Brexit the economy and house prices part 7: Brexit Harder

Arklight

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/these-american-meat-produ_n_5153275?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANxAULcGrXB3Yjq6VtD4l1aVWfHqQI0NJtJ_8HENL1I_VJgYhYMxgZV4-9EJ9-2vm6sIKuM05sGHqOuFMdcFhNJ08lA7h3yJ7fATBq9P0bouJi_yeIvmy5wXv8ZpE0pqFXr3M0Fu8g_q_wZuu7zfVHzf84oTWgyicWFUGb0tYau-

Next time you're enjoying a plate of giant Buffalo wings or chowing down on a giant steak, think about the size of the animal that must have produced it. Have you ever noticed how much bigger some U.S. cows, chickens, and turkeys are than their European counterparts? That's because many of America's animal farms actually mix in synthetic hormones with the feedstock, making their cows, pigs, and other animals grow a lot bigger and faster than they usually would...

While the practice has been given the thumbs up by the Food and Drug Administration, many overseas countries feel that the resultant meat and meat products are not all that safe for human consumption and disapprove of the practice.

American food stuffs that are banned in the EU and many other countries.

1. Blue #1 food coloring

2. Blue # 2 food coloring

3. Yellow # 5 food coloring

4. Yellow # 6 food coloring

5. Red #40 food coloring

6. Brominated vegetable oil (found in sodas)

7. Bromated flour (used in baking)

8. Olean (found in potato chips)

9. Preservatives butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)

10. Growth hormones rBGH and rBST (found in dairy products)

11. Arsenic found in chicken feed

The chlorinated chicken isn't due to some funny custom Americans like to engage in. The standards of abbatoir cleanliness and the training of operatives is so low in the US, that they can't kill and butcher the animals without ripping open their intestines at the same time. The meat is then literally processed and packaged covered in the animal's !!!!!!. Chlorine is used to sanitise the faeces, but it doesn't remove it.

You may as well call chlorinated chicken, 'chicken covered in it's own !!!!!!' as this is as accurate.

ben501

Arklight wrote: »

Because people who buy intensively farmed chicken don't have freezers full of New Zealand lamb.

If you are buying intensively farmed chicken now you'll do so on price. As America has virtually no standards for animal welfare, and saturates their animals with growth hormone and antibiotics to increase yield, their intensively farmed meat is cheap so that's what many people will buy.

But as I already said when I responded to lisyloo, the chicken I found is from Thailand. I've dug down and found a different selection, it's from Poland. Both were bought on price alone. Neither are British.

I'm not disputing the standards, or lack of them, but the cheap chicken I have is already foreign. I expect the same is true for many others who already buy based on price. IF, and it's still IF, as we may get someone with a bit of backbone who tells the US to stuff their low food standards & keep rules similar to those we have now, we do start to import US meat, then it's still not going to impact much on UK farmers. It'll just mean we get less from other cheap foreign sources like Poland & Thailand. Similarly with beef. Whenever I decide to re-stock the freezer, the cheapest joints are nearly always Irish, so all that would happen there is replacing one foreign source with another.

Thrugelmir

ben501 wrote: »

How do you foresee this happening?

If I were to check the meat in my freezer I think most beef is Irish. Lamb is New Zealand. Pork is Danish. There's probably some English stuff there too, but the majority will be foreign. Not a lot of help to UK farmers.

If meat from the U.S. replaces some of the other cheap stuff that's not going to affect UK farmers much. Besides, unless consumers choose to buy it, they won't put anyone out of work.

US pork producers have farms in Poland.

Thrugelmir

ben501 wrote: »

But as I already said when I responded to lisyloo, the chicken I found is from Thailand. .

Domino's pizza buy imported chicken from there by the container load.

Arklight

ben501 wrote: »

But as I already said when I responded to lisyloo, the chicken I found is from Thailand. I've dug down and found a different selection, it's from Poland. Both were bought on price alone. Neither are British.

I'm not disputing the standards, or lack of them, but the cheap chicken I have is already foreign. I expect the same is true for many others who already buy based on price. IF, and it's still IF, as we may get someone with a bit of backbone who tells the US to stuff their low food standards & keep rules similar to those we have now, we do start to import US meat, then it's still not going to impact much on UK farmers. It'll just mean we get less from other cheap foreign sources like Poland & Thailand. Similarly with beef. Whenever I decide to re-stock the freezer, the cheapest joints are nearly always Irish, so all that would happen there is replacing one foreign source with another.

Unlikely to be as cheap as American meat though due to the corners they cut, the growth hormones they use, and the disinfectant they apply to cover this up.

Thrugelmir

fewgroats wrote: »

It would be doubtful that a left wing politician would sell the NHS.

..

Services may well be outsourced to private entities though..

Herzlos

Just the profitable services, though. The NHS will still exist as an entity, doing all the stuff no-one else wants, until it collapses.

ben501 wrote: »

But as I already said when I responded to lisyloo, the chicken I found is from Thailand. I've dug down and found a different selection, it's from Poland. Both were bought on price alone. Neither are British.

Both fully compliant with EU standards, though.


We could tell the US, and Australia we're not going to drop our food standards, but then who else are we going to form trade deals with?


Remember all the "red tape" Brexit will allow us to cut? That's food standards.

lisyloo

ben501 wrote: »

How about an alternative simplistic suggestion then?

Consumers could choose NOT to buy it unless the origin is identified. I've had a quick look on a few frozen items. Some specify the origin, some don't (UK sausages, Thai Chicken pieces). Presumably some manufactures choose to do it already, albeit on a voluntary basis. No reason why it couldn't be made into a requirement.
Likewise with restaurants & other sellers of prepared to order food, they would then know the origin of their food and could publish it for customers. In all likelihood many would not care anyway. Until I checked the freezer I had no idea my chicken pieces are from Thailand.

My query is with the 'putting British farmers out of work' comment. A lot of meat is already sourced from abroad. I've no idea if US standard are better or worse than those we already import from. A quick Google for 'chicken from Thailand' gave examples from both sides. One said standards were better than ours, another said they're awful.
I'm sure people who care about sourcing local meat will continue to do so. I just think trying to predict the future of the UK meat industry is nothing more than scaremongering. Who knows, maybe sales of UK produced meat will increase.

It’s a great idea in theory, but do you really think this would happen?
Every busy mum, struggling single parent, old person perhaps with the beginnings of dimensia or can’t read the labels, every busy working bloke who’s been asked to pick something up on The way home?

I’m not criticising, I think it’s a great idea, just being realistic.

I like to think I care about the environment and I try to do all the right things like not being wasteful, but it’s a massive undertaking to check every single product you consume and I’m struggling to see people doing it.

Imagine a bunch of slightly drunk friends or tired hard working couple ordering from say dominos. Do you think it’s going to happen?

cogito

ben501 wrote: »

How about an alternative simplistic suggestion then?

Consumers could choose NOT to buy it unless the origin is identified. I've had a quick look on a few frozen items. Some specify the origin, some don't (UK sausages, Thai Chicken pieces). Presumably some manufactures choose to do it already, albeit on a voluntary basis. No reason why it couldn't be made into a requirement.
Likewise with restaurants & other sellers of prepared to order food, they would then know the origin of their food and could publish it for customers. In all likelihood many would not care anyway. Until I checked the freezer I had no idea my chicken pieces are from Thailand.

My query is with the 'putting British farmers out of work' comment. A lot of meat is already sourced from abroad. I've no idea if US standard are better or worse than those we already import from. A quick Google for 'chicken from Thailand' gave examples from both sides. One said standards were better than ours, another said they're awful.
I'm sure people who care about sourcing local meat will continue to do so. I just think trying to predict the future of the UK meat industry is nothing more than scaremongering. Who knows, maybe sales of UK produced meat will increase.

What makes you think that we can identify the origin of food imported from the EU? Under their ludicrous rules, meat imported from Poland is classified as a UK product if it's packed here.

cogito

Can someone supply any statistics for people taken ill or died as a result of eating chlorinated chicken?