Comment

Poultry is continuing to dominate the agricultural news. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall with his "Chicken Out" campaign has brought a flurry of related articles about the welfare of broiler birds, with revelations about how intensive meat birds are reared, coming thick and fast. On the other side, the poultry industry has hit back saying that there is confusion between the way caged egg-laying hens are kept and conditions for meat birds.

Also, while Hugh's programmes showing him running an indoor meat bird unit were running on Channel 4, news programmes on all channels were announcing that the 1999 EU Laying Hens Directive which bans battery cages from 2012, will be implemented. However, farmers in many EU countries - including Britain - had been pressing for the ban to be postponed. Their hopes have now been dashed by the recent Commission report which concludes that the ban should come into force as scheduled in 2012.

I watched all Hugh's programmes and was a little disappointed by the first (especially the shots of Hugh chasing free-range layers in broad daylight, something that also happened in the first River Cottage series - come on Hugh, you catch poultry in the dusk when they have gone to bed and you don't chase layers).

But the second programme gripped me with its honesty and the sheer hard work and tenacity that Hugh showed in the face of some very strong opposition coupled with some equally strong apathy, a depressing combination for anyone to have to face. I could also empathise with Hugh's continuing disgust, almost bewilderment, at how his indoor meat poultry were living and that they were just a small percentage of the total national flock.

In the final programme, both Hugh's free-range birds and indoor flock were slaughtered. I always think, when I see poultry in crates on lorries going to slaughter, that for many it will be the only time they ever see daylight and this is a sad thought to me. Watching the indoor birds being caught (this time in semi-darkness to keep them "calm"), this thought came to me again with startling clarity. Also slaughtered were the birds reared by residents on the Millway Estate, most of whom had become chicken-keepers for the first time and had taken to it like ducks to water! This segment reduced me to a soggy mess of tears as one particular resident who had become fond of his birds insisted on being involved in their slaughter, feeling, like all really top class stock people, that there was no aspect of their life or death that he should shun.

For me, many scenes in these programmes will remain with me: The image of Hugh cooking up the remains of a free-range chicken as a tasty risotto and getting six substantial portions to feed six people. That and the clearly amazed woman watching him, saying that all she did with her two for £5 supermarket chickens was to remove the breasts and then throws the rest away. Is this because they are so cheap, is it because she didn't know what could be done with the left-overs or did she think that that was all chicken was about, the breasts? And how many other people do this? (In this issue we start a series on farmhouse skills starting by how to cook cheap cuts of meat).

Another image of Hugh letting out his free-range birds for the first time, disappointed in their initial reaction and then delighted as they tried their wings and their legs.

An image of people horrified at how their food was produced when they entered the indoor-housed birds but also the strong images of how people expect, demand even, food to be so cheap that they protest at paying a more realistic price. I think that's why Hugh's risotto was so powerful, the message being spend more on the ingredients but make them go further. No one wants to spend lots of money, even better-off people, but if you can achieve more with less through intelligent cooking that is a good answer to the doubters.

And then, on a bit of a high from all of this and looking forward to Jamie Oliver's programme which at the time of writing is not aired, like a brick comes the news that the highly pathogenic strain of HN51 was confirmed in three dead wild mute swans at a swannery, (which has been in existence since being built by the Benedictine Monks in 1040), in the Chesil Beach are of Dorset. The birds were found and tested as part of Defra's wild bird surveillance programme.

As a result, a wild bird control area and monitoring area was established, determined by the advice of expert ornithological advice. Yes, inside these areas it's back to housing birds and/or isolating them from wild birds and of course, in this area bird gatherings are banned. No disease has been found in domestic birds, and a programme of surveillance is being carried out in the local wild bird population. There will be no culling of wild birds because such action may disperse birds further and would not aid control.

Acting Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg said: "While this is obviously unwelcome news, we have always said that Britain is at a constant low level of risk of introduction of Avian Influenza. Our message to all bird keepers, particularly those in the area, is that they must be vigilant, report any signs of disease immediately, and practice the highest levels of biosecurity."

As we have said so many times in "Smallholder", the future lies in learning how to live with the existence of bird flu coupled with early warning as was proved by this incident.

After seeing Hugh's brave campaign, the future cannot be in bringing and keeping birds indoors permanently. We want your views as we will be returning to the campaign next month and asking what happened next and what readers think about the free range versus intensive. Please write or email and let us know.

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