Yes,try and buy free range at least,it doesn,t have to be organic.Both free range and organic have access to outside.The only difference is the feed they have.The whole animal welfare thing is something I am very passionate about.I try and buy free range meat whenever possible.I know it is more expensive,but just buy a little less quantity and get better quality.The average life of a battery chicken is 6 weeks,where as a good free range chicken will be double that.Yes there is a difference in taste,once you have eaten free range chicken you will not want to go back to the cheap tasteless battery produced chicken.When you see the so called 'super roaster' in supermarkets weighing about 2kg think about the miserable life they have had.They are pumped full of anti biotics and growth hormones they put weight on that fast their legs can hardly support them.I would never buy anything with the Bernard Matthews label even if I was starving.
There will be a Jamie Oliver special on TV in January(I think) showing you all about the cruelty in the poultry industry.Try and watch it and make up your own mind.
We are having a free range bronze turkey for christmas which is from a local shop and has been reared on a farm on the outskirts of Sheffield.