Today (Friday) ended what will probably, or hopefully, be the biggest thing to happen on the politics of food since Jamies School Dinners finished airing the first time around. This time he wasn't the sole orchestrator but once again had his hands in, literally at times, making this issue of food quality apparent for all to see. Jamie's Fowl Dinners aired for an hour and a half and focused completely on the lives of chicken for both meat and egg production. Most of us watching had no doubt seen all the facts before about meat production but to add the facts about egg production was enlightening and essential to round off the picture about welfare of chicken in this country. Channel 4 also, surreptitiously, managed to kick start the next half of their "food fight" season with a short documentary that was, perhaps unintentionally, hilariously covering the lifestyles of "raw" diet eaters.

On then to the Fowl Dinners. This program cycled through the lives of chicks and chicken in both egg and meat production, starting as it meant to go on with the dinner guests seperating male chicks from the females, unbeknownst to them that the males were about to get "dispatched" by suffocation in carbon dioxide in front of them. It brought an instant sobering and interest grasping feeling to viewers like myself. The faces of those seeing what was happening, chicks gasping for air, and the simple fact something was being talked about and demonstrated that had not been done so, in my memory, at all on prime time TV or news.

The show went on to show the condition of egg laying hens, how they end up living and ultimately dying, and all for the necessity of some cheap eggs. Unfortunately there was one daft cow on the guest side who once again brought money into the equation and I was pleading for Jamie to put her right. Alas it was not to be, though later on perhaps could be said to have done the job. This is because EU legislation is forcing egg producers to improve the standards of their practice, and in doing so giving hens slightly more space along with the ability to perch and lay eggs in pseudo-nesting areas. The increase on the cost of eggs for this welfare increase? 0p, it is exactly the same price for a better kept bird. Of course it is clear that both barn eggs and free range eggs come from better kept birds again respectively but it is at least a start to see the industry moving in the right way on egg production.

The show then moved into another surprising area, one touched on by Hugh in his Chicken Run program...the issue of what other products containing eggs use. For example, coleslaw, mayonnaise, cakes, etc...almost all of them use standard cheap eggs in their production. Thankfully we had Mr Helman of Helman's mayonnaise to tell us that from june all of their stock would be made from free range eggs. A small victory, but many more have to follow to make a real difference. And this is where the supermarkets come in. As with the Chicken Run, only Sainsbury's and Waitrose turned up to be filmed on camera, both with extremely progressive policies on eggs they sell in store, if not disappointing for activists given that we're talking in the frame of "a few years". Other supermarkets sent emailed responses but it was the usual fare of excuses largely. What was very interesting is these same people were invited to come on the show and while Waitrose did indeed turn up (and show good form by getting involved and letting Jamie take the piss a bit) Co-op was the only other supermarket to show up...not Sainsbury's.

This obviously upset Jamie, outside of the show for certain, and you can understand. The organisation he has a contract with didn't have the respect to come down and show how progressive and in tune with this whole campaign they are, perhaps fearing the PR issues that may arise. One Guardian reporter picked up on this.

He blames the supermarkets and the customers, not the farmers, for the way farming's gone. But, as we learned from yesterday's paper, he got a right bollocking from Sainsbury's boss Justin King, and ended up writing a letter of apology. Chicken.

Unfortunately this review obviously has too much pent up anger at the annoying personality of Mr Oliver and not enough time to read what the apology was about. Let's make it clear, at no point was Jamie Oliver apologising for being annoyed that Sainsbury's didn't turn up. In fact what he said was...

I know that you have not seen the TV programme yet but I am confident that when it airs, viewers will clearly understand Sainsburys' leading position.

What the Guardian reviewer perhaps has to learn is that a person can be both angry at his employer for not turning up to support his work, and indeed criticise that work, while at the same time believing that the same company is leading the charge of change. Certainly from what has been shown over the course of the week Sainsbury's have come off very well in their measures to start eradicating stocks bought from "poor welfare" sites. The trouble is that Sainsbury's (and Waitrose) seem to be able to do this as they don't tend to serve the poorer people of our nation. Rather plainly Asda and Tesco, both of whom fight avidly to be the cheapest of the nation, were less keen for change and used the "tight budgets" of their customers as reason not to. Given Asda and Tesco's combined buying power it is unfortunate that it will take a large scale change of public opinion and buying habits before these heavy hitters influence real change in the industry.

And boy is it needed, one bombshell dropped that I wasn't expecting...perhaps I'm naive...is that farmers only make 3p per chicken sold from battery farmed conditions. This is a pittance per year for what is required to grow these intensively farmed birds, and clearly the industry is crying out for a more sustainable amount of demand on free range, or at least the new RSPCA standard of raising birds, to help alleviate the work load needed for those few pence per bird.

This was then followed by something else unexpected, legislation on how many birds can be farmed in a specific space is being relaxed. While for egg laying hens we are offering them more freedom, when it comes to the meat delivering variety we are actually decreasing welfare. This is also all on the back drop of the constant search to get chickens to grow faster for higher turn over of chicken to the buyers. The future for chickens in broiler houses is looking bleaker and bleaker.

All in all it's been a very eye opening week and there was a lot to learn. Hopefully the high profile nature of the campaign along with the people getting behind it will mean that we, the consumer, will truly start to change our habits. Until we do there is no chance of supermarkets changing their ways on their own. This also means growing up and not hiding behind supposed poverty as an excuse when choosing which of your more expensive foods you should buy.