It's Not Really About Chickens At All.

[poliphilo]

More 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.

Comments

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

I get confused over things like MRM. H F-W is always going on about respecting the animal, and that means using every available part of it. Surely, therefore, that includes MRM? Yet I have the impression he'd disavow it. I wondered about watching the programmes, but decided that day-after-day was too intensive viewing. I had some misgivings about his grasp of everyday people's finances after his previous mini-series. I think your observation about approaching the problem from the wrong end is apt.

On the other hand - or is it making the same point from yet another direction, I'm not sure - a few years ago I remember listening to either Farming Today or The Food Programme and hearing someone from The Soil Association asserting that organic food was a "premium" product and therefore justified a "premium" price. I think it was when Iceland made their abortive attempt to sell organic at the same price as non-organic produce. I don't doubt that organic does justify some extra cost because of reduced yields, but I rather suspect there is sometimes a rip-off element there as well. As someone commented in your previous post, organic doesn't require purchasing of all those expensive, patented fertilisers and pesticides, does it?

[frumiousb.livejournal.com]

Many of the pesticides used in non-factory farming allow for a much higher yield. Their use is (I assume) cost effective, or it wouldn't be used.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think the main argument against MRM is that it's the most disgusting muck. Jamie demonstrated how it's produced- by subjecting stripped carcases to very high pressure. The resulting slurry is made up of skin, marrow, gristle, allsorts.

I share your suspicion of organic produce. I rarely buy it myself. I think a lot of what you're paying for is its "snob" value.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhh, but organic produce tastes so much better - if it's truly organic. A tomato actually gasp tastes like a tomato, not a watered-down version of a tomato.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

My father-in-law grows his own tomatoes. Yes, they're good- much better than the average store-bought tomato.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

A better (and tastier) way to get the last bits of meat off a carcass is to boil it for stock. That tends to be the suggestion made by Jamie Oliver and his ilk, so they are addressing the 'everthing but the oink' approach.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the answer. And I'm afraid I don't do it. I suppose you can freeze stock?

[white_hart]

You can indeed. And it's far lower in salt than using a stock cube.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's something I should do. I'm just lazy. And maybe a little squeamish. Chicken carcasses are gross and the thought of having one steaming away on the back burner doesn't really do a lot for me...

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Apparantly so :-)

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought "it's really the same stuff as stock" after I made my comment.