I think the supermarkets know this & so don’t want to rock the boat & risk losing their vast endless profits. They have just about decimated the high street & local shops & are now moving onto competing with the Take Aways’s.

The average individual has missed this while watching Big Brother. Ironic really

I think in some ways it’s worse for the egg laying birds. Battery farmed laying chickens don’t get to move at all, and suffer such conditions for considerably longer, before heading off to be pulped into children’s school dinners…!

We’ve just done our first monthly shop after taking the decision to avoid all chicken products that were not advertised as free range. It’s hard - you try it folks! So many things that we used to buy are now off the menu. What’s more, we couldn’t even buy any chicken at all, because Asda in Taunton (one of the largest Asdas around) didn’t have a single free range bird on the shelves. I’ve noticed in Tesco too a complete lack of free range poultry. I’m hoping this is because they sell out of it quick and that it is not some dark scheme on the part of the supermarkets to offload their stock of battery farmed birds.

On a plus note, Asda had a great offer on 18 free range eggs - just £2. Bargain!

Anyway, from the comments here (which I greatly appreciate) and from the people I speak to, it would seem that Hugh and Jamie have done an excellent job educating the public. The British shopper is not normally an animal hater - people do respond to campaigns such as this, just look at the sales of veal for proof of that.

I very much enjoyed reading your post and indeed watching Hugh’s series. I have always bought free range eggs but never meat, simply because I, like countless others, have never really thought about the life of a chicken reared for meat.

I think the programme sheds light on the whole subject of poultry farming, from cost to consumer. I agree there should be a range of other free range products available at the supermarket, because let’s face it - who has time to make their own kievs?

I hope Hugh’s campaign and it’s followers can make a big difference to how people in this country see the meat they eat and also how the supermarkets price and display their wares in the future.

Lally.

Helen.

I totally support you, and since Thursday we have tried to purchase free range chickens from our local supermarkets and all were sold out. But looking at the shelf space allocated for free range chickens, they were only allocated with 1 row. Today (Sunday 13th Jan) we went again to buy a chicken and again none were available, (Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and also Sainsbury’s) there were however in Sainsbury’s 8 other people looking for Free Range Chickens and we all complained to the store Manager. Hopefully soon we will have more free range chickens in all stores.

Kindest Regards

Sarah from Hyde Cheshire

My comments on animal rights were made because I don’t want to be branded with that brigade. My experience of animal rights activists is that they are obsessed with the so-called “rights” of animals whilst at the same time being singularly unconcerned with the welfare of their fellow man. Extremism always breeds idiocy.

That’s why I like Hugh’s approach - even those that don’t eat meat can relate to what he’s doing. I hope everyone signs up to the Chicken Out campaign and forces a change in the poultry farming industry.