Shopper's angst...

addictedtosoreen

morning all:j
think i have missed something here, whats the story with Hugh F W chickens, and Jamie Olivers live post mortem? this sounds horrifying!:eek: i do try to buy "ethical"food but like so many on here, the budget doesnt allow

moo2moo

I converted to the local farmers market meat almost a year ago. I pay £1 per pound for both pork and lamb based on 1/2 an animal. 1/2 a pig last time round cost £66. Filled 50% of my freezer and lasted almost 3 months. It would have lasted longer but I made the mistake of roasting a joint when my parents were visiting and now they regularly appear for sunday lunch although its a 3 hour round trip. Same with my DHs landrovering friends. They all appear ridiculously early sunday morning for bacon and egg butties before going out for the day. One of them is even cheeky enough to leave me a shopping list for the farmers market!

I take the kids to the farmers market where they each get their pocket money to haggle with the farmers and choose their own lunches. The eldest invariably opts for barbecued buffalo burgers caked in tomato ketchup. The youngest, a blonde and curly 5 year old merely walks around sampling things before materialising with her money intact. I did apologise to the stallholder with the smoked fish after she'd sampled her way through the smoked crab and lobster and pretty much everything else he had to try but he was quite happy about it. A small cute child announcing that its really yummy and asking for more did wonders for his sales. So much so that after putting up with her various questions about the various fish and the smoking and why some tastes appley and non-tastes burnt (like mummys cooking when the kitchens smokey) she left with a present of more smoked fish. Moving on to the lady with the sausages.... and the yogurt man.

I do find the fruit and veg to be very overpriced and the fresh bread and the jams.

I keep chickens for eggs and meat so I know exactly how they are raised.

I'd love to be able to say that every purchase I made was ethically correct but financially thats not an option. I need to know that I'm feeding my family the best food I can within reason and budget. Good quality meat and fresh fruit and veg being high up on my list. I'd rather my DH drank Tesco own label coffee than ethically correct Fairtrade and put the difference into dental care for my DDs than to ensuring a third world farmer got a fair wage. If the fairtrade coffee is a few pence more then I'll gladly pay the difference but a few pounds? No.

Dobie

I think that we all have a responsibility to make sure we're properly informed about where our food comes from & how it's produced. It's then up to each of us & our own circumstances what we choose to spend our budget on. Making people feel 'guilty' about what they can or cannot afford is appalling.

My main priority is to support local business so I use the local farm shop for my big weekly fruit & veg shop. I then use the local Co op rather than the BIG supermarkets for our basics.

sammy_kaye18

addictedtosoreen wrote: »

morning all:j
think i have missed something here, whats the story with Hugh F W chickens, and Jamie Olivers live post mortem? this sounds horrifying!:eek: i do try to buy "ethical"food but like so many on here, the budget doesnt allow

Hi flower
Hugh FW did a show called Chicken Run which was all about battery hens and what they are subjected to - it showed the whole process and how any underweight healthy birds were killed simply becase they were underweight, in over crowded sheds, and in poor conditions - it was horrific.

Jamie Oliver did a show which was about weight loss and the bad effects of what a poor diet can do to you and at the end of it he had a live post mortem:eek: of an overweight man and it showed what his diet had done to him.

Horrid stuff but enough to turn my stomach and put me off junk food and cheap chicken for life!!

leonlala

Hi,
new to this forum, but I've been having a lot of the same thoughts as many of the posters on here.
we (OH + 3yr old +7yr old) are on a tight budget now.
In the past I've always tried to buy free range meat and veg. but lately this has not been possible due to budget.
I don't buy chicken unless it's free range.( i was a veggie for 18 years 'cause of ethical reasons. I now eat meat due to health reasons.) we haven't eaten any for weeks now.
yesterday found free range eggs for 70p half dozen!! straight from the small holder.
sorry, rambling.. my point is i have felt great guilt at buying unhappy meat, in supermarkets, but in reality i no longer have the luxury of that choice. but i still keep my eye out for bargins in the free range line.
I except that is the way it is for now, but am looking forward to days of happy meat again.
Lou

seraphina

It's a question of picking your battles, isn't it? For instance I buy organic dairy products where possible because I think the standards of animal welfare are higher (particularly with respect to male calves). We're vegetarian but if I do buy meat, it comes from a local butchers.

I don't tend to buy organic fruit and veg - I'd much rather have local than organic. But yes, I'm frequently to be found in a supermarket aisle agonizing about which to buy.

ceridwen

Cruelty to animals is one of the reasons I dont eat meat - there are others. I couldnt afford the premium for "happy" meat - so am glad I am veggie by choice anyway for other reasons (health/self-development/less land used for a veggie diet/etc/etc).

My eggs have to be free-range ones.

I buy everything possible organic - I just blanch a bit when it comes to coffee (so its the cheapest real coffee there - as coffee is such an expensive product). Everything else - I just grit my teeth and pay up. I cant afford organic stuff - but I can "manage" to find the money for it. I guess thats where there are several different levels of budget coming in in different households:

1. There just plain literally isnt enough money to go round for bare necessities if one buys organic.

2. One cant afford organic - but gets it anyway (having to pay the organic price premium means its difficult to find the money for holidays and savings and it takes literally years to find the money for necessary work on the house).

3. One can afford organic (you're not having to go short in other respects to pay that premium).

I'm in Category 2 - I can manage to find the money, but am dipping out in other respects because of it. The reason why I grit my teeth and do that "dipping out" in other respects is because I place a high premium on health. I loathe and detest having any illness at all in any shape or form - so I am prepared to pay that organic price premium to maximise my chances of staying healthy. I also do the best I can to live within the boundaries my conscience sets me (doesnt mean to say I always succeed:rolleyes: - but I do the best I can to do so).

Hardup_Hester

Hi all
I also have too little money to be able to worry about where my food comes from. My other concern is that I would trust a supermarket about as much as I'd trust a politician & so I do believe that the prices are often artificially hiked and also unless I actually see the veg picked or the animal slaughtered I don't trust the 'organic freerange' claims.
My neighbour has an organic fruit & veg box delivered & a couple of times she has not cancelled the order when she's gone on holiday & invited me to have the veg rather than throw it away. I have to say I was appalled by the poor quality of the box contents.
Hester

Badger_Lady

I'm a veggie too, so I don't have to worry about the meat / eggs side of things (although I don't think I could bear to perpetuate such an unethical intensive farming industry, I'm probably biased!).

I do go for the fruit and veggies whenever they're close enough in price - the problem is I'm not really worried about Organic unless I'm cooking for someone else and want better flavours (I'd never tasted a potato until I had an organic one!). And I'm still not sure what Fairtrade really means in practical terms.... actually, I got some Fairtrade avacados in a Tesco offer / reduction recently and they were awful, really hard and difficult to blend, so I deliberately steer clear of those now

peb

I'm with Seraphina. how do you decide between organic flown in from Israel or non organic from Lincolnshire. In this case I will go "local" even though I have been told that food miles can be more haeming with local lorries on roads than flown in food! Meat - free range yes; organic I cannot afford.