Cheap and well cared for meat? Can we have it all?

moanymoany

I grew very concerned that I was buying meat that was reared cruelly. We now buy only organic, because this not only has a reasonable amount of free life, but is not full of chemicals.

I buy some meat each month. One chicken and for the past two months they have been reduced by £1 a kilo. I do think these chickens are nicer. Much less fat comes out.

However, most of our meals are based around the vegetarian option. I know that I have a way to go in the organic stakes. But I think I am doing much better now than a year ago.

DKLS

I personally belive that if you eat meat, you have a duty to know how that animal was reared, its then up to personal choice if you choose to eat organic free range or intensive farmed.

I was brought up on game, well I would having a granddad who was a gamekeeper, hare, rabbit, Wood Pigeon, Grouse, pheasants, wild Geese were all on the menu, and buying meat from a supermarket was an alien concept, at best we would swap goods with the local butcher.

Just thinking about it has made me hungry, I want a game pie!!!! or even better Pheasant and Chips mmmmmmmmmmmmm:D

Cazzdevil

Quasar wrote: »

The solution is to eat less meat all round. Many people eat meat every day, and we don't really need that, in fact too much meat is not good for our health.

I couldn't agree more, and in fact I've just put a similar post on the Hughs Chicken Run thread. It's astonoshing the number of meat eaters who consider meat an everyday meal and it doesn't have to be the case.

Plus, having meat every day makes for an expensive food budget, lentils and beans and veg are far cheaper.

~Chameleon~

I know many people here have to shop on a budget, me included, but actually Free Range chickens aren't as expensive as some people seem to fear. I posted on another thread last night that for a family of 4 making a 2kg chicken stretch over 2 meals that the extra cost for free range would be less than 25p per meal.

Just to show you how little the difference really is I've checked current prices at Tesco, which lets face it, most people use for their shopping.

Tesco Standard Chicken £2.18-£2.49 per kg (the larger birds are cheaper per kg)
Tesco Free Range Chicken £3.69 per kg
Tesco Finest Corn Fed Free Range Chicken £3.53 per kg
Tesco Organic Chicken £4.49 per kg

Apparently free range are even cheaper in Asda too, approx £3/kg.

I don't think that is an extortionate amount to pay for a decently reared chicken, and also one that isn't pumped full of antibiotics and water. I'd rather eat a couple of free range ones a month than a cheap broiler-reared chicken every week.

Quasar

There is a thread somewhere, asking people what sort of animal they would like to eat, given a chance to try something new.

This is exactly what is the problem with the human race: we "own" the planet and everything on it. Therefore we use everything, be it inert matter or living one. We have been doing so for millennia, oblivious to the fact that the earth is a closed system, and damage to one part will have an effect on the rest.

We continue to pump materials into the atmosphere that living organisms (including ourselves) cannot metabolise fast enough because they have never evolved with this stuff around them. We have found ways to farm animals in ways that produce more meat but at the cost of impoverished quality and untold suffering.

Now some of us have realised what we have done and try to change things, but the ugly truth of unrestrained business profits, and the insistence of the rich west to have everything cheap, and LOTS of it, keeps these obscene practices into place.

Wanna bet that in a months time almost all those who are shocked now will continue buying their cheap chicken and other meats? Sitting at the table and scoffing tasty burgers or drumsticks has a way of soothing many uneasy consciences.

maypole

Regarding the ASDA free range chickens. Well I was put off those, there was a programme on TV a few months ago pointing out that the so called free range chickens were hardly allowed out of their sheds. Someone had gone in with a secret camera I think.
The safest place to buy them I think ,would be a butcher who can tell you where they come from, of course they are more expensive. But as Hugh pointed out, you can get more than one meal from a chicken.

Fozz

I feel bad because I have a brilliant local butcher, but he's further to walk to than my Co-op, which is at the top of my road, and guess who wins when I need meat in a hurry!
The last time I got a beef joint from him, he said " We know the animal that joint came from " and when I then bought two pounds of mince, I was told it came from the same animal. As others have said, that is definitely the way to buy meat, and I must make a belated New Years resolution to buy more from there.
My 2 DDs and I really like veggie food, DH is a real carnivore, so if I do more veggie food for us girls we should be able to afford more "proper" meat!

frogga

If only it was just the chickens....................

Animal welfare is such an emmotive subject. IMHO if any one has a concience at all about the welfare of animals, and if they are honest to themselves , they wouldn't eat meat at all.

Yes, I'm sure it does taste nice, and we are superior to animals, but isn't that why we shouldn't exploit them?

You don't need it, it's not the natural diet of a human being, and one day eating meat will be resigned to the history books along with the other shameful past sins of Human Beings such as Slavery and hanging.

Penelope_Penguin

frogga wrote: »

You don't need it, it's not the natural diet of a human being, and one day eating meat will be resigned to the history books along with the other shameful past sins of Human Beings such as Slavery and hanging.

Hi, frogga :j long time, no speak :T

Can you clarify what you mean by the above point? I thought humans were omniverous, and that's why we have canine teeth - like dogs

Penny. x

angel81uk

This whole debate concerns me as I feel people are failing to look at the bigger picture. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for only buying organic and free range but producing free range food requires more space which we just don't have in this country anymore. Our population is increasing at a phenomenal rate and land is increasingly being used for housing rather than farming. So we have more and more people needing food and less space to produce it.

How's it going to work? We either need to start eating meat as a luxury rather than a staple or we end up having to import meat from countries whose animal welfare policies are less strict than our own.