How Big Chicken came to our screens
Since I joined the Soil Association in 2021, there’s one threat to human health, animal welfare, climate and biodiversity that never seems to diminish and that’s Big Chicken. We’ve even run two citizens engagement campaigns on the subject.
The Soil Association has been campaigning on Big Chicken for some years
In 2022, Stop Poison Poultry revealed the impact of pesticides sprayed on soya imported to feed UK chickens on people, wildlife and ecosystems in Latin America and called on supermarkets to remove them from their supply chains. In 2024, we exposed the impact of chicken manure from intensive poultry units on UK rivers through Stop Killing our Rivers, calling on the UK government to impose a moratorium on new chicken sheds. We have yet to see any significant progress from government on this very necessary call to action.
Chicken is the UK’s most popular meat
Chicken is everywhere. In our lunchtime sandwich or salad, bulking out our favourite dinner, across school food, in our cheeky takeaway, in our weekly roast. With red meat sales on the decline, whether that’s a result of cost, health concerns or red meat’s potential influence on our changing climate, chicken is the UK’s most popular alternative.
Mo Gilligan has brought Big Chicken to our screens
But, as a brilliant new documentary from British comedian Mo Gilligan demonstrates, our love of Big Chicken is a risky business.
Mo’s story from fast food chicken advocate to someone who begins to doubt every new meal (he eats only from chicken shops for 28 days) is honest and revealing.
Mo meets a psychologist who explains the link between ultra-processed food (which is what fast-food chicken is) and depression and feels a great deal of it himself during his experiment, probably not helped by what is revealed to him by US campaigners, journalists and community workers. He learns about the hold fast food companies have on the diets of low-income families living in food deserts (an area with limited access to healthy, fresh and nutritious food), industry employees forced to wear nappies because they are denied toilet breaks and communities close to chicken farms exposed to ammonia pollution.
Mo explores other subjects close to our hearts – the impact on our beloved River Wye, and the power and secrecy of the global conglomerates raking in the money from “cheap” chicken, with a 60 piece “popcorn” bucket costing £5.99 at one outlet. And animal welfare, with Mo concluding “no animal should ever have to suffer like that”.
Ultra-processed chicken is linked to health problems
After 84 fried chicken meals in 28 days, Mo finds out for himself the toll a diet dominated by ultra-processed food can take. He gains weight, develops low mood and puts himself at increased risk of diabetes.
Unable to sleep, his mind grappling with what he’s learned about Big Chicken’s impacts from human rights to antibiotic resistance and deforestation, Mo concludes “this food is so problematic”.
It’s a great documentary and well worth a watch.
We’re campaigning for Peak Poultry
Despite the impact on our health, our environment and the welfare of farm animals, chicken consumption in the UK and overseas continues to grow.
We are calling for Peak Poultry - we want the government to act now to ensure UK consumption and production of poultry stop increasing. Only then can we start to reduce the harms of Big Chicken.
We continue to call for a moratorium on new intensive poultry units, for industrial chicken to be phased out of school and hospital menus and for support for farmers to transition to agroecological and higher welfare systems like organic.
Meanwhile, our campaigning partners at River Action have put together a petition calling on Environment Secretary, Angela Eagle, to address the impact Big Chicken is having on the health of our rivers. You can sign it here.