We tried raising the breed of white cob chickens that are used by the intensive farms … the bird has been bred so far from nature that even organic free ranging they still sat in their own crap and didn’t forage. They gain weight so quickly that their legs can’t hold their weight and as a consequence of their morbid obesity they often die of heart or liver failure. The bird has been bred to this extreme to minimise the number of days they take to reach slaughter weight. Just think, from chick to fat bird in little over a month … thats alarming, it ought to be several months if left to nature! They are a sorry breed. The whole thing is disgusting, driven by economics, the marketing hype the pulls the wool over punters eyes … just look at the idyllic farm images on the labels!

Congratulations Hugh, more exposes please, show joe public how it is so we can all react accordingly.

And if shoppers can’t find Irish free range chicken on the shelves, it is up to them to let the shop manager know.

Both programs were a bit sensationalist, and as a viewer, you have to try and see past that.

As an aside, I really object to the ’summary so far’ bits that come in after each ad break. It is a growing trend, and is actually TV for morons. Clearly our minds have been so distracted by the shiny car, cheap insurance, or whatever ads are on that we cannot be trusted to remember the story so far. It is very insulting.

It is that simple for eggs but I disagree on chicken. I’d say 60% of our attempts to buy free range in Irish supermarkets fail because the stock isn’t on the shelves. There is no record in any stock control system of a failed attempt to buy something. But we’ll keep trying and hopefully the message will get through somehow.

Note that many Irish butchers are now stocking Brazilian chicken. Call me racist but I don’t want to even think about that!

On the obesity issue Craig, my guess is that it’s due to the type of food that they are eating, not necessarily overeating. I did think HFW could have done a lot more to convince Hayley, particularly around the idea of using drumsticks and thighs.

But I liked the program, although HFW grates a bit after a while. I prefer Jamie Oliver’s syle – as do the stakeholders, who engaged more willingly with him.

It is really in the hands of the consumer ……. if people buy more free range chicken and eggs, they will create more demand for these products, and less for the factory reared options.

It is as simple as that.

I found it quite ironic that at various points throughout the series we witnessed people complaining that they simply didn’t have the money to spare for such ‘lavish’ purchases, yet they were sitting in a pub or often somewhat overweight. On the latter point my politically incorrect mother spouted that one particular larger single mother might more money to spare if she didn’t eat quite so much of the food herself.

I digress. It was disappointing to see just how negative the supermarkets were toward him: I very much agree with you that there is the potential for a lot of money to be made by the first supermarket to wake up and realise that Hugh isn’t trying to sully the name of the supermarket industry, but improve its ethical (or not) trading practices.

A good show.