I just watched a Jamie Oliver Special "Jamie's Fowl Dinners.

It's about the raising of chickens, the production of eggs and the kindness to the bird.
Have you guys seen this, if so, did it change your minds as to your next purchase?

We had this a while ago over here plus a series called Chicken Run by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

It did make me change my mind about the chicken I buy.

Yes it did change how I feel and what I buy. I buy different eggs now too. That said if Stuart was to be out of contract for a while and pennies were stretched I would have to buy differently but only if I had to.

Yes definately, especially after seeing the fat content of the "cheap" supermarket chickens compared to organic/free range chickens.

I don't watch these,as wrong as i may be,at certain times ignorance is bliss. I do not ever want any animal to suffer to feed me yet i know deep down they do,if i knew everything about the food we eat i would probably not ever eat anything i haven't grown in my own garden.I really don't mean to sound heartless,i'm just trying to be realistic

For the last couple of years, I have tried to stick to Organic or Free Range Chicken. Even though it is so much dearer, I would rather have a little quality chicken rather than a large cheap one. I understand though how difficult it must be for those people on low incomes and who have children.

Having said that, I do like eating out and take-aways and I am sure in these cases it is often cheap, nasty chicken that is used.

Apprently some of the cheap chicken around is more fatty than a MacDonalds!

I've gotta say, i dont really have much opinion on this either way.
But to me they are food, same as a potato or a carrot is. Their fate is all the same. Are farmers goig to start treating their crops differently too?! watering them with volvic and singing to them?!

i know there are other implications of cheap meat when it gets to us, being slightly lower quality. But we have been in the dark over it this long. Ive gotta say, a chicken is chicken, it could have been fed on caviar and champagne and i wouldnt tell the difference. how many of us eat in pubs? i bet they dont use expensive chickens do they? i bet in alot of places we would eat, fast food places and other food outlets, they prob use these chickens too. How would we know?!?!

im sure theres people in the world living in worse condition than the cheap reared chicken to be honest. but we dont see jamie oliver making a program on that do we?!

It made us change what meat we buy definately!!! We only buy organic and or free range, we buy locally all the time!
Food or not, animals do not deserve to live like some of the animals highlighted on those shows!

I ticked the top one, but to be honest its not so much a change for me as I've always attempted to buy local ethically sourced meat from farms we know.

It tastes so much better, and to be honest is often cheaper as we ask the farm butcher to do us a frreezer pack and we get quite a good price that way.

The two 'people' who clicked on "who cares.... it's just a chicken" should be ashamed of themselves. What an uncaring, selfish attitude to take about another of God's creatures!

Just because an animal is being reared for food doesn't give us the right to treat it inhumanely during it's lifetime.

I had already bought free range eggs for years when I saw Hugh & Jamie's programmes, but I was shocked at the conditions that the broiler birds were kept in and since then I have only ever eaten free range chicken, over here it costs me 17.00 Euro (about £13.50) for a large free range organic chicken from the farm shop and I easily get 5 meals for the two of us from that. As for eating out - I used to love KFC but won't go near it now, I won't have any chicken dishes from the Indian or Chinese take away, I won't eat any dishes that contain chicken, duck or turkey unless they are guaranteed free range. At least my conscience is clear when I'm eating meat.

I've actually gone a step further and now have four chickens of my own in my back garden, I can't wait until they start laying lovely fresh eggs for me.


For those who are interested in the welfare of the animals that they eat and were unaware of the 'life' those poor broiler chickens lead, you should also look into the factory farming of pigs - it's a disgrace, and while it's unpleasant to know about these things, I'd much rather know and make a conscious decision about the type of meat I am eating (I now only eat organic free range pork) than eat in ignorance of the suffering these animals have gone through at the hands of so called 'human beings'.

well im pretty sure any other carniverous animal wanting to eat meat wouldnt care where it came from...

I found it really upsetting to watch when it was on over here and I recorded it and made my hubby sit down and watch and too!

We now only buy free range eggs and chickens that have been reared in open barns instead of caged hens. I think that the more the public become aware of some of the ways in which animals are kept the more the producers will have to make changes and make their practices more acceptable.

However, the way the country's finances are going who knows if we will be able to afford to have the luxury of choice, we may all just be glad of anything we can get!!