Chef Power

The power of celebrity chefs to change the eating habits of the nation have been proved yet again. The Telegraph on Wednesday reported that following the Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall programmes drawing attention to intensive poultry farming, sales of free range, organic and RSPCA Freedom Foods birds have soared.Sainsbury said that sales of the three types of chicken had grown by 50%; Waitrose reported an increase of 31% in organic sales and 24% in free range. And a small organic farmer in the West Country has seen demand grow by between 40 and 50%. Last week's Farmers Weekly quoted Morrisons as seeing a rise in Freedom Food sales, and Tesco saying that free range sales grew as a proportion of the total, as did their Willow Farm chickens which offer a higher standard of welfare at a price between the regular product and free range.