Posted: Sun Mar 16, 08 9:49 am Post subject: buying ethical meat- any guidance?
Having only eaten fish and veggies for a very long time, I'm wanting to introduce a small amount of meat into my diet now (possibly can only afford to eat it once a week ie sunday dinner and leftovers as I want to only buy most ethical). However I found it quite daunting to figure out what I should eat. Are there better raised cows than others? What does traditionally reared mean? Do calf livers come from badly treated veal? What should I be looking for in a sausage?
p.s I don't have enough freezer space so no suggestions that I buy a half pig! Any other suggestions much appreciated though .
animals that are treated well, have a good life and killed with minimal stress/distress.
free range chicken seems more obvious and there is a lot of literature on it, but cows all look like they are 'free range already'- so does that make all beef ok to eat or can they be raised in barns, intensively farmed and butchered in more stressful ways?
I'm thinking transport time is probably quite stressful so buying locally would be better?
I want to eat meat, I just want to make sure that what I buy supports those farmers who are following practices that treat their animals well.
marigold
Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 12458 Location: West Sussex
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 08 3:14 pm Post subject:
Try your local Farmer's Market? These people https://www.wickhammanor.plus.com/ sell at Rye FM and sound pretty good, though I have no personal experience of them. You could ring them and ask about how and where their animals are slaughtered.
but cows all look like they are 'free range already'- so does that make all beef ok to eat or can they be raised in barns, intensively farmed and butchered in more stressful ways?
Not at all, barley beef is a common system where the animals may never go outside, particularly from dairy bred animals, and an awful lot of supermarket beef comes fromthat route (even the labelled 'Aberdeen Angus' may only be a commercial crossbred using an Angus bull.
If you're looking for ethical but don't know the origin you'll be safest with lamb- they are the greatest percentage where the 'standard' product will have been outside. However, don't buy lamb around this time of year, unless you buy hogget lamb as most new season lamb available now will have relied heavily upon concentrates to get it to slaughter weight (possibly 100% indoor reared).
The best way to buy ethical is to find someone local who sells their own meat & will be quite willing to show you how they produce it & then you can make your own decision as to wether you agree with their ethics.
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