As someone who rears her own poultry as pets, for eggs and also for eating (3 different types of chook, for each purpose) I have to say I am all for free range, and where possible organic meat.
I do realise that some people have tight budgets, and that maybe its hard to resist buying the cheap cuts or birds, but for me its about putting it in perspective.
50 years ago, chicken was a luxury. Even 20 years ago, we didn't eat it often. Now its usually to be scoffed a few times a week. Our eating habits have changed and we are more about meeting demand of the consumer than we are about welfare. Shopping today costs less than it did 20 years ago, pound for pound, so why do we complain? We have more choice, more all year round produce (at great expense to the enviroment just so we can have strawberries in winter), but it never seems to be enough. As a nation we throw away huge mountains of food each week, wasted as we don't eat it and it goes off, or simply chuck the chicken carcass away without thinking to boil it up and use the stock for a vegtable risotto later in the week.
Some meat cuts used 20 or more years ago are unheard of by todays younger generations coming though. We also used to bulk our meals out with more vegetables, dumplings, bread and so on whereas now we are about meat content on the plate. We used cuts that today most people would be horrified to have on their plate. Has anyone fed their kids tripe and onions yet? Or pigs trotters boiled up and a broth made from them? What about rabbit stew? All those things I ate as a kid, and while tripe makes me feel ill now, I eat the other things from time to time.
If you buy a free range chicken, yes it will cost a bit more, but it should taste better, have had a longer life and been allowed to develop at a slightly slower rate and not have suffered the injuries that birds reared in cramped conditions often do. If you have to have more veggies on your plate and slightly less meat, is this so bad? I think its good to be eating more veg, so for me its not a hardship.
Hubby and I also tend to eat at least 3, sometimes 4 main meals a week with no meat whatsover in. So many possibles out there and cheaper than buying cuts or joints of meat all the time to serve up. I roast a chicken on a Sunday and get another 2 meals from it later in the week once I've picked it clean and boiled the carcass. Lot of meals from one bird if you take the time.
I also then consider what else I can go without in my shop to allow me to spend that bit extra on free range chicken or organic meat etc if need be. If its a case of going without a tub of icecream, or a bag of nibbles, those chocolate muffins, I don't mind. Its doing me a favour as it means I eat less crap.
I know some people are on far tighter budgets than I, but if everyone looked in their fridge and cupboards and assessed just how much they throw away in waste, or simply don't use and it goes out of date in the pack etc, they could maybe find a way of cutting back and putting those pennies to use elsewhere in the food budget.
I know its not for everyone, but its not only the chickens that have crap lives in mass production. Luckily cows and sheep *have* to live outside, but think about your standard pork and how that is reared, it ain't pretty thats for sure. Conditions have gotten better for larger animals in recent years, but I think most people have become so detached from the food they eat, that they don't think about the consequences of it all. Its all become so sanitised in plastic packs on the shelf, very few people really have a great understanding of how in todays world our meat is now reared, transported, slaughtered and prepared for us.
Another interesting thing to consider is the soya feed. It is used in chicken feed. Much of it is grown in South America, where they are chopping down the rainforest at an alarming rate to grow soya, which is mainly used to feed the meat we love to eat. The consumer demand is so high for chicken (and other meats), its helping toward the destruction of the Amazon. For that reason alone I won't buy cheap chicken/meat. Its helping kill our planet.
My birds are feed on organic, traceable feed and free range. I can live with that
And gah I wrote way too much. Subject close to my heart, am a country girl and have farmed also.
Said it all for me lol
but i eat free range stuff 
