I’ve been a “Friend” of River Cottage for quite some time now and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall is one of my all time food heroes. I whole-heartedly support his commitment to self-sufficiency and his desire to teach and inform on the subject. I had the opportunity to hear him speak at a local venue in Brighton, where he not only spoke about self-sufficiency, but also discussed his feelings on organic and free-range farming and supporting locally produced foods.

I am no-where near as responsible as I would like to be in respect of organic and free-range foods but I do try my best and also frequently buy locally produced foods by visiting farmer’s markets, farm shops and fishermen selling from my local beach. These are a few things we can all do to help improve the way food is produced in our country and hopefully change the way supermarkets source their goods.

Hugh and River Cottage have just launched a campaign called Chicken Out! Their wish is to change the way chicken is mass produced in this country and encourage people like you and me to buy free-range chicken and eggs. In Britain we consume over 850 million chickens each year and 95% of those are intensively farmed. The campaign aims to acquire at least half a million signatures of support, which will then be sent to governing bodies and supermarkets to demonstrate public and consumer feelings on this subject, and hopefully set a change in the way chicken and eggs are produced in Britain.

I think this is a very worthy campaign and with enough support I believe it could really make a difference. Supermarkets have already taken notice of our desire to eat more organic and locally sourced food, so they will have no choice but to take these views into account too. I have signed-up in support of the Chicken Out! campaign on the website and I’ve already printed the campaign poster which I’ll posting on the notice board at work and anywhere else I can think of!

If you’d like to know more about the campaign, take a look at this personal message from Hugh and then, if you wish, visit the website and add your support.

Consumer opinion does make a difference, so have your say and help to make a change!

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