When Buying Meat Do You

[Melp]

do some research into the origins of it?

Do you know if the animals were reared properly, whether they had the freedom to roam, were treated well, had good living conditions and died a humane death

 

or

 

Do you just pick whatever you want from the supermarket shelves without a thought about how the animal lived and died?

 

Be honest....

[Helly]

fraid i buy it from the shelf without questioning its life before i eat it. i would prefer to eat organic, and when thats on offer and the price is similar i will buy it, but untill prices are nearer the prices for the more commercial meat i cant afford to eat it all the time.

[snow]

I have to say I just buy it - although I do try and buy organic when I can afford it even then I just "trust" that the supermarket or butcher has sourced it and labeled it correctly, and I have absolutely no idea whether something being labeled "organic" means that the animals have been "reared properly" or not or even if that even enters into the "organic" labeling procedure.

 

What's ironic is that when I was still living in Wales a new butcher opened shop, he sourced all his meat, in fact when you went in there was a board up giving the name and number of the cow/pig that was being sold that day, the farm it came from etc all the details were there quite prominently - he closed down less than a year later because a) he couldn't afford to keep selling only organic produce because the vast majority of people simply couldn't afford it and b) he had so many people complaining that they found it "creepy and upsetting" to see the details of the animals up on the walls so they wouldn't shop there - hardly good for a butchers business really.

[wickychoo]

We use an organic butcher, though sometimes the chicken we buy is free-range not organic. It is more expensive, so we eat meat less often (we frequently eat fish though, from a fishmonger.) Its also more convenient for us, as we try not to use supermarkets where possible we cycle into town to get meat/fish etc. This is not a hardship though as there are only 2 of us, we're not trying to feed a family etc. We won't but meat in a supermarket now, our butcher can tell you about the farms and breed of the animals whose meat he sells, I don't trust Tesco to do that. Plus by shopping at the butchers, they know us now, its pleasant, friendly and they're great with advice, they can prep your meat for you too. Plus they sometimes have mutton, which I'm a fan of and you can get cheap/free bones for doglets...

 

Supermarket meat aisles, especially the rows and rows of cheap chicken with their hock-burns and ginoromous unnatural sizes give me the heebie-jeebies now, even as an out-and-out carnivore.

[Laurel n Hardy]

none of my meat comes from a supermarket

 

Mine is from two or three local butchers and i always question the origins

 

is it local, did they go to the auctions themsleves, did they slaughter it too, is it organic, naturally reared n fed etc, what were the living conditions, how old is the lamb/beef etc

 

any bad answers or evasion and my business goes elewhere

 

the ones i go to now all source locally to me in Cheshire

[Melp]

I admit I tend to buy from supermarkets too. We buy organic free range chicken and always free range eggs despite them costing more. The other meat [which tends to be pork mainly] we just buy.

Very occcasionally we go to Chatsworth House farm shop any will buy meat from there but is is very expensive.

We tend to eat a lot of vegetarian meals as our daughter is a veggie and we all like the food but we rarely question the origins of meat when we buy it.

[DanishPastry]

I almost always buy organic from the supermarket. There are quite strict rules of welfare for danish organic farming. If I can't get/afford organic I will buy danish meat, not German or other origin.

[Bernie]

We eat very little meat and when I do buy it, it has to be organic. Eggs I get from my friend who keeps a few chickens and they are scrumptious.

[sprogsbloke]

I very rearely buy meat as Sarah is vegetarian and that is just as good (apart from roasts ;)) when I do buy it is Free Range (chicken for the doggies) or are either Organic or the top range ones so good quality.

[Yantan]

I used to life in a little village and we were able to buy fresh free range eggs from our local shop there. The hens ran round in a big field at the back of the shop and very often you had to wait whilst the owner went to collect the eggs for you. They were fab We also had a local butchers van come round once a week. The meat wasn't organic but was local and they only dealt with farmers who treated their animals well.

 

However since moving back to town I don't haven't had this sort of choice I now get all my meat from Tesco, who assure me (coz I have asked) that the meat they supply is ethically reared and sourced from local suppliers, I also buy their free range eggs.

 

We do have lots of organic farm shops around tho it does mean a bit of travelling to get to them. However when I do buy meat from these sources it's as a treat as it's just too expensive to buy on a regular basis.

 

Marion

[phoebejo]

Over recent months I have tried to cut back on the amount of meat we eat because we're trying to save money. I would prefer to just have locally produced, free range and organic meat but I'm cooking dinner for seven people every night and we simply cannot afford it. When I do buy a chicken in a supermarket I refuse to buy any with hock burns or any other marks on them. I only buy free range eggs and I buy organic milk for Georgia.

 

I can't afford to have too many principles when it comes to feeding the 5000

[babsc71]

The majority of our meat is sourced locally as I'm lucky, or sometimes unlucky, enough to have married into a farming community. The beef, lamb and pork are reared by three farmers, who I know first hand, have excellent practice and so does the slaughter house/butcher that they use.

 

The advantage is that we buy in bulk and freeze in two large freezers so the meat is cheaper than the supermarkets but our carbon footprint is bigger because of this.

 

Also you have to decide in advance what you fancy for tea and you have to defrost it!

 

The chicken and eggs I buy are free range.

[cycas]

On the whole I avoid buying meat if I can't buy free range, and I generally try to get it from a local butcher from a known source. I buy veggie food instead. I prefer organic if there is no info available about the farm, but I don't mind just free range if there is more info available.

 

I sometimes buy free range ham for Mark from the Coop, and I don't really know that much about the Coop meat handling apart from what their own marketing info says. I have occasionally bought the animals lambs liver there too.

 

The dogs food is based on NZ lamb: I obviously don't know how that is slaughtered, but with lamb you can at least be reasonably sure the poor beasts got to see sunlight and move about freely, as sheep just don't seem to work in factory environments, thankfully. The cats are mostly eating fish-based foods at the mo, though they have had food based on factory farmed animals, and no doubt will again. It seems to be incredibly hard to find decent cat food that isn't based on factory farmed meat. I am by no means sure that fish-based foods are 'better' ethically, given that our fish stocks are under serious strain.

 

... I think my meat purchases are pretty carefully thought through: I'm a lot less confident about origins of our milk and cheese though.

[Ian]

This is something I keep thinking about lately. Recently there was a thread on here - something about vegetarianism (I think) from the title which I kept looking at & thinking I should read but didn't really want to. In the end I never did read it - simply because I've never considered being vegetarian & I'm not sure that I would want to either.

 

So basically, I've just carried on as ever - I buy meat in the supermarket, have never in all honesty thought of reputable UK supermarkets as being cruel to animals or using suppliers that may be so. I'd usually go to Asda, occasionally Morrisons & prefer fresh chicken to frozen, though I do sometimes buy frozen too.

 

I'll also, occasionally if it's more convenient to where I am I might pop into a Netto or Lidl but won't buy what is obviously cheap & none European frozen chickens at all. I perceive it to be filled out with water & the animals could quite possibly have been treated in a manner we wouldn't legally permit in the UK.

 

In the past 2 or 3 weeks there this cottage garden (or something ) farmer on C4. In the last couple of weeks they slaughtered a chicken & then the following week visited an abatoir - again showing a slaughter.

 

I don't really think of my meat as an animal - even largely whole animals (eg chicken / turkey) - and didn't enjoy seeing them slaughtered however "humanely". I'm still not sure I want to give up meat (or fish) but it therefore keeps flitting in & out of my mind should all animals lovers be "veggie" or even vegan or is it proper that you inisted on "reared properly" only to then slaughter them for food?

Edited August 6, 2007 by Ian

[sproggie14]

I'm still not sure I want to give up meat (or fish) but it therefore keeps flitting in & out of my mind should all animals lovers be "veggie" or even vegan or is it proper that you inisted on "reared properly" only to then slaughter them for food?

 

Well as a veggie I'm going to say yes of course. In my mind you don't eat things you love

 

But I do think that the minimum an animal lover ought to do is to make an effort to make sure any animals they eat have had a good a life as possible before death. Yes it is more expensive but the price will only come down once more people support free range meat production. If it's too expensive to eat every day then why not have it every other day and eat veggie other days? It would be a far healthier diet anyway and meat substitutes are so good these days it really isn't that hard.