The Soil Association has welcomed the campaigning efforts of celebrity chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver to improve the welfare standards of chicken production.
Chicken Out! is a new campaign to help consumers to understand the conditions in which most table birds are reared and to put pressure on the industry to raise its standards.
A shift towards more ‘free range’ production would be a positive step forward. However it is still some way behind the Soil Association’s organic poultry standards, which ensure truly free range birds and offer the highest standards of animal welfare as acknowledged by respected animal welfare groups such as Compassion in World Farming.
Joyce d’Silva, of Compassion in World Farming said, "Organic farming has the potential to offer the very highest standards of animal welfare. We believe the Soil Association’s welfare standards are leaders in the field."
Natural Choices, the website which provides news on ethical and eco friendly living in the United Kingdom, says "intensively farmed chickens reared for meat can be housed in flocks 30 – 40,000 strong. Even the RSPCA’s Freedom Food standards allow 16,000 egg-laying birds per house, and there is no limit on flock size for free-range meat birds."
"In contrast, Soil Association organic standards recommend flock sizes of 500 - with absolute maximum flock sizes of 1,000 for meat birds and 2,000 for egg birds allowed only with special permission and additional management measures in place."
