Hugh chicken interview | 4Food

Date Published:: 03/01/2008

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new series 'Hugh's Chicken Run' begins on 8 January on Channel 4. Hugh, a committed free-range enthusiast, investigates intensive chicken farming, and is driven to quite astonishing lengths to demonstrate what he strongly believes is the cruelty involved. Here, Hugh reveals how he’s beginning to win this battle.

Did you encounter a lot of hostility from poultry farmers?

Surprisingly not. There's a lot of common ground there. I talked to a number of them, mostly off the record, and they're keen to work in a less intensive industry, but they can't do it as long as the supermarkets and the fast food outlets are demanding such low prices from them. Given a choice, most farmers would prefer to de-intensify. They are aware that, over the years, they've been forced into a position where their public image is pretty poor. But part of the programme is about a dialogue with the supermarkets, and that's on-going.

Is the quality of meat you get from an intensive bird is considerably inferior?

Oh absolutely. Considerably. On several occasions during the series we offer people free-range chicken, sometimes for the first time, and they said categorically that they could taste the difference. And the group from Millwey, the local housing estate, who we got to raise their own chickens for the series on their allotment, said that the chickens they'd reared and seen slaughtered and cooked for themselves were the best they'd ever eaten.

Inevitably, there's a trade off for them, shopping on a budget. You do confront that issue, don't you?

Yeah, we do. It's not easy. It appals me that barely two or three per cent of all the chicken we eat in this country is free range. It should be 30 or 40 per cent, as it is in France. Many, many more people could afford to eat free range chicken. Of course, there are people on a very tight budget for whom that would be a real struggle. But at the same time, if the minimum welfare standards for indoor poultry were raised, those people could eat cheaper chicken with a clearer conscience.

You're also trying to turn Axminster into Britain's first entirely free-range town. What kind of response have you encountered there?

I have to say mixed. It was a real challenge. The campaign really stirred things up - it divided the town. We had a lot of very strong support and some very significant changes in the way the town shopped. But at the same time there was something of a backlash from people who didn't like to be made to feel guilty about the kind of food they were eating. That's one of the fascinations of the series, and one of the things that made this really tough for me. I was on my own doorstep in my own town, and not everyone was friendly or receptive. It all comes to a head in the final show, but I don't want to give too much away. It wasn't an easy ride all the way, I can tell you that.