U.K. Celebrity Chefs Target Poultry Welfare

Two of Britain's top celebrity chefs are launching a campaign get consumers to eat more welfare friendly reared chicken by revealing some of the welfare issues in poultry production.

Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall have made a series of programmes outlining some welfare issues and the campaign has been backed by a similar move by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In the new, hard-hitting series Hugh's Chicken Run, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall learns about the reality of modern poultry production and sets up his own intensive farm ˆ revealing what it takes to enable chickens to be sold cheaper than a pint of beer. Hugh's Chicken Run will air on consecutive nights 7, 8 and 9 January.

On 11 January, Jamie Oliver follows up with Jamie's Fowl Dinners, in which he hosts a gala dinner to dramatically demonstrate how poultry makes it to the dinner plate.

The programmes launch the Big Food Fight, a season of programming that aims to raise awareness and encourage debate about food production, animal welfare and healthy eating.

With the help of poultry farmers and experts including Bill Oddie and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver has brought together consumers, producers and retailers to discuss how chickens and eggs are produced and consumed in this country and whether things need to change.