In Search Of A Free-Range Chicken
Why the cluck is it so hard to buy one?
Empty Shelves
I have failed at many things, including, most pathetically, at being a vegetarian. How hard could it be? I thought to myself smugly, planning to replace the chicken in all my usual recipes with tofu. I had been reading so much about the environmental damage caused by meat farming, that it seemed only right that I give it up. Only, it turns out that I wasn’t very good at making tofu taste good, I started to feel very tired and then I developed anaemia. All in all, a pretty unsuccessful experience.
I gave up on the vegetarianism, but vowed that I would at least cut down on meat, and, wherever possible, buy free range chicken - which does at least give the chicken a healthy life. Only now, finding free range chicken in the shops feels like an impossibility. When did it get so hard to buy a happy dead chicken?
Where Have All The Free Range Hens Gone?
Since the 1930s, chickens have been raised in battery cages lifted off the ground – partly to save space and reduce labour costs, and partly to reduce the spread of disease. But around the 1970s and 80s, as interest in animal welfare rose, there was a growing concern about how happy a hen could be when living its life locked up.
I’ve noticed that free-range is hard to find, but higher welfare seems more readily available – with all sorts of different stickers. So, I did a little digging to see what each label meant in terms of chicken living space:
No labelling – 18 birds per 1m2 (the size of a red phone box)
Red tractor – 17 birds per m2
Higher welfare – 14 per m2
Free range – 12 birds per m2 (when in a barn)
Organic – 9 birds per m2 (when in a barn)
In 2017, Compassion in World Farming joined forces with a coalition of NGOs across Europe to launch a unified ask to food companies that would significantly improve the lives of chickens: the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC). The Co-op, M&S, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, ALDI and Morrisons are the only supermarkets to currently ensure lower stocking densities (30 kg/m²), BUT Tesco and Sainsbury’s offer limited volumes of BCC-compliant products. Iceland is the only retailer to have no public position on the BCC criteria.
There is no obligation for supermarkets to stock higher welfare chicken, and even if they do, it is only part of their meat offering, and not exclusively sold. This means you can pick up a pack of cheap chicken in a hurry, without easily being able to tell how it has been reared.
M & S has been ahead of the game in terms of committing to better welfare standards, but as they rely on farmers sticking to their commitments, this can still lead to unhappy hens. The company had to suspend some of its chicken contracts after PETA published a video showing a barn used for rearing their ‘Higher Welfare Oakham Gold’ chicken that had no natural light, limited space for full grown hens and had dead chickens strewn around the building. Even when shops commit to a welfare standard, seeing it carried out is another matter.
Add to this complications surrounding avian flu – which means that even free-range hens are currently being compulsorily raised in barns, under national orders. Some environmentalists have argued that this chicken can’t be called free range given they’ve never been outside before they were slaughtered. Farmers disagree as the ban enforcement is not their choice but done to prevent disease spread. In this case, the label is an ethical conundrum as much as a physical one.
The thing is though, that although we like to think we care about chicken welfare, the worsening cost of living crisis makes it even more unaffordable to buy one.
In this brilliant Substack by Harry Wallop (which I’d highly recommend reading), he reveals that 3% of chickens eaten in the UK are free range and 1% are organic, BUT 72% of eggs are free range. The desire to buy free range is clearly there, but the budget isn’t – so free range organic chicken is often less readily available in the shops.
Cheap As Chickens:
Maybe the solution would simply be to make free range chicken cheaper – but actually, interventions to increase the productivity of chicken farming have caused other problems. Chickens can have a lifespan up to ten years in the wild, but it’s more productive for farmers to kill them as soon as they have reached their target weight – for barn reared birds this is often at 28 days. The science of chicken breeding means that back in the 1950s chickens were slaughtered at around 70 days – more than double their current lifespan.
Part of this science has been the result of selective breeding – the Ross 308 – which makes up 70% of chickens slaughtered in Europe is prone to many health issues: cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, poor immune system, poor walking ability, an inability to express natural behaviours and a high mortality rate. These chickens are also fed to put on weight as quickly and efficiently as possible, which can leave them unable to walk as their legs cannot cope with the weight gain. In some slaughterhouses, stunning birds before they are killed is incorrectly done, meaning the chickens are shackled upside down and slaughtered while they are still conscious. It is enough to make one turn vegan.
Other countries, such as America, allow for much more interventionist policies in food – for example by allowing chlorinated chicken. This is done to treat high levels of bacteria, which can be a symptom of poor hygiene and low animal welfare practices, many of which are not permitted in UK farming. Standards required by EU legislation reduce the risk and, therefore, eliminate the need to chemically rinse chicken before it is eaten. If we want even cheaper meat, we’d have to be happier to increase chemical treatments of it.
Furthermore, chickens kept closely together can quickly spread disease – there have been 1.78 million birds slaughtered since the first avian flu outbreak in November. It’s decimating farmers’ flocks, and leading many farmers to lose their jobs and sack their staff. So if you don’t care about the chickens, even from a purely economic perspective, unhealthy hens are still a huge problem.
In short, chicken farming efficiency has increased so much that it is in fact eroding our own standards for meat, and chicken health more generally.
The Past Is The Future:
Waitrose has just committed to raising its welfare standards across all its chicken products, ie not just roast chickens but those used in its pizzas and ready meals. It’s no surprise that it’s the fancier supermarket chains that can push welfare standards, as their consumers are most likely to be able to spend on it.
That said, I do think there is an argument for increasing prices across the board; we eat too much meat. Back in 16th century France, le bon roi Henry IV made himself popular by promising that every household should have a chicken in the pot on a Sunday. That was, for reference, one chicken per family per week. We’re consuming chicken at unsustainable levels as it has massively risen in popularity– potentially as we try to eat leaner meats, and red meats have been linked to cancer risks. It’s also popular across the board – no religious group is against the consumption of chicken, making it a great choice for restaurants or dinner parties.
But chicken, in a supply/demand situation, has not increased in price but decreased – the inflation on meat is nowhere near the same as that of other products in a cost of living crisis - if chicken prices had followed the same inflation trends as other food items, we’d be paying at least £11 for one. When you think about it, it is actually mad that you can buy a chicken cheaper than a London pint. A fairer price for meat would also massively help the British Farming Industry at a time when small family farms are struggling.
Usually, I would never make an argument that people should just foot a higher bill – because it’s unfair on those who can’t afford it. But in this case, eating less meat and more vegetables isn’t a bad thing for anyone– it’s healthier, better for the environment, and canned veggies can still be much cheaper than processed foods. We need to normalise meat as a luxury, and not a necessity.
We are in what is known – excuse the pun – as in a chicken and egg situation. Shops won’t supply higher welfare meat if they think consumers will refuse to buy it, but likewise it’s really very tricky to buy it when it is rarely available. It might hurt the purse strings once in a while to have more expensive meat, but we have been eroding animal welfare standards for decades. As a result are jeopardising the health of chickens, and increasing the chances of consuming diseased meat as a result. Accepting higher prices would mean fairer pay for famers, healthier meat, and happier hens – and that I could actually walk to Sainsbury’s and buy one for once.