The problem with chicken

Today I am going to talk about how we don’t make the difference we want to believe we do, and about chicken.

Let’s start with some unpleasant truth. Contrary to the old wisdom, saving pennies made nobody rich.

If your mortgage, taxes, car, rates and the rest of the big expenses consume 80% of your income, saving pennies on the 20% of your available income will, at most, allow you to rent a couple more bad videos per month, that’s it. Is it worth the effort?

In other words, too often we put too much effort into areas that, despite our best intentions, make no difference to anyone. To make a difference we need to first identify what really matters, and focus our efforts there.

Where do chicken fit into the picture?

In recent years, it’s become common knowledge how badly chicken, and other farm animals, are treated. If you’re not familiar with the issue, just imagine yourself taking a London rush-hour underground ride in the summer, for eighteen months, after which you will be slaughtered.

Sounds fun?

This is exactly what the chicken are complaining about.

Being conscious of such cruelty, many in the UK have shifted to free range eggs and poultry; and now about 60% of all eggs sold in supermarkets are free range. Yet, despite this shift, over 70% of all eggs in the UK are produced in old-style cruel batteries.

This is because, once again, we have been looking at the fringe of the problem – our home consumption, while the majority of eggs in the UK are not consumed directly by the household, but by the food industry.

Is your bread made with free-range eggs?

So if you are a free-egg enthusiast, unless you confront the industry labeling standards, and change the way you consume ready made product, consuming free-range eggs will mostly deal with your conscious and not with chicken.