Food, Farming, Fairness.
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![KFC is investing £1.5bn in the UK and Ireland, opening 500 new restaurants and creating more than 7,000 jobs. The BBC, The Guardian and many more besides lapped up the news as everyone welcomed further growth in a sub-sector of fast food that is worth £3.1bn annually – and only expects to fatten further as US favourites including Popeyes, Wingstop, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Slim Chickens join the fried chicken party here.
“This significant announcement from KFC […] will help to drive socially productive growth, deliver economically and support employment across the UK,” said Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, which represents the big players in this space. Just don’t ask whether it’s socially acceptable, will deliver environmentally or can support producers who are already on their knees.
Indeed, this news hides the considerable costs of our insatiable appetite for poultry served up in greasy (and therefore hard-to-recycle) paper boxes, mixed in ingredients that are kept a secret. Namely: the imported soya (that comes with a huge environmental footprint); the fast-growing birds cooped up in small spaces; the pollution of land and rivers with vast amounts of poultry poo.
None of the coverage I saw mentioned any of this, writes David Burrows, as he asks why, and what the news means.
Read his full feature on Wicked Leeks, via the link in our bio.](https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)