Celebrity Chefs Honored For Chicken Campaigns

Celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have received awards from the RSPCA for their work to improve animal welfare.

The pair received the honors at the charity’s AGM in London earlier this week after backing the RSPCA’s Freedom Foods scheme – an initiative that guarantees animals have been raised on farms that meet the charity’s standards. Both chefs released television programs earlier this year – Oliver’s Fowl Dinners and Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Chicken Run – revealing the conditions in which many chickens are farmed. Since then, the pair has continued to campaign for producers and retailers to adopt higher welfare standards… although at least one major supermarket chain in Britain has come out in direct opposition of their ideas.

Fearnley-Whittingstall, who was on hand to accept the award, thanked the RSPCA and insisted that the campaign must continue.

“We are delighted to present both Hugh and Jamie with these awards in recognition of their valuable ongoing work in this area,” said Dr Marc Cooper, RSPCA senior farm animal scientist. “We look forward to carrying on our partnership with the chefs and hope that with their support, the revolution in raising chicken welfare standards throughout the UK will continue.”