Part
2 - High demand for low-cost meat
The rise in
intensive farming has been fuelled by Britain’s demand for cheap
meat, especially chicken. Close to a billion birds are slaughtered
each year, almost all of them intensively-farmed. The majority of the
UK’s megafarms are poultry units.
Growing
free-range and organic chickens requires a lot of space - about four
square metres per animal for organic birds. Intensive farms typically
have about 15 chickens per square metre, or an area about the size of
an A4 sheet of paper for each bird.
Intensive
farming also allows farms to carefully control the temperature and
humidity of chicken units, and give just the right amount of
additive-boosted feed and chlorinated water for optimal growth in a
short time. The lifespan of an average intensively-farmed chicken is
35 days.
The
efficiency of the system is illustrated in the product prices. A
review of five major supermarket chickens shows basic, value or own
brand chicken – raised on intensive farms - costs between £1.99
and £2.73 per kg for a whole roasting bird. Organic chicken – i.e.
birds kept in a smaller flock, given access to the outdoors, and fed
on additive and GM-free grain grown on that farm - costs between
£6.00 and £7.04 per kg per roasting bird.
While demand
for free range eggs has risen substantially in the last two decades,
free range and organic chicken still only accounts for a tiny
proportion of the market - just 3% and 1% respectively.
Some farms
producing free-range poultry products - mainly eggs - are actually
large enough that they are classified as intensive. But the Bureau
has calculated at least three quarters of intensive poultry farms are
factory-style units with some or all birds permanently housed indoors
- and the figure could be higher as not all records have been made
available.
The Bureau
sent a drone to capture footage of Britain's big farms from above.
Watch the video below.
Source:
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