Organic Chicken - Welfare Standards

  

Welfare standards in broiler (meat) chicken production have come under intense scrutiny in the past few months, with the well-publicised Chicken Out campaign highlighting the appalling standards in which mass-produced broilers live their short lives before hitting the supermarket shelves at extremely low prices. In these circumstances, only the supermarkets profit - the birds suffer, and the farmers are paid as little as 2p per bird, hence their extremely high stocking densities in order to make any money.

 

Here at Atholl Glens, animal welfare is our priority in everything we do. Since our launch, we have shown this in the production of our organic beef, lamb and mutton, and, now we have ventured in to supplying chicken, we will ensure our chickens join our cattle and sheep in being happy, healthy, free-ranging and organic animals.

 

Atholl Glens organic chicken is produced for us by 'our friends in the north', Highland Organics, who are Soil Association accredited. The following information explains what the Soil Association is, the standards it sets, and the free-range conditions the Atholl Glens chickens enjoy under these standards.

 

The Soil Association

The Soil Association organic symbol is the UK's largest and most recognisable trademark for organic produce. Wherever you see it you can be sure that the food you have purchased has been produced and processed to strict animal welfare and environmental standards. The Soil Association has probably the highest and most comprehensive standards for organic production and processing in the world.

 

 

Soil Association Welfare Standards

The Soil Association standards ensure animal welfare comes first. They require that animals are genuinely free-range but they reach far beyond living conditions alone, also taking in food quality, preventing the routine use of antibiotics and hormones, and covering even transport and slaughter. By reaching into all these areas the SA standards ensure the best quality of life, from birth to death, for the farm animals. For more information on the SA's general animal welfare standards click here.

 

The SA poultry welfare standards include the following:

 

• Freedom to range
  Hens must be able to behave naturally - grazing, pecking the ground, scratching and dust-bathing. They must have continuous and easy daytime access to pasture, except in adverse weather conditions. The pasture must be well covered with suitable and properly managed vegetation.
• Shelter
  Poultry must have access to shelter at all times and be provided with protection from predators. Adequate cover, either natural and/or artificial must be provided in the free range areas. This gives the birds conditions similar to their native habitat, protection from overhead predators, and shelter from extreme weather.
• Housing of birds
  Chickens being raised for meat must be housed with room for a maximum of 10 birds per square metre. A flock must not contain more than 1,000 birds. Under Soil Association organic rules, the number of birds in each poultry house must not be more than 1,000 - intensively reared broiler chickens are normally housed in groups of up to 40,000 in large sheds.
• Health
  Growth-promoting drugs are banned. Vaccination can only be used if there is a known disease risk which cannot be controlled by any other means. While intensively reared chickens live for around 42 days in cramped and stressful conditions, chickens raised to SA standards cannot be slaughtered until they are at least 81 days old.
• Antibiotics
  Due to the large flocks, disease can spread very quickly in intensive farms. Low doses of antibiotics, given routinely in feed and water, are a form of insurance against disease for the farmer. But long-term, low-dose exposure is far more likely to create resistance to antibiotics than the occasional use of veterinary drugs to treat illness. SA standards are based on the principle that prevention is always better than cure. There are many rules which ensure better husbandry and living conditions to help prevent illness occurring. Organic farmers only use a course of antibiotics to treat a specific problem and to prevent any unnecessary suffering. The routine use of antibiotics is not allowed.

 

To read more about the SA's poultry welfare standards click here.

 

  

 

Atholl Glens supports the Chicken Out! Campaign, promoting a free range future for broiler chickens.