Current mood:

bored

Free range issues
So, what with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver and the rest publicising the poor conditions of battery hens, frax and I have been contemplating our diet. We only buy free-range eggs and meat anyway; but what we hadn't really considered previously was the produce that goes into such things as:

- KFC
- Chinese takeaway
- Ready meals
- Pre-prepared chicken sandwich
- Cakes, mayonnaise

These are in order of perceived obviousness. So, KFC - don't buy it, get a pizza instead (though presumably meaty pizzas hit the same territory). Chinese takeaway, much the same argument. It isn't as notorious as KFC for being skanky chicken, but presumably isn't free range. Ready meals - don't buy them if they have meat in. Chicken sandwich... I'm verging on the point where I can't be bothered. I buy a sandwich at the work canteen or Pret most days, and I like variety so occasionally it's chicken. Should I be boycotting this stuff? Or writing to them about the free-rangeness of their chicken? Cakes... now we're into really tough territory; do I really have to stop buying cakes because the eggs in them probably aren't free range? That's going to rule out a lot of potential foods. Mayonnaise, for example.

I don't want to buy battery-farmed (or in general non-free-range) produce if I can help it. But it usually isn't too hard - and for someone on my wages, too expensive - to get free-range meat and eggs. The question is, am I willing to put up with substantial inconvenience in this cause? Is it even possible to get mayonnaise with free range egg in it? Do I have to make my own?

Damn you, Hugh.