I have always had trouble justifying buying the more expensive free range or organic chicken until I read a recent newspaper article.

The questions I have been asking myself about cheap verses free range and organic are: Does it taste better? Am I going to absorb any growth hormones & antibiotics from the cheap meat? Is the free range & organic label correct? Chickens have small brains do they really notice bad conditions?

I have experimented on my friends with taste tests, comparing cheap supermarket chicken with a proper locally produced free range bird, on each occasion the cheap bird produced a great deal more fat when cooked and the meat looked dryer, but once all the roast trimmings were on the plate with gravy and bread sauce the difference was lost.

I have also seen documentaries showing how eggs can be labelled free range if the farmer leaves the shed door open. Apparently though, as the chickens have been grown in the dark as chicks they are afraid to go outside, so to me are not free range. Where do we buy good free range poultry?

A recent article featuring an interview with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has finally stopped me buying cheap chicken, not only from the supermarket but also in restaurants, and processed food, (not that I ever buy it any more). As a farmer I know that to compete with foreign imports producers have to cut corners, intensive chicken production however has gone too far and I quote Hugh;

Look at your supermarket chicken, See the dark mark on it’s leg? That’s where, while it sits crippled by genetic obesity and knee deep in faeces-soaked litter, the ammonia from the excrement has burned its own flesh. Yum-yum.

In chicken farming ‘casualty rates’ (animals dying along the way) of up to 30% are routine. That’s one in every three pegging out from disease, injury or suffocation. Suffocation? Yup. Among the abnormal behaviours of factory farmed chickens is something called a ’smother’, where they all rush suicidally together and the ones at the centre of the pile suffocate.

Sorry to put you off your Sunday lunch or chicken tikka mosala but these are the facts.

From now on my conscience will not allow me to buy a ’scorched legged’ chicken. Luckily I have a very good local farmer, John Franklin, (07771 927 547) where I can buy free range eggs and poultry. Chickens are ‘dry plucked’, (as opposed to boiling water blasted, in factory farms) and hung for 3 days to improve flavour. It is much more expensive but I am now happy to pay, I will spend less elsewhere or not eat meat as often.

If you want to find your local supplier check out your BigBarn local map or pick up an organic one at your local supermarket. And for more info on meat try Hugh’s The River Cottage Meat Book

Source: The Daily Telegraph Weekend section.

A great deal of work has taken place in Bradford helping schools source food locally. For the complete case study click here to see Food for Bradford Schools’ report.