Free Range Chicken

© 2014  by Sara O'Mahony

Sometimes I wonder how anyone can buy anything other than free range chicken. And then I think, okay! So maybe I feel so strongly about it, as I grew up on a farm and I saw chickens become hens and cockerels; ducklings to ducks; calves to cows; bulls and bullocks.

Aren't these creatures entitled to have a life of freedom too, fresh air, and earth beneath their feet? There's plenty of land in this country, Ireland.

And then I get so mad, as mad as mad could be when I think of 'economies of scale' about business and how to make a 'profit margin'. And I realise that's why … That's what has happened to this county and Europe too; any country with a farming culture.

As I listen to wise elders speak and share stories and memories of their youth, I hear about their lives in the Irish Countryside, about 'a feeling of safety' and being 'safe' and how much they trusted each other and other people that they met along the way; the gypsy that would call to the house and get invited to stay over. No locks on doors; care of animals; that unique connection to nature was far, far, greater then.

And we've lost it as a nation, as a country that had all this culture, ethos and philosophy at its core.

Now I walk into a 'multiple store' (note: the 'margins' again) and see chicken 'packed in Co. Kildare'…where was it raised? Did it get the treatment it deserved? I think not and I look for 'free range' instead.

With your 'purchasing power' you too can support the fresh, free chicken producers and do the same!

Sara O'Mahony