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Don’t be chicken – Go organic

iVillage speaks with Thoby Young, founder of the UK's first online organic box scheme, and finds out why we should be buying organic chicken every time

Thoby Young started the Fresh Food Company in 1989, when he noticed that the ultra-fresh fish he was selling to restaurants simply wasn't available to the ordinary punter. He filled the gap by transporting fresh fish straight from the Cornish quayside to front doors nationwide, and satisfied many customers hungry for quality wild, organic foods.

His success spurred him on to add fine, usually artisan-produced foods such as unpasteurised cheeses, good olive oil, and game. But one of his biggest sellers proved to be free-range poultry, and especially organic chickens.

Read on to find out why we should be eating organic birds.

Why do you think your organic chicken has become so popular?
I've always regarded the supermarket chicken as a pallid, pink lump of nameless protein. In fact, I hate it, and realised that people didn't have much of a choice. So in 1990 I began to research alternatives and found that there was nothing much available in the UK.

I did find a source of long-legged, free-range birds in Normandy, so started importing them. The taste was far better than anything you could buy in the supermarket - I even won some awards. Then, in 1991, I found a source of organic chickens in the UK. I switched to these and became the first person in the UK to send boxes of organic meat and poultry nationwide.

So what does 'organic' really mean to you?
When I say organic, I'm referring to ingredients that have been grown without chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and other artificial treatments. I also guarantee that the land on which the food has been grown or raised has been free of those chemicals for at least three years.

Over the page: Why organic food tastes better

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