Hugh's Chicken Run was a programme as part of Channel 4's 'Food Fight' series in which celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched the campaign to encourage more consumers to demand free range chicken. Hugh was joined on the campaign by fellow celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, who chose to highlight the issues in the more graphic Jamie's Fowl Dinners. In the series Hugh set about the highlighting the differences in standards by creating his own intensive and free range chicken farms, as well as mentoring a community project in Axminster. Hugh heralded the campaign a success when he managed to get to the point where the majority of the whole fresh chicken consumed in the town of Axminster was free range. Since then the campaign has gone countrywide with over 128,000 viewers having pledged on the campaign website to only buy free range products. The show has been linked with the large rise in free range products, as well as the drop in demand for intensively reared products during January and February 2008. A poll carried out for the RSPCA, 73% of adults claim that they now only buy birds that have "higher welfare" conditions, such as the RSPCA's freedom food scheme, free range or organic
Seasons & Episode
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall challenges Britain's chicken consumption, in an attempt to encourage the nation to choose free-range produce. In the first episode, he opens up his own intensive poultry production unit and a free range unit for comparison.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's plan to change the way consumers buy poultry is given the support of Jamie Oliver, as the residents of Millwey are given a shocking demonstration of how badly cheap birds can be treated in a purely commercial setting. The effect of different conditions is exposed with the comparison of Hugh's 2,500 rapidly growing chickens and their 1,500 free-range neighbours.
The residents kill, cook and eat the chickens some have come to regard as pets. Meanwhile Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall attempts to persuade Axminster shops, supermarkets, pubs and restaurants to supply only free-range poultry. His ambitious plans are not helped by allegations he is only engaging in the campaign to increase his own business's sales. Last in series.
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