More than two million chickens are served up to be eaten in the UK every day and one in three comes from Northern Ireland. Chicken is big business and is worth millions of pounds to the local economy. This plucky series keeps viewers abreast of the workings of the chicken industry from farm to fork.
The Chicken People goes behind the factory gates to chicken processing plants in Dungannon and Craigavon and meets those at the centre of chicken production.
The first programme of the series introduces viewers to those involved in the poultry business from the farmers who send the fertilised eggs to the hatcheries through to the factory workers, technicians and tasters at the end of the factory line. As the programme also follows the chicken from birth to the baking tin will the age old chicken or egg conundrum finally be cracked?
Later in the series the programme visits an organic farm to reveal the delicate and challenging process of raising the birds in a natural environment. We also see how feathers are being ruffled at family businesses where roosters are running riot and we hear from the team behind the latest chicken dishes on the supermarket shelves to reveal how new recipes are designed and see ‘poultry in motion’ as they attempt to give their latest products a catchy name.
And if you think there’s no fun on the factory floor, think again. The programme meets the big personalities who have come together to create a family atmosphere inside Northern Ireland’s largest poultry meat plant.
