So ASDA is now selling a £2 chicken - and predictably they are flying off the shelves. The last time I saw a chicken at such a price it was in Netto (I was going through a bad financial patch) and I wasn't remotely tempted
Like cheap clothes from Primark, cheap chicken comes at a cost. In this case largely to the animals who are confined in vile sheds for the paltry six weeks of their lives, fattened up, pumped with antibiotics. And then killed.I would rather eat chicken once a week, and buy a free-range or organic bird, than fuel the coffers of the supermarkets and those who subject their animals to this most miserable of existences. Before anyone posts about me being a woolly liberal, I don't have a family to feed, so I accept I can afford to make that choice. I'm not a vegetarian, either, or unduly sentimental about animals.
But if people really thought about what happens to the meat they are eating then I believe more would eschew rock-bottom prices. Next time you tuck into a cut-proce bird, chew on this thought . According to pressure group Compassion In Farming:
"It is like putting a teenage body on an eight-yearold's skeleton - the bird's system simply cannot cope. A study showed that 26 per cent of British birds are lame at slaughter, and they are also prone to heart failure, sores and blisters." Still hungry?
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3 comments:
I'm happy to agree with you on this one with the proviso that I would not wish to ban the trade. I, too, have been on my financial beam end so I know how useful it is to be able to buy really cheap food. Nowadays, I can afford a few finer feelings but I still think about those who can't.
(Difficult to believe coming from a pre-historic, re-actionary, old monster, like me, but there you go, nothing's ever that simple!)
The Guadian run a decent feature on this the other week:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2141357,00.html
Never mind the chickens. Fuck the chickens. Worry about the tomatoes and those that pick them.
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