Ethical practices in food production

[Barmaid]

How much do you consider ethical practices in food production?

Do you think "how far has this meat/fish/veg travelled" - ie the carbon footprint. Or do you try and source local ingredients?

Are you concerned about fish from sustainable sources? Do you care how the animal has lived before it died to provide you with a meal? Is cost an issue for you?

How much should we care about where our food comes from and how it lived before it died?

Do you avoid GM foods and instead go for organic veg? Again, is locality an issue for you?

If you think we are not doing enough, how can we change things?
Just an interesting debate for a Friday afternoon.

[Ankou]

not much, if i see something and i like it and the price is right i buy it.

i prefer to buy from my local butcher etc anyway and i know most of his stuff is local, but the packaging from the major supermarkets could tell you any old sh!te and we are meant to believe it all to be true so they can add another quid or so to the price.

[emmie]

I would like to think we are all concerned about the source of our foods, and its welfare, but for many its cost driven, and i am sorry but i'm one, i have to balance what i believe is right, ethical against what's in the budget.

[emmie]

Ankou is right about the supermarkets, they can sell you anything, its been proven that some products have the British sticker on them but that's not where the product comes from. I try and go to markets for produce like veg and fruit. But even there, there is no knowing where it comes from.

[EcclesCake]

I definitely consider the food miles, not just for ethical reasons but for quality too. Why do I want to eat stuff that's been flown half way around the world when I can eat locally produced produce that is field to table in 48hrs.

Seasonality is also very important to me, best flavour and best price for stuff that is at its peak.

I never eat supermarket meat and buy only from my local butcher who has never let me down. Happy animals do result in good meat.

I do have an organic veg box, but when shopping in general I will seek out what is local and at it's best. I won't blindly buy organic just for the sake of it.

[ummmm]

I buy my meat from the butcher and fruit and veg from the greengrocer....which is 'mostly' all local...

I hate to see fishing where they land their catch and just kick the fish about...and put live prawns into sizing boxes. It's cruel....

In an ideal world we should all care...In reality...it's too expensive to care for many.

I would never eat a battery laid egg....ever...

[Ankou]

we are fairly fortunate that we have a weekly market in our village which is supplied by all the local farms. not to say we don;t venture to the supermarkets, its just that i don't trust any of the labelling or guarantees to be true.

[emmie]

we are in the inner city, there are some farmers markets, but the cost is prohibitive.

[mccfluff]

i refuse to eat battery eggs or "shed" chickens do my best to buy local but its not easy when my "local" shops are asda, tesco and sainsbury's!

[ummmm]

Any local fishmongers Fluffy?

[mccfluff]

nope the sains and asda do have fish counters though - sains is pretty good

[China Doll]

Never think about how far the food has travelled. I do try to buy fish from sustainble sources, dolphin friendly tuna, free range eggs. Price is far more important to me than how the animal lived, I wouldn't advocate cruelty to animals but too find it terribly hard to get worked up about them as food. I'd only buy organic veg if it was on offer.

I think in an ideal world, all chicks would be free range, fish from sustainable resources and cows, pigs, sheep etc treated and reared well. However that all costs money and I suspect that will always be an overiding factor. I imagine if I had the money then I would shop differently myself.

[Barmaid]

It's an interesting conundrum. I love fish, but I object to buying it from Tescos because I think it has travelled half way round the world. If I go to the east coast for work, I always pop into the fishmongers there. At least then I know it has been landed there that morning. It is also cheaper that Tescos.

Veg I like to buy locally or grow my own. I've recently found a little independent veg shop and she buys from local suppliers (although I do live on the edge of the Fens which is a bonus).

I used to buy my meat from the Well Hung meat company. Their quality was fantastic, but I became concerned about the distance the meat travelled. I now buy from a small butchers in the next town who have their own farms and thus it is local.

Let's face it though, the supermarkets are cheaper! Do you blame a family of four or five or a pensioner for buying the cheaper cuts from the supermarket because they can't afford to source good quality local food cheaply? What could be done?

[Ankou]

even if you bought half a dozen free range eggs, its likely that the cake you picked up as well (don't worry china, secrets safe with me) was made from eggs supplied from a battery farm.

[emmie]

Ankou and that is the biggest problem, no one knows, unless you catch the fish, or trap the animal yourself and grow your own veg.

[Old_Geezer]

I care about animal welfare but don't accept the responsibility lies with the end buyer. It lies with those who use, or fail to use, ethical practices. Who can trust the myriad of little symbols on the label to mean what they seem to anyway ? That said I'll buy organic and free range where I can. And yes avoid GM since it is a risk to the world that has no reason to exist save to line the pockets of those who invested.

How can we change things ? That's the big question. All the power lies with those politicians both national and on the international stage, that just bend over backwards for the commercial magnates. I'm not holding my breath for any good changes anytime.

[China Doll]

I think the un-PC problem I have Ankou, aside from the fact that I rarely buy cake (unless it's cheese cake) obviously, is that I don't really care if the eggs in it were not free range. I just absolutely don't care. I know that if a health scare story broke about eggs in cake being directly responsible for a hideous illness then of course I would pay attention. But the truth of the matter is as it stands right now, taht cheese cake I brought last week was really nice.

[Ankou]

i think the upshot is, that if its convenient enough and within our means we might be tempted, but given ambiguity in labelling we never really know whether daisy did wander around a field sunbathing every day befoire meeting her maker, or that the fish we are eating wasn't caught in a drag net along with a couple of dolphins, or whether actually the food labelled "organic" used 6 of the aproved fertilising chemicals or 12.

[DrFilth]

i think anyone who is on benefits or low income will buy the lowest priced item.
daisy walking round a field will be the last thing on his/her mind

[Ankou]

indeed. if daisy was having such a good life in the field, why end it ?