Pumped with antibiotics??? The organic industry will need more than lower prices if it is going to tell blatant lies like that. What goes around ...

Yes, food labelling in Australia is atrocious! We really should be able to know exactly how food has been grown, what chemicals and other additives have gone into the product we buy off the shelf. While we all now know that Australian poultry is grown without the use of hormones (only Kath and Kim think otherwise), and any antibiotics used are withdrawn well before sale to ensure that there are no residues left when consumers purchase them, what do we really know about how these products are produced in other countries? I've seen smoked imported chicken but don't know where it came from and don't know what when into it. Were persistent organic pesticides used on the grain feed to those chooks? Was it grown on contaiminated land? We don't and, for the present, can't know. It's just not good enough.

While it would be great if there was more competition in some food production sectors, the real issue in Australia is the duopoly of Coles and Woolworths who, let's face it, control the purchasing, sales and distribution of most food and drinks sold in this country. If we want to have small businesses involved in food production, we have to increase competition at that level or Coles and Woolworths will keep squeezing our farmers and wholesalers - why on Earth does anybody find it surprising that there are only three major chicken producers in that kind of marketplace!

If people want to feel better about their ethical choices with respect to purchasing animal or other products, they clearly need better labelling. But we also need to protect our own food industries or risk the day when Coles and Woolworths simply import everything we eat from where ever and all the Australian legislation, which currently gives us exceptionally good quality food and drinks, will become meaningless... After all, a label is useless unless we can be certain that what it says is true.

I agree with "Concerned." The supermarket duopoly is a monumental catastrophe in the making, which remains underestimated by all levels of government, including the do nothing ACCC. The duopoly is an issue which also extends into petrol prices. If nothing is done immediately to address the problem, the big two supermarkets will continue to import more and more produce from wherever it is cheapest to source - countries with much lower standards than we currently impose on local growers. I for one already grow as much as I possibly can to avoid the serious and increasing risks of buying from residue laden imported garbage from the big 2 supermarkets. With very few exceptions, if the produce isn't Aussie grown, I will not touch it, especially anything from China.

An organic chicken does cost more. But what is the true price we are paying for cheap food? It is the pressure to make food cheaper along the supply chain that has resulted in the horrendous treatment of the chickens. What they are fed and how they are housed and the so-called convenience of shopping at the supermarket for a "cheap" chook. An organic chicken, is not wondering around picking at the chemicals lying around a farm, not fed imported GMO grains, not crammed into enormous barns, and fed goodness knows what! Interbred to be just be meat producing, imprisoned in a body that couldn’t walk or forage in a field if it did get to out and glimpse some sunlight. How can an unhealthy chook be good for anyone to eat? An organic chook has organic grain to eat, has the space to range free and when processed chemicals are not used to clean the bird or the eggs.

I don't believe that the farmers are cruel because they can be, I suspect many are because they are trying desperately to make a living. Factory farms must be just as horrific for many a farmer. But it is us the consumers that force them by insisting on buying the cheapest bird, a certain size and shape. We play into “the duopoly’s” mantra of cheap food. Knowing full well that “the duopoly” continue to increase their profit margins whilst it is the farmer, who loses, forced to cut more and more corners for short-term gains, the independent local retailer and the consumer.

Having your own in your back yard and knowing how your chook has been are treated or fed may not be possible and just paying more for a fancy looking label is not the answer. It is by paying more and knowing that there is an audit system ( this is subject to random independent audits,) a system that has been developed and established over 25 years in Australia, a national standard that harmonises with the worlds standards of organic & biodynamic. It is knowing that when you buy an organic chook or egg you are feeding your family food that was feed from healthy plants and healthy soil.

When you consider the soil, and organic agriculture, you are truly considering the long-term future of Australian agriculture, “benefits” from lessening climate change, protecting the soils from environmental damage and dependence on fossil fuel inputs. The goodness of food that goes into the belly of our children will not only influence their health but will also affect their lives well into their future, the health of the country and the planet.

Would people stop using the term "organic", when we should be using the term "chemical free". I know of no animal or plant matter that is not organic.

I for one think there's a lot of hype around organics. You would really be surprised the amount of Australian organically grown product on the shelves that has not been certified but is still organic. It's becoming a good money spinner obviously. We grow our own vegies and having grown up on farms we both know that the product off our family farms was close to organically grown but not certified so down to the animal liberation movement for making a storm in a teacup go round and round.

All chicken meat and eggs should be "organic" and produced naturally. Eggs and meat have been too cheap for too long, and the industry has had a free reign to make their own standards and remove any humane or normals lives for the birds. All should be allowed to live normally, and walk without broken bones and stretch their wings! That should not be too much to ask.