Free Range/Ethical frugal eating

anrutpea

What's everyone's thoughts on free range chicken and british (not danish) pork/ham/bacon.

Also sausages - do people check the meat content is over 95%?

I'm genuinely interested as I enjoy cooking and whilst being frivolous I do think about what I eat and I care if an animal is being slaughtered for food that it is ethical.

There have been a lot of programmes on TV raising awareness to free range chicken and battery chicken, particularly the difference in taste and nutritional value.

I absolutely love chicken but because we only buy free range we don't eat it often as it is more expensive so we cut back and eat other meats and fish. I have seen supermarkets sell free range chicken thighs quite cheaply at £2.50 for 6 boneless thighs so we buy them and make fajitas.

When we have a curry we now use either turkey or braising steak.

We only ever have a whole cooked free range chicken if we find one reduced to about £3 then we boil the bones and make a stock which we make a risotto with the next day.

We also have 1 day a week where we don't eat any meat at all e.g margarita pizza with mozarella and basil or goats cheese tart.

Also sausages - I like to look for high meat content so I know what's in them. I saw a programme where low meat content sausages only had sinew and muscles/tendons bashed into a paste.

My partner raised my awareness to danish pigs saying they never see grass and only ever live on concrete, sometimes cages.

What are your thoughts? Are there any other practises that I have not mentioned that you know about?

There is also foreign veal where the calves are left in dark barns, however british rose veal is totally ethical and calves are left in fields outside.

hotcookie101

anrutpea wrote: »

What's everyone's thoughts on free range chicken and british (not danish) pork/ham/bacon.

Also sausages - do people check the meat content is over 95%?

When we have a curry we now use either turkey or braising steak.

We only ever have a whole cooked free range chicken if we find one reduced to about £3 then we boil the bones and make a stock which we make a risotto with the next day.

We also have 1 day a week where we don't eat any meat at all e.g margarita pizza with mozarella and basil or goats cheese tart.

Also sausages - I like to look for high meat content so I know what's in them. I saw a programme where low meat content sausages only had sinew and muscles/tendons bashed into a paste.

My partner raised my awareness to danish pigs saying they never see grass and only ever live on concrete, sometimes cages.

What are your thoughts? Are there any other practises that I have not mentioned that you know about?

There is also foreign veal where the calves are left in dark barns, however british rose veal is totally ethical and calves are left in fields outside.

Do you buy free range turkey? As mass produced turkey is just an unethical as chicken?

I buy FR chicken and pork (ideally from a local farm shop, where I know where the pigs live)

Sausages-I buy FR/organic, I do like a higher meat content, but not 95%-I find them too dry-I aim for 80-90% meat. I buy organic milk, and I will buy british veal if I see it, as I dislike the practice of killing calves at 1 day old (I do not want to be vegan, although I believe if you are doing vegetarianism for ethical reasons-you should be vegan)

We eat meat 2-4 days a week, veggie or fish 2-4 days a week

Fish is sustainable from wild stocks/ethically farmed.

We are lucky, in that we are not on the breadline, but I make the most of what we have. We had a 1.5kg FR chicken for dinner on sunday, that has done 3 meals for 2 (greedy) people-plus lunchtime leftovers, plus 4l of stock (well, 2L, as I had a spare carcass in the freezer, as I like to make stock from at least 2 carcasses)

If money became tighter, we would eat less meat and fish rather than buy intensively reared pork or poultry. I prefer to buy lamb and beef from the farm shop-it is reasonably priced, but I do buy from waitrose as well. I have experience in livestock and dairy farming, and I would like both the people who produce my food to be able to make a living, and the animals that I eat to have lived the most happy life possible (including the inevitable ending)

Sorry for the essay, it is something I feel strongly about :D

anrutpea

Thanks for your reply hot cookie.

Yes sorry I forgot to say we buy free range turkey which isn't always as expensive.

I'm glad that there are people who feel strongly about food and where it comes from.

Since watching River Cottage's programme about sustainable fish I have started buying alternative fish to cod, haddock and salmon. We eat a lot of Bream, Coley, Pollock and Cobbler which we tend to find loads of in the reduced section of the supermarket.

I also noticed how cheap it is to buy fruit and veg from our local grocers instead of buying it from supermarkets. i would say the price is easily 40-50% cheaper and stays fresher for longer too.

terra_ferma

Well done for caring about animal welfare! :T
There is a thread about eggs that may interest you, I posted some info about free range farming
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4097363
personally I don't think free range is all they tell us it is, there is a link from someone to a video that shows what a 'free range' farm really looks like (probably one of the worst though). Birds are still debeaked and live in cramped conditions, many never make it to the 'free range' space because there's too many of them and the doors are too small.

In my opinion the way to go is small, local farms, preferably organic, rather than supermarket bought meat (this is what I'm going to do).
Riverford is a good place, but expensive.

sammiell

Great!!! I'm lucky to live in lincolnshire and we have great farmers markets in the city and in the surrounding areas on an almost daily basis and some great local producers. I tend to buy thing from there once a month. All my pork comes from there sold to me buy the farmer who cares about the welfare of his animals so he's happy I'm happy. I buy cheese and veg from there too also lamb and beef but not so much as it's expensive to eat on a regular basis. I use waitrose when I can afford it
With all this in the news at the moment about milk prices I think we should be making a stand everyone is having to make cut backs, but to the detriment of our farmers I think not, supermarkets are squeezing down the price, the farmer makes no money we as taxpayers then subsidise the farmer to produce the milk now I'm not an economist but I realise if the supermarkets cut their profit and shared it out with the farmer we wouldn't have to pay subsidies so the farmer would be happy taxpayers would be happy simple but perhaps it's not as easy as that!!I'm lucky I'm not on the breadline but I still have a shopping budget to stick to I just try and make informed choices:D

anrutpea

Some really interesting comments on here thanks :-)

I totally understand about shopping on a budget - we have a limited amount of money to spend on food a month but by using the local grocers we get all our fruit for bait and all our veg for evening meals for the whole week for about £15. This includes a good few kilos of potatoes which keep us going for weeks.

The grocers also sells 4 pints of semi skimmed milk for 85p and 2 blocks of butter for £1, 2 packs of laughing cow for £1, 3 peanut lions for £1. Fair enough they sell things that are nearing their sell by date but that's how they sell it cheap - they make a profit and we get cheap food - everyone's happy.

I personally hate supermarkets and how they have the monopoly over local farmers. I try to buy as much as possible from local producers and use supermarkets as a last resort - mainly for reduced meat/fish. I buy cupboard products at aldi - e.g. tin of chopped toms 31p.

Sometimes when I am spending my £5 in the supermarket I watch people mindlessly loading their trollies with mountains of shopping because it's convenient and all in one place. I sometimes wish they'd take a step back sometimes and think of all the local producers they are putting out of business by buying tasteless water injected battery chicken.

I know this is contraversial and people may think I'm being judgemental - I really am not - I understand there are people who have little money or little time, single parent families etc - I get this. But if it's about money I really don't think supermarkets are the cheapest places to go for food.

If you have time to shop around it really does save lots of money.

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

I only buy meat from my local butcher. as he only kills what he can sell. And these are sourced locally as well.

But what is this buy things on an ethical basis. I cannot buy bananas from the Windward Islands, because everyone is fairtrade. I was asked to do so by a colleague I used to work with, saying that this helps his family and people.

Also, I will never entertain Icelandic fish or to think people not believe that fishermen hang rods over boats to catch the line style, when commercial fleets leave lines of up to 100 miles in waters.

There are other things I could mention, but to say I do not use the Stroud Farmers Market, because if I did, my local grocer and butcher would go out of business.

Meat and fish from a supermarket such A T S M, is a never in TILAMS land

anrutpea

I try to buy meat from butchers but up in the north east there are not many butchers around thanks to supermarkets.

I try to get to grainger market in Newcastle in my lunch breaks which has lovely butchers and fishmongers.

I also try to use the butchers in Chester-Le-Street on a weekend along with my veg shop.

Butterfly_Brain

It is ok if you can afford to be ethical, but if you are on minimum wage cost has to take priority.

Pink.

Hi anrutpea,

I agree with Butterfly Brain.

I am in the fortunate position at the moment where I can afford to choose what I buy and where I shop and I do choose to buy ethically as much as possible because I do feel strongly about it.....although I'm still a sucker for a bargain!

However in this economic climate, things could easily change for any of us without much notice.

If, for whatever reason, our cash flow was to become tighter we would eat less meat than we do but still try to choose ethically. If my husband, who is the main earner, was to loose his job and things were really tight then I'm afraid my ethics would probably go out of the window. At that point feeding my family a nutritious diet as cheaply as possible would be my priority.

If you read the Old Style board on a regular basis you will see how many people are in dire straits and putting food on the table is the most important thing to them. It could happen to any one of us. In that situation, much as people might want to go down the ethical route, sometimes they simply can't afford to.

As this is an ethical question rather than Old Style, I'll move it over to the Green & Ethical MoneySaving board later.

Pink

ragz_2

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

It is ok if you can afford to be ethical, but if you are on minimum wage cost has to take priority.

I think the 'priority' is a big problem though, many people on minimum incomes think it's more important to buy their kids a new video game/have sky tv/top up their mobiles/ buy fags etc than to buy decent food.
Of course it's personal choice... but it is interesting what some people prioritise and then claim they can't afford decent food.

I will only buy free range chicken (£5 each in Lidl!), MIL an SIL are not at all bothered, although they have bigger incomes.
I will only buy British sausages with a decent meat content, many people I know are happy with value ones...

Choice... or ignorance?