I don't buy the offer chicken they were showing from Tesco etc and always thought I got a decent one from Waitrose however after this programme I will try free range to see what it's like. I think people shouldn't expect cheap meat if the chickens have to live in those sheds. What did strike me was how happy the free range ones looked and if you visited that farm you would say automatically I'll have one of those.

I wonder how much the supermarkets actually pay for each chicken, it must be about 60p to sell them so cheap and for the suppliers to cull the underweight ones - obviously the feed costs more than the sale price.

What really gets me about supermarkets is when you see offers, buy one get one free etc, they don't pick up the tab with all their profits - it's passed down to the supplier to cover most if not all of it (I understand anyway from a previous programme)

I was eating chicken, whilst watching the program. Didnt bother me at all.

Most of things that were shown are things that I knew were going on. Its the way things are going in todays profit oriented business.

The issue that bothers me are the "sweat shops" in asia. The fact that sports stars wear clothing like adidas, nike etc and get paid millions (for advertising), whilst some kid in asia is making their clothing for a few pence a day is more outrageous.

Then you get idiots like Beckham, who says he only wears trainers once, and then gives them away... what a complete ar*e

Hear, hear.

As ever with this country, animals are being put before human beings.

i couldnt give up chicken

I always like to buy free range chickens and eggs, and even more so now I will make sure I only buy free-range. I will probably avoid eating any meat (e.g. in ready meals, restaurants etc) unless I can be sure what kind of meat it is and where it's from.

I'm a student on a students' budget. However I would rather not buy chicken at all than have to buy intensively farmed ones. If I can't afford the free-range stuff then I just won't have chicken that week. There are plenty of other chocies . In my opinion it is a luxury to eat meat/chicken and I believe people should be more concerned about where it has come from and how well it has been treated. It is worth paying a couple of quid extra for the free range stuff. I would rather have chicken less often and have the free range ones, than have a lot of bad-quality, poorly treated cheap chicken a lot!

It really annoys me that the major supermarkets do not dedicate more shelf space to free-range chickens. I have been in Asda and even Tesco and not foudn any free-range chicken. It is that reason that I never shop in Asda and rarely in Tesco.

I would rather buy cheaper chicken and give money towards animals which are still alive ie RSPCA - chickens are dumb birds whatever.....and yes I KNOW they feel pain and might taste better but I can make bog standard chicken taste delicious

My mum has always bought free-range chicken and now, as an adult I continue to buy free range. For me, free range has always tasted better and when in the past I have eaten food from places like KFC where I know the meat is probably not free range, I can definitely tell the difference. I was appalled when watching the programme, even though I had a good inkling of what went on in the chicken farms and how the chickens were kept but I had no idea that they were forced to sit in their own poop all day and suffered ammonia burns because of it.

I think the arguement over buying cheaper meat because people are on budgets etc is unfortunate too. I think one place that the programme lacked is to show where in a food / household budget things could be changed to enable people to be able to buy free range chicken eg going to get vegetables from a green grocers etc.

I feel it's a shame that people don't feel that they 'deserve' to put something good into their bodies. If we eat meat, shouldn't we want to consume the best kind of meat? Why on earth would we want to put something into our bodies that isn't of best quality for us? It's not a case of saying that people should be healthier and eat expensive health food etc but that we as people should want to have the best quality from our food - it is, after all to provide us with nutrition... and that can only really happen with animals bred in good conditions

What an ignorant post.

Most people use or eat something they could give up in order to spend a couple more quid on a free range chicken. One good example of that was the lady in the Millway group who helped raise the free range chickens but was the only one who said she would still buy intensively farmed 'two for a fiver' chickens.

Who says they can't afford a free range chicken but eats sweets or biscuits, smokes or drinks etc?

Also for those mentioning Asian sweat shops, this is a completely different issue and you should start another thread on it in 'General Discussion' if you feel that strongly. Don'y hijack this thread for it!

I love eating chicken, no show would stop me, it doesn't bother me if the chicken was living in a shed or was flown in from Barbados where it had been sunning itself on a deckchair on the beach having a jolly old time.

might be ignorant but no will stop the producing of battery chickens - it's just something else to stir up debate and anger.........low income families cannot afford those expensive chickens (£14 for some in Waitrose)...very occasional chicken is the only meat Mr DQ & I eat - the rest of the family is totally vegetarian. We /I would never eat lambs, calfs, cows, pigs etc

So instead of eating sweets we should all be buying rip off free range chickens?

People must think these chickens are having a great time in their free range life until the farmer comes out with an axe.

I suppose those on low incomes and benefits should buy organic fruit and veg as well while they are at it.

How did low income families survive before cheap chickens became available? I find it laughable that some people seem to think that without cheap chicken they'd starve. If you have one chicken a week, spend a few quid more on it, use the whole thing and budget all your other meals effectively I am certain that the vast majority of people wouldn't notice the difference in price. I actually saw someone buying a cheap chicken and I happened to see their trolley had pre-cut vegetables in it! Pre-cut! It amazes me that people will pay to have such a simple thing done for them - they'll buy mashed potato - yet they won't buy a better treated, and better tasting chicken.

I have a low income (student budget) but I make the choice to buy free-range chicken, and also buy organic fruit/veg etc sometimes. I don't smoke, and rarely drink - I suppose it is the money I save here which makes me feel more comfortable to buy free range etc.

'different strokes for different folks'

People buy organic and free range because companies market them to appeal to certain demographics, not because they are any better for you.

What has buying organic fruit and vegetables to do with the suffering of living creatures?

Maybe you should be made to sit in your own jimmy riddle for a few weeks and see what it's like to get amonia burns.

lettuces feel pain too

What right have you got to tell people how to spend their money?

Don't buy sweets, biscuits or fags, spend every penny you have on free range chickens that by law are a ball hair away from being battery hens.

Just because you buy free range doesn't mean they live the life you have picture in your mind.

Can I just ask, without causing an arguement or insulting anyone, why you think free range chickens are a rip off? What makes them a rip off?

I don't think people are saying free-range chickens are having a wonderful time but to be able to go outside, walk around etc isn't that just a right that each animal should have?

There was a show on that had free range chickens who were classified that because they had access to a hole to get outside. The dominant chickens guarded this and wouldn't let the majority outside.

I've bought an overpriced free range organic turkey before and there was no taste difference, people buy it to appease their own conscience and because they have been marketed to.

As for bring a vegan or veggie, I'm not into the whole gaunt, fingernails falling out look.

It was merely a suggestion that MOST people could give something up in order to alleviate a creature's suffering.

The lady from Millway who said she wouldn't was definitely (as Billy Connolly would say) 'No stranger to a fish supper' in other words she was large, in other words she over indulged in something, be that chocolate or whatever, in other words she could cut down on something and pay a bit more for her chickens. Most people could but just don't want to.

By the way, you don't have to buy them from a shop - buy them from a farm shop where you can usually see them running about and having the life that you don't want to admit they have. I aslo always buy free range eggs from a freeholding fairly near where I live. I can see the hens running about outside and know they have a decent life. Oh and they are also cheaper than at the supermarket but there again, people generally don't want to put themselves out to go to such a place either.

You do what you want Mr Riddle and convince yourself that no animal suffered for the next chicken dinner you eat.

I cant afford free range.

Actually I cant afford non free range either. A whole bird is too much for two of us, so I just get tiny packs of "mini-fillets", which, @£2 are quite dear enough thanks

I see, but then isn't watching one programme showing the negatives of 'free range' and using it against a programme / person trying to promote the use of free range just as bad as someone who has only watched what they saw over the last couple of nights and assuming that all free range birds would live the exact same life that those at Hugh's farm did.

I, myself feel that free range do have a better life but I'm no fool and I'm completely willing to believe that there are farms who say they are free range yet probably don't play by the rules but at the same time, there are plenty of free range farms who have standards which are the same as what we saw in Hugh's programme.

I think it's important to see both sides of the story. And as for vegetarians / vegans looking gaunt and unhealthy looking, I think that is quite a negative stereotype, my best friend and her whole family are vegetarian and and don't look like that. That would be like saying all meat eaters are fat and smell bad because they eat a lot of protein...

Another cracker I overheard in Primark (I was there under duress) was 2 girls about 15 gabbing on about how inhumane KFC treated their chickens after seeing some film on the news.

Then they both trot off to the cash desk with an arm full of cheap Chinese made fashion and one beautiful observation:

Girl one 'I wonder how they make these clothes do cheap?!'

Girl two 'Who cares!'

*Both girls giggle*

The juxtaposition of showing more concern for a chicken than the Chinese/Bangladeshi women that stitched her top for 5p an hour doing 80 hours a week was laughable.