FAIR MEANS OR FOWL

Most UK retailers still sell chickens bred to grow so fast that they can barely walk. As Co-op members prepare to vote on change, Hannah Twiggs asks: how did we end up here?

-  Hannah Twiggs

“Right now, millions of birds are hurting, flapping around, confused, unable to get away from the suffering, which is hardcoded into their DNA,” wrote Chris Packham, in a blistering open letter to Co-op CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq earlier this month. It was not, to put it mildly, your typical AGM correspondence.

At issue is the retailer’s continued sale of “Frankenchickens” – fast-growing chicken breeds that reach slaughter weight in just 35 days. These birds have been selectively bred to prioritise speed over strength, often outgrowing the limits of their own skeletal and organ systems. As Packham puts it, these animals are “bred to grow so unnaturally fast that they suffer from painful lameness, organ failure and bone deformities”.

In May, Co-op members will vote on an advisory motion to end the sale of Frankenchickens and adopt the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a higher welfare standard that mandates slower-growing breeds, more space and natural light. The vote follows years of campaigning by The Humane League UK, and a previous 2023 member resolution where 96 per cent of voters backed the transition.

Co-op responded by giving its birds 20 per cent more space, but declined to change the breed – the key factor in Frankenchickens’ suffering. This formed part of its “Space to Thrive” programme, which Co-op later extended to breaded and ready-to-cook chicken products – a move it says puts it ahead of most retailers.

“Co-op without its values is nothing,” Packham warned. “Its standards should reflect its principles, and it shouldn’t be sucked into a race to the bottom, vying with supermarkets less interested in ethics.”