It's Not Really About Chickens At All.
Jan. 12th, 2008 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloMore about chickens. And first off I feel I owe Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall an apology. The man is trying to do a good thing. I was unduly contemptuous and harsh.
I liked Jamie Oliver's show last night. He went over much of the same ground- but in the form of an illustrated lecture. He killed chickens on stage, he gassed chicks, he made fritters out of the horrible slurry known as MRM (mechanically recovered meat). He also went where H F-W hadn't been and looked at egg production. He didn't bully us, he showed us the process. And he gave some credit and sympathy to the farmers. They don't necessarily want to farm on this inhuman scale but they're not given much choice; the market demands it of them. A standard chicken sells for £2.50 - £3.00. And how much of that goes to the producer? 3p.
Unlike H F-P, Oliver was groping for a compromise solution. The RSPCA has drawn up guidelines and will award a badge to producers who honour them. The birds are still kept indoors but in less crowded conditions, with windows and fans and amenities like straw bales and perches and toys. It's not the rural idyll we'd all like to see but it's a big improvement - and it only adds £1.00 to the price of each bird. That's acceptable, isn't it?
Or is it? I don't really know. There are almost certainly people out there who can afford a chicken at £2.50 but not at £3.50. And do we really think it's ethical to press for animal welfare at the expense of human beings? Chickens are cheap because people are poor. That's what it's really all about. Ten years ago we elected a Labour government in the belief that they cared about this sort of thing- and what have they done? They've allowed the gap between rich and poor to widen. Fussing about animal cruelty is approaching the problem from the wrong end. Stamp out human poverty and the excuse for factory farming disappears.
I liked Jamie Oliver's show last night. He went over much of the same ground- but in the form of an illustrated lecture. He killed chickens on stage, he gassed chicks, he made fritters out of the horrible slurry known as MRM (mechanically recovered meat). He also went where H F-W hadn't been and looked at egg production. He didn't bully us, he showed us the process. And he gave some credit and sympathy to the farmers. They don't necessarily want to farm on this inhuman scale but they're not given much choice; the market demands it of them. A standard chicken sells for £2.50 - £3.00. And how much of that goes to the producer? 3p.
Unlike H F-P, Oliver was groping for a compromise solution. The RSPCA has drawn up guidelines and will award a badge to producers who honour them. The birds are still kept indoors but in less crowded conditions, with windows and fans and amenities like straw bales and perches and toys. It's not the rural idyll we'd all like to see but it's a big improvement - and it only adds £1.00 to the price of each bird. That's acceptable, isn't it?
Or is it? I don't really know. There are almost certainly people out there who can afford a chicken at £2.50 but not at £3.50. And do we really think it's ethical to press for animal welfare at the expense of human beings? Chickens are cheap because people are poor. That's what it's really all about. Ten years ago we elected a Labour government in the belief that they cared about this sort of thing- and what have they done? They've allowed the gap between rich and poor to widen. Fussing about animal cruelty is approaching the problem from the wrong end. Stamp out human poverty and the excuse for factory farming disappears.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 03:03 pm (UTC)As for cheap meats, one of the things I hate about supermarket shopping is the way their meat sections focus on the premium cuts - steak, cutlets, prime roasts. Chicken breasts. I'm a big fan of stews, which are far better made with cheaper cuts of meat, but unless one has access to a proper butcher (I do, but lots of people don't) they're increasingly difficult to find.
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Date: 2008-01-12 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 04:43 pm (UTC)Ailz is always saying we should buy cheap cuts and make stews etc.
I'm really rather fond of kidney- and that's amazingly cheap.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 05:11 pm (UTC)I used to have a 1950s copy of Mrs Beeton, and have cooked all of those things, particularly in my student days, when a household of four of us used to live on a kitty of £10 a week each, kept in a treacle tin on the kitchen mantlepiece (but we did live in a shoe box i t'middle of t'road).
On the Archers, that great bellwether of the farming industry, they are ploughing up set aside land because there is a shortage of cereal crops. Wouldn't it be great to get British farmland back into production, to farm well, and less intensively?
no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 06:29 pm (UTC)You're probably right.
We're constrained to eat fairly economically. I like my joints of lamb and pork- and I'd not willingly forgo them- but I'm also very happy to eat liver and steak and kidney and belly pork- when they're available.
My parents used to listen to the Archers. I found it exquisitely boring- and have hated it ever since. Obviously I'm missing out on an important source of information.
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Date: 2008-01-12 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-12 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-14 11:16 am (UTC)Sorry, Poliphilo, to take over your blog for a discussion of the Archers. I will stop now.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-14 02:56 pm (UTC)