are you losing faith in the food industry ?

Milkmaid_2

Buy British Food from British Farms, as simple as that. As you may guess from my ID I work on a british Farm, with Holstein Friesian, Jersey, Hereford and beef x animals, also arable crops and I am proud of what I do. If British shoppers do not buy more of our produce there will very shortly be no more British agriculture, all your food will be imported, and the countryside will alter out of all recognition, you will also be at the mercy of foreign supplies and the welfare issues and standard that are far, far lower than ours.
The choice is yours !

lil_me

What lowered my faith even more was learnng from those who work for farmers that even 'organic' isn't always same goes for 'free range', that many 'farm shops' buy stock from the same wholesalers as the cheaper fruit and veg shops (I know I have seen them there) this includes those advertising as organic veg box traders. I do feel for those who are genuine and who are put under question because of this. I buy my meat from a farmer I know, and have known a long time, and he is honest as to where the meat comes from, same with the eggs, if he has not produced them himself he will say. He does not buy in any meats they are not British. I wouldn't buy from him if he did. I believe in buying direct as much as possible, cutting out the middle people. What does annoy me is those farm shop owners who charge much higher prices, which puts people off. Thing is they are cutting out the middle man, and if they passed some of those extras on to the customers, they would be more popular. I've just found a farm which will sell me oats, barley etc

emmaroids

best thing to do grow your own veg (doin it) and buy meat at a local producer,
i have a farm shop close to me that came in the top 5 local food heroes comp on tv, and the food is just outstanding and you know its not been messed with.

keep it local every time.

debtworrier

The food industry is just a business like, say, banks and second hand car dealerships. Of course they try to sell you the cheapest junk for the most they can get: that's what companies do.

Personally I have no problem with companies trying to sell me fatty sugary rubbish. I'd much rather have to exercise my own judgement than some sort of sysem where Our Beloved Leaders tell us what we should/not be buying instead of giving us the facts.

The two areas where I think we need improvement are:

More health inspectors.
We just don't have enough, and of course the food business is always trying for every advantage it can get. Before we had them the food business was mixing brick dust into bread flour and adding opiates to beer (quicker than brewing, you see) and believing there was nothing wrong with that, because it helped them keep their prices low. :rolleyes:

Research funding disclosure.
Much of the so-called 'scientific research' is nothing more than undercover advertising funded by the very companies whose products are supposedly being assessed. When the results of some research program announce 'study shows no evidence of harm from carbonated beverages*' we need to know whose tame scientists are saying this. (Of course the papers reporting it as "Fizzy drinks are good for you!" doesn't help, but that's a separate problem.)

*I just made it up.

Sideways

I think the Supermarkets have a lot to answer for.

julbags

Sideways wrote:

I think the Supermarkets have a lot to answer for.

I think the British consumer has more to answer for actually.

Debt_Free_Chick

No - my trust in British food & farming has never been higher.

Personally, I never have and never would buy BM turkey products or any other insensively reared meat. I don't see that we can blame the food industry just yet, as we don't know how the Asian Bird Flu virus got into the BM flock. Certainly, with the birds being intensively raised, it would have spread (within the shed) more quickly, but I see no evidence of British farming being to blame. Interestingly, I hear that no birds were imported/introduced to the shed, which is starting to point towards possible introduction of the virus by wildlife

It's a bit unfair to drag up BSE when there hasn't been a confirmed case of BSE in cattle for more than 5 years (IIRC). As a result of BSE, the whole production of beef in this country is subject to most scrupulous regulation - far more than in any other Country - so that even if it's present, there are regulations in place to keep it out of the food chain. If you don't trust British beef, you absolutely should not trust beef reared to far lower standards than ours.

Salmonella is present in most animals, but often in low doses and much of it does not present a threat. Again there are stringent regulations to prevent salmonella getting into the human food chain in the UK - not so in Europe where many supermarkets source their non-British eggs.

IIRC the most recent salmonella "scare" occured in the Cadbury chocolate factory!

It's worth bearing in mind that other country food scares are simply not reported here - they're just "not news", despite the fact that we import food and despite the fact that regulation elsewhere is less stringent than here in the UK.

Some of the reporting of the Asian flu incident are grossly unfair. Surely it demonstrates that our systems work - the flu was diagnosed and dealt with before it got anywhere near the food chain - where's the risk?

Willpower?

lil_me wrote:

What lowered my faith even more was learnng from those who work for farmers that even 'organic' isn't always

Yes you do see a lot of products with 'organic' on them with no indication as to which standard (if any) they produced to. If I get the choice I always go for the ones with the Soil Association mark on them.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

why i dont trust the food industry .. is that i have worked i local food factories..... and.....even though one has a soil association cert..... if it runs out of the organic product.... it will pack other product in its place....with the orgainc packaging..... as long as they got a certain amount for traceability.....

also a poultry firm.. was selling round the farmers markets.... free- range organic birds and eggs.... but they got caught out as he left a 'paper chain' he was buying his birds from a bird processing plant.....and the eggs he would buy off anybody locally that had some for sale.....with out inspecting.... or varifying the way they were kept or fed.....ok he did have chickens etc roaming round his farm.. but that was for show.. he also had grants for this business and was classed as an eourntrepeur sp? and met the prince of wales.....

also in another place .... new zealand lamb ...was packed as welsh lamb at a premium pice... and the stamp on the meat was removed.... again.... as long as they had enough for traceability......

it also leads me to..... remember a few years ago.... a firm was buying condemed chicken/turkey.. that supposed to have gone to the pet meat trade... but they were bleaching it.. or something... and putting it into the food chain... it was sold in supermarkets.. resturants.. and was served in schools etc.......

Cazzdevil

It's not just meat we're talking about though surely? I don't eat much meat myself so I can't really comment on the whole "British is best" thing, but the state of British diets in general seems quite poor.

The new food labelling system that's been introduced seems like a good idea in principle, but surely it just highlights the fact that a lot of Brits don't know what's good for them and what isn't...

Am I wrong? I'm very interested in this discussion