Fed with Chris van Tulleken

Fed with Chris Van Tulleken

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Fed with Chris van Tulleken: Series 1: Planet Chicken: 4. The Ethical Consumer's Dilemma

How chicken got big. Chris van Tulleken unwraps the forces that shape what we eat.

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Factual: Food & Drink

Factual: Science & Nature

How chicken got big. Chris van Tulleken unwraps the forces that shape what we eat. This is how we changed chicken and chicken changed us.

Fed with Chris van Tulleken is a new food podcast, investigating the entangled web of forces that shape what ends up on our plates. In the first series, Planet Chicken, Chris digs into the story of one of the most widely eaten meats on earth - to try to get to the truth of why we eat so much of it, and what that means for the birds, for us, and for the planet.

If there's one thing Chris knows, it's what he should and shouldn't be eating.

He's across the dangers of ultra-processed foods: those nutritionally empty snacks that fill our supermarket shelves and entrance our kids. And at the same time, he's confident he knows what we should be eating: good, old fashioned whole food - recognisable ingredients, no mysterious additives, no harmful rubbish.

Something like a nice wholesome roast chicken, perhaps? In fact, in the van Tulleken household that's a family favourite.

But recently, Chris has been getting asked more questions - by neighbours, people on the street, even government ministers: and he's realised there's a massive gap in his food knowledge.

Sure, he knows what happens in our bodies once that delicious gravy-drenched chicken dinner passes our lips: but what about everything that comes before that? Where it's from, how it was reared, how it was processed? Can he say what toll the process of getting that chicken from farm to plate might've have taken on the animal, the environment, the nutritional content?
Because in a world where so much food comes via an industrialised, globalised food system; where we're subtly influenced at every turn by advertising and price tags; and where ALL food choices ultimately come with a cost of some sort - how much do any of us really know or want to know about the consequences of our dinner?

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Fed with Chris van Tulleken: Series 1: Planet Chicken

Series 1: Planet Chicken

4. The Ethical Consumer's Dilemma

BBC Radio 4 - Fed with Chris van Tulleken, Series 1: Planet Chicken, 4. The Ethical Consumer's Dilemma

Dr Chris van Tulleken asks whether we can raise a chicken that's good for the planet.

Dr Chris van Tulleken asks whether we can raise a chicken that's healthy, happy, AND that's good for the planet.

We’ve heard about the potential problems around chicken welfare. But how does that square with their impact on the environment?

Dr Chris van Tulleken finds out what it takes to produce the most eco-friendly chicken meat possible. And makes a devastating discovery. Welfare concerns, and environmental credentials, often pull in OPPOSITE directions. Does he want to eat the happiest birds, or the ones kindest to the planet?

Halfway through his poultry quest, Chris remains massively conflicted: he loves chicken, but some of what he’s discovered makes him question how much he eats it. Will he still be able to look at it the same way as he goes deeper down the rabbit hole? And more importantly, should he keep serving it up to the family?

Produced by Emily Knight and Lucy Taylor.

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Fed with Chris van Tulleken

Series 1: Planet Chicken

4. The Ethical Consumer's Dilemma

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