UK chef determined not to Chicken Out
Jamie Oliver, who recently obtained a UK slaughterman’s license, recently killed a chicken in front of millions of viewers. The goal: to awaken British consumers to the high costs of cheap chicken.
“A chicken is a living thing, an animal with a life cycle, and we shouldn’t expect it will cost less than a pint of beer in a pub,†he said, adding that it only costs a little more to give a chicken a natural life and a reasonably pleasant death.
Oliver said that he wanted people to confront the reality that eating any kind of meat involves killing an animal, even if it is done with a minimum of pain.
Following the broadcast, Oliver was both praised and attacked by animal rights groups for the killing that took place on stage. “It’s nothing that doesn’t happen millions of times a day,†he said.
Some agricultural ethicists believe that if animals could lead comfortable lives and die completely free of fear and pain, raising and killing them would not pose an ethical problem.
Poultry farmer squeezed by price wars
Oliver made many aware of the price wars that have squeezed the profit margin of the modern poultry farmer to about 6 cents a bird, and according to the chef, the reason that the birds live a “miserable life” is because supermarket shoppers insist on cheap food.
“People in the UK really do care about animals, but we are also used to an incredibly low food cost,†said Fuchsia Dunlop, a British writer. “…there is new momentum toward the idea that we should at least see how the food gets to us, and then we can make up our own minds.â€
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