my own (disabled) son might do better with these items..

but for so many its all the wrong priorities.

[citizentwiglet]

Really good point, Red. What we need, though, is for the ready-meal / convenience market to look at the issue of farming methods too - in my opinion, Greggs (and other bakers) should be offering Free Range Chicken pasties and pies; ready-meals should be readily available in free range varieties too to allow people the freedom of choice.


The 60% uptake on Free Range in Axminster was slightly skewed sales data too, as they merely concentrated on the number of WHOLE chickens sold (HFW did acknowledge this himself). I would have liked to have seen a study focusing on ALL fresh chicken products, including that manky stuff coated in breadcrumbs/batter. Did people buy these instead of having to deal with a gurning HFW frantically grabbing their chicken out of your trolley?

And did consumers rush back to T***o to buy up the standard chicken that was reduced further due to not selling, and stock up their freezers?

I really hope they do a follow-up programme on this. It will be good to see what happens over the next few months. Looking at it, it must have been filmed last summer, so I'd love to see what is happening now and whether people have slipped back into old habits or have embraced the free-range ethos.

[Helsbells]

With regard to whether or not HFW programmes and the like will have an effect or not...We went to our local farm shop the other day to find they had no chicken at all, and the man behind the counter said it was because of the programmes, but that it will die down!

[QuakerBear]

Had a look at the chickens in the supermarket this weekend. The frozen ones are cheeper then the fresh ones. I wonder if there's a market for frozen free range, it might appeal to those on a low budget but who still want to buy the best.

[ina]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/farmingtoday/


"Sales of standard, intensive supermarket chickens appear to have increased following the campaign led by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to get people to buy free range poultry instead. Two weeks ago the chef aimed to persuade shoppers that intensively reared chicken meat damages animal welfare. T***o says directly after the programmes on Channel 4 aired, sales of standard chickens increased by 7% and free range by 3%. Sainsbury's free-range sales have gone up by 50% but sales of its "Sainsbury's basics" label chicken have also risen. "

[Thurston Garden]

To Annpan, Ive been recording it to DVD for a friend, I will try to transfer it to another DVD for you. I cant promise anything but I'll give it a go.

Kev, did you manage to do the DVD? I have no telly either and would love to watch this, so perhaps could borrow it from Annpan and then return it/pass it on?

People often get mixed up with battery hens which lay eggs, and broiler hens for meat, although the welfare standards for both are appalling. I was interested to notice when in AS*D on Sat that they had very few broiler chicken - don't think they had run out due to increased demand as the shelf space usually allocated to them had been drastically reduced, but sadly not allocated to free range or organic birds but, wait for it.... chicken products, ready made wings, portions etc! Of course, these are not made from the intensively produced birds they now appear to have more difficulty in selling!