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Location: Preesall, Lancashire
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 5,622
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Originally Posted by
Azz
Couple of points I want to comment on:
'Our standards are higher in the UK, it would never happen here' - Steroids, growth hormones, routine antibiotics, cramp conditions are completely legal here. Additionally - who do you think polices the 'standards' when it comes to animal cruelty? With all the cattle/poultry that's farmed here it would be near impossible to make sure they aren't being mistreated. At the end of the day - it's business, and the thing on their mind is money.
Even worse with the way big supermarkets do business with farmers.
'Our standards are higher in the UK, it would never happen here' part 2 - a lot if not most of our meat comes from abroad anyway.
'We only buy organic/local meat' - so they say it's meant to be organic, or free range, or from a local caring farm. But is it really? Who checks to make sure? Can we really trust them? Personally I think a big fat NO.
Of course there may be the odd decent farmer here or there, but thanks to the way supermarkets do business with them they have to watch their bottom line, and they're most likely going to be concerned about not going bankrupt than the welfare of a few animals who they know are going to be killed anyway.
Ah, you see, that's the crux of the matter! I wouldn't ever buy supermarket meat ever again!
We are also on a very tight budget - under £40 a week for the 2 of us, including lunches for work and all household products (loo roll, washing powder etc). We eat a lot of 'basic' supermarket brands (tinned toms, beans etc) but budget for meat from the local butcher. Yes, there is less of it, but it's better quality.
Our standards ARE higher in the UK - but you do have to make sure that is where your meat comes from. We haven't eaten foreign meat in a long time.
Our local organic meat farm is run by people we know quite well (since living here) - I trust their judgement and their husbandry skills. The farm and their shop is family run; and I've visited the farm and looked at the animals etc.
Don't forget, if everyone stopped eating meat and it's related products (milk, dairy, eggs etc), we wouldn't have any livestock in the country. No cows, no pigs, no chickens and probably no sheep. There is a lot of land in the UK that isn't suitable for farming crops on, so a lot of that would be left fallow as well. What is left of the UK-based farming industry and countryside would just disappear.