Chicken sicken

I'm sitting here watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall begin the televised leg of Chicken Out his campaign against intensive chicken farming. Now I'm a fan of Hugh; his Meat book was some kind of epiphany for me and I've been as free-range and as organic as I can reasonably manage ever since I read it. Especially when buying chicken. I'm happy that this has made a modest contribution to the lives of a few birds, and I've also eaten better as a result.

I've also seen Hugh in action before, evangelising and shocking townies into changing their buying habits. All too often he falls at the price hurdle but there have been one or two memorable and moving success stories along the way.

So I thought I knew what to expect.

But then he threw a curve ball by responding to the negative reaction from the intensive chicken farming establishment to his requests to film a real working farm by opting to set up his own. In an admittedly dramatic gesture, someone as committed as he his to the ethical and responsible husbandry and welfare of livestock had decided that he was prepared to raise four thousand chickens under precisely the conditions he wants to phase out. Maybe, he argues, that's the level of investment and sacrifice required to change the two-for-a-fiver mentality that dominates the attitude of the chicken buying public. I'm afraid he may be right.

From the clips they showed at the start this looks set to be powerful, brave and quite possibly important television.

Comments

[Douglas]

Is it just me, or are other members of the public worn thin by this kind of issue television driven by magpie commissioning editors at Horseferry Road? For those who would rather not inject money into tier two of the multi-channel universe, isn't it rather depressing to find crime, suffering and really bad news in general spun across the telecasted board every evening? Can there be such a things as a quiet revolution? People forget, charm, or oxymoronically, 'a charm offensive' is a powerful means of acheiving something...

[maria verivaki]

I'm not sure if free-range chicken is always the answer. In Crete, we usually buy free-range hens, but cooking them in the traditional way is a hassle: they require copious amounts of boiling for pilafi - http://organicallycooked.blogspot.com/2007/08/pilafi-chicken-and-rice.html; we don't usually use them for roasting, because they take ages -
http://organicallycooked.blogspot.com/2008/01/roast-chicken.html. If this is not enough, they are far more expensive than non-free-range. Although I agree about not buying turkey for Christmas, I think it's for different reasons.