A young Devon farmer is preparing to embark on a 39-day tour of Europe to campaign for clearer poultry labelling – and is doing it dressed as a chicken.
Tamsin French will be costumed as a chicken called ‘Rosa’ and will travel through 21 EU member states in 39 days, which is apparently the average lifespan of an intensively farmed meat chicken. Rosa the chicken is calling for clear and mandatory labelling so that consumers can see how their chicken has been kept. The 39Days4Rosa tour is taking place as the European Commission reviews poultry meat labelling this summer.
French’s family farms a 22,000 strong, Freedom Food-assured broiler flock in Devon. She said: “Our free-range chickens live for 56 days, and from the moment they’re old enough to go outside, they can range through tree-covered, landscaped fields where they can express natural habitual behaviour. It’s important that consumers can accurately and easily identify the farm system used to rear their chicken meat. The labelling term ‘free range’ accurately reflects the life of our free-range chickens.”
She will be joined on the trip by Johanna Olsson, an Animal Science student from Berkshire, and Sam White, an animal welfare campaigner from Essex.