The 'Jamie Oliver effect' on free range eggs
Posted by DavidM in Buying green | 13 March 2008
I decided some months ago that while I like chicken, I don't agree with the way animals are kept and reared on battery farms. As a civilisation we have a bizarre concept that killing animals must be as quick and painless as possible, yet their lives can be unnatural and utterly miserable.
So I only want to eat free range chicken and eggs. As they are generally more expensive than battery farmed birds I'd happily eat less chicken to balance the cost.
My wife has been asking our fruit and vegetable delivery chap about supplying free range eggs and this week he made an interesting comment.
Since the Jamie Oliver program on Channel 4 about the horrors of battery farming the demand for free range eggs has shot up. Actually there were also a program by Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall as part of the series, but it's the Jamie program that had the biggest impact.
This has pushed the price of free-range up. In the short-term, this is a pain as it makes eggs and chickens more expensive. However, in the longer-term it will be great news. Higher prices mean margins on free-range will improve, making it more attractive for farmers to move from battery to free-range farming. As supply increases, prices will stabilise but at a higher volume than currently.
As a society that fusses so much over it's domestic animals and relishes an opportunity to complain about the Spainish treatment of donkeys or poor zoo animals in Asian countries, it's always perplexed me how we turn a blind eye to the appalling way our poultry is farmed.
Well done Jamie and Hugh.
