In a revealing new programme, Jamie Oliver hosts a gala dinner to dramatically demonstrate the reality of how chickens live and die to put food on our plates.
Having taken on the state of school dinners, Jamie is turning ringmaster to tackle an issue that raises difficult questions about animal welfare and what consumers are prepared to pay for quality food.
Fifty years ago, chicken was a special treat we were lucky to have once a week. Now, thanks to modern farming methods, chicken has become an easily affordable everyday staple, with whole birds available for £2.50 – but farmers make just 3p per bird.
With the help of poultry farmers and experts including Bill Oddie and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie has brought together consumers, producers and retailers to discuss how chickens and eggs are produced and consumed in this country and whether things need to change.
Live in front of his guests Jamie uses demonstrations, films and interviews to highlight key aspects of chicken and egg production, including stocking densities, growth rates and how chicks and chickens are actually killed.
And Jamie will be revealing the difference in living conditions for 'standard' broiler and battery chickens, 'enriched cages', barn, free range and organic birds.
But will his guests still be hungry by the time he's finished?
Meat chickens
· Chicken is Britain's most popular meat
· We eat 12 times as much chicken as we did 30 yrs ago
· 855 million chickens are produced in the UK every year
· Supermarkets are selling whole birds for as little as £2 - pound for pound that's cheaper than some dog food
· Every day 100,000 birds die in standard chicken farms due to poor welfare conditions
Egg laying hens
· We eat over 10 billion eggs a year in the UK
· As well as being sold whole, eggs are present as an ingredient in a number of foods including mayonnaise, biscuits and even wine
· 86% of these eggs still come from battery caged hens who do not have the freedom to express natural behaviour i.e. dust bathe, forage, roost & nest