Money Saving Vs Ethics.

Churchmouse

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

To be ethical we should also eat all of the animal - no turning noses up at liver, heart, trotters or brawn

Penny. x

Couldn't agree more :T ( but please, please may I be excused brawn ?_pale_)

However, may I put in a plea for eating British rose veal? So many people get superior or damp-eyed about veal. If you drink milk, then you should at least support rose veal, even if you don't wish to eat it yourself. Veal calves are, in the main, male calves surplus to the dairy industry. Female calves will be raised for milking, the males obviously not :rotfl: But the dairy breeds do not make for good beef, so the males will not be raised for that, and at one time could be culled within a very short time from birth for pet food. Raised as rose veal, the male calf will live for about 6 months, which is definitely longer than a chicken, and longer than many pigs. He will even get to suckle from his mum and will most definitely get to live in a field and eat grass :T Having said all that please do not touch white veal with a bargepole, the meat can only stay white by restricting the calf's movement. :mad::mad: Veal crates may no longer be in use in much of the continent, but cattle grid type flooring most definitely is, and we all know animals can't walk over that !!!!! ( oh dear, I've ranted there haven't I? :o)

I try to buy only meat I think has had a reasonable deal.................. I don't expect any animal wants to lay down its life for me. I do the best I can, but if my purse were smaller and I had a family to feed, then maybe I'd swallow hard and blank my mind. I'm not about to judge anyone. ( nobody hard-up could afford white veal anyway, so I'm safe there )

floss2

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Unfortunately, for some of us, needs must as long as the XXX-XXXX Scottish bean counter and his pet badger drives.

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

That's not a very pleasant thing to say - shame on you Stephen.

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

True, but it's not a very pleasant situation to be in.

You are not the only person in the country to be affected by Government policies, yet we don't whinge about it - and there is no need to mock someone's disabilty

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

(Alcohol - and that was cheap, too - has been consumed.)

That is no excuse for insulting comments.

floss2

Churchmouse wrote: »

Couldn't agree more :T ( but please, please may I be excused brawn ?_pale_)

However, may I put in a plea for eating British rose veal?

Ooh yes, it's lovely!

We buy our meat from a local butcher, it's expensive but we know where it's come from - we just don't buy very much of it!

We also buy local game & fish from local fishermen, and a friend is part of a syndicate & they pass on spare pheasant & rabbit too

Re eggs - we recently went from free-range organic to free-range, purely due to cost.

brighthair

I buy whatever I can afford - but the minimum is free range and preferably organic and local meat
If I can't afford it, I eat veggie stuff, not a big deal for me

misscousinitt

I agree with the happy medium too.

We have a small organic veg box once a week, but I need top ups I tend not to buy organic unless its on offer. I am fussy about my chicken and it has to be a minimum of free range, eggs too. Other meat I tend to buy half and half from butchers and supermarkets, I do pay a little more for my meat, but I do it for piece of mind regarding animal welfare and taste. (My butcher only sells free range chickens and mainly locally produced meat and game).

Free range eggs used to be SO expensive, but you can get 6 from aldi for 99p which isn't too bad.

Queen_of_NO_MATTER_WHAT

We eat meat and currently price is very much a deciding factor, we have recently realised that the quality of some supermarket meat is better than others (ie morrisons although it's out the way seems to be better than asda/tesco for example). I eat a very restricted diet for health reasons there are many starches/beans/grains that my body cannot tolorate, which means I tend to end up eating a lot of meat and fish.

We also eat quite a bit of the animal, I've never had brawn (in fact not sure I know what it is?!), but I'm a regular fan of liver, kidney, occassionally hearts, and also experiment with cheaper cuts of meat.

If I did have the financial resources to buy better meat I only would if I noticed a difference in the quality and taste, I wouldn't for ethical reasons. Just in the same way that I don't really think about where my vegetables and fruit have originated from, I'm aware in the back of my mind about food miles etc but I find it gets very confusing when trying to weigh up which is better or worse but anyway going into that would be going off topic.

OrkneyStar

I buy value ranges of things like sweetcorn, tinned toms, some veg and make savings there so that I am able to buy better meat. I buy local for red meat (stew, steak mince, burgers, sausages etc), fish and also try to get the free range versions of chicken etc. I find free range pork harder to get up here. I don't buy value meat or even supermarket own meats very often as the taste/quality is simply not there, and I'd rather eat less of a good quality meat that more of an inferior one! Each to their own I suppose. I also try to get local eggs, if no local available then free range. I love Galloway cheese but also try to get local Orkney cheese too. Local bakeries as well as much as reasonably possible for things like rolls, bread etc (I make a lot of my own cakes). If I bought value (crud) meat I'd be able to feed us for a lot less, as it is we can afford what we spend within a budget (approx £250 pcm for 2 adults, 1 toddler and 1 cat), and also think about what we are actually eating. Like ceridwen says you can have a healthy diet as a vegetarian and it would do most of us no harm to eat more veggies, either in place of or with our meat. Tonight we are having pasta with peas and bacon in a creamy sauce.....using 2 rashers of bacon only, loads of peas (we all love em including DS!), some cream, some stock and loads of pasta tooo.....mmmmm. I could do without the bacon (maybe have another veg in there) but DH likes it!

katholicos

We eat mostly vegetarian meals but when i do buy meat and poultry, though i like to know that the animal has had a good life, i can rarely afford to buy anything other than Morries buy one pack of chicken breast & get one free (or some such offer). I try to purchase only free range eggs, but sometimes necessity dictates that i buy whatever is on offer and if that means the caged chicken variety then i have to cut my cloth according to my means and suck (or chew) it up.

Steel_2

I buy happy meat but less of it now I'm on a budget and I make it stretch further.

Bitsy_Beans

I would love to buy all organic, free range meat and organic veg. But I can't afford it and although people live quite happily on a vegetarian diet I do prefer to have some meat (I like veg to a certain extent but I couldn't live on it alone). Until our circumstances change there will always be an element of price involved in the decision making although I confess I will never buy value meat. I have tried value chicken and it was just pumped full of water and a waste of money.