Slower Grown

“Slower grown” or “slower reared” is a meaningful welfare improvement, but it is not like the chickens had time to enjoy their lives, smell the roses, and take a nap in sunlit clover. There are still a wealth of deeply problematic issues because slower-grown birds are still factory farmed.

Slower-grown birds are a different breed to the fast-growing Frankenchickens who are prone to leg and joint pain, lameness, organ failure, and collapsing under their own weight. So, in that respect, slower grown is a significant improvement. But the birds are still grown to adult size unnaturally fast. Investigations into RSPCA Assured farms, housing “slower grown” breeds of broiler chicken, found many of the same welfare issues faced by fast-growing “Frankenchickens”¹

Tesco does not specify how much longer their “slower grown” chickens are allowed to live, which is a conspicuous omission on a label that asks consumers to pay a premium for better welfare. Based on the RSPCA Assured regulations, “enhanced welfare” indoor broiler chickens are typically killed at 45-60 days, compared to a minimum of 35 days for fast growing “Frankenchickens.” So let’s assume Tesco is happy that 45 days is “slower grown”, that’s an extra 10 days the birds get to live inside their filthy, crowded industrial barn. How incredibly generous.

“Slower grown” does not guarantee:

• meaningful space per bird
• natural behaviour opportunities
• natural light
• elimination of painful health issues
• freedom from mutilations

And nor does it deal with the air and water pollution generated by industrial chicken farms that blight communities and decimate wildlife.

Although slower grown chickens are still kept inside factory farms and harmed in countless ways, it is still a step in the right direction in terms chicken welfare. What a shame then that supermarkets like Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi, have not even bothered to try.