Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) advise supporters concerned about animal welfare to buy organic or free-range meat and eggs. CIWF says that Soil Association eggs are likely to come from birds which have enjoyed the very best welfare standards.

Read the press releases
» Soil Association organic chickens truly range freely 09/01/08
» Another good reason to avoid factory-farmed chickens and eggs! 09/01/08

Chicken Out! is a new campaign to help consumers to understand the conditions in which most table birds are reared and to put pressure on the industry to raise its standards.

In Hugh's Chicken Run and Jamie's Fowl Dinners, Hugh and Jamie explore the hidden side of intensive chicken farming.
» find out more about Channel 4's The Big Food Fight series

Consumption of white meat has risen dramatically over the past few decades, driven by the availability of cheap, mass-produced chicken. Every year 800 million chickens and 35 million turkeys are reared for meat in the UK, the vast majority in intensive conditions. Meat chickens are normally housed in groups of up to 40,000 in large sheds; turkeys in groups of up to 25,000. Modern chickens reared for meat are pushed to reach their slaughter weight in just six weeks – twice as fast as 30 years ago – which can lead to abnormalities with their legs, heart and lungs. Most of the 30 million egg laying hens in the UK are kept indoors in battery cages with little space to move around and to express their natural behaviour. High levels of stress are common, often leading to increased aggression and feather pecking.

Organic farming offers an alternative where chickens can live in conditions that are much more in tune with their natural behaviours. Cruel practices like battery cages and routine mutilations are banned on all organic farms where the chickens are fed on a GM-free diet rich in organic cereals. Soil Association standards go further and ensure that the birds are truly free-range, are looked after in much smaller flocks, have better access to fresh grass and air and more space in their houses.

Find out more about chickens and eggs at the links below:

» Learn more about animal welfare from the Soil Association's FAQs

» Chicken survey
Shoppers expect high welfare standards when buying organic and non-organic 'free-range' chickens. But the reality often fails to meet your expectations, according to a consumer survey by the Soil Association.

» Guide to welfare standards
There are so many welfare labels to choose from - non-organic 'free-range', Freedom Food and 'corn-fed' - but what do they all mean? What is the difference between organic and non-organic 'free-range' birds and are all organic chickens the same?

» Why welfare comes first for Soil Association birds
Find out more about what makes the Soil Association's chicken standards special and download our Chicken and egg leaflet.

» Cheap chicken - the reality
Modern chickens have been bred to produce more meat and eggs than ever before. Find out from Compassion in World Farming about the reality of chicken meat production and egg-laying hens. Also recommended is the excellent Planet chicken - The shameful story of the bird on your plate. Hattie Ellis' book takes an insightful look into the reality of life for the millions of chickens that end up on our plates (Sceptre, April 2007).

» Bird 'flu
The outbreak of Avian Influenza (bird 'flu) at a Bernard Matthews plant in Suffolk in February 2007 put factory farming under the spotlight once again. Despite apparently strict 'biosecurity' this demonstrates that industrialised, globally-traded intensive poultry production is putting the health of chickens at risk. Find out about the Soil Association's strategy on bird 'flu.