What's the price of Water?

[euronerd]

That takes us the full circle, back to Tim's mention of the co-op at the top, whose main purpose to start with was to make sure its customers were not sold such adullterated food.  8)

[euronerd]

[SnooziSuzi]

Personally I feel like I have to shop at Tesco's (and even this I do online and have it delivered) because I just don't have the free time to go to my local butchers / greengrocers etc to buy better quality food.

If my local butcher and other shops offered online purchase and delivery I'd make all of my purchases through them and I'm sure that many other people would too.

Would never have had such a bad day that I'd ever eat any of Mr Matthews' produce though - I learned my lesson on that score in the late 80's!

[asbean]

Two books I read a few years ago were 'Shopped', and 'Not on the Label'.  I shall have to look up who the authors were, but they were real eye openers when it came to buying supermarket meat.

valmarg

The author is Joanna Blythman.  Every person who buys/eats supermarket food should read both these books.

[valmarg]

The obvious moral of this story is - GROW YOUR OWN!

Well yes dear we do, but in a small garden we haven't got room for flocks of sheep, loads of pigs and cattle, let alone hens for eggs and chooks, as well as the fruit and veg.

We rely on our local butchers for locally produced meats, and I do trust them.

We can only do our best when buying, what we hope, is locally produced meat.  We tend to get a lot of our meat from Farmers' Markets.

I don't buy meat from supermarkets anymore, particularly not Tesco.  Quite apart from the fact that it doesn't even look appetising, from previous experience it is usually as tough as old boots.

Its extremely difficult, you think you are buying 'the best' available, but as in Tim's case you are suspicious when, as in his case the 'free range' chicken had burns on its legs.

I think there are a lot of farmers out there who are decent and honest, and trying to provide us with decent honest meat, but there doesn't seem to be any guidelines as to where the cowboys end and the decent begins!!

valmarg

[Baccy Man]

Tim I know you don't want me to spoil Freedom Food but your free range chicken with hock burns would of been reared in better conditions. Freedom food is an intensive farming method despite the fact the scheme has the full support of the RSPCA their guidelines mean that a chicken can be allocated a mere 38cm2 in a shed & no access to the outside world, not much of an improvement on a battery farm in my opinion. There is a report which was broadcast on watchdog showing the standards pigs & chickens are kept in HERE(20 minute video).

Fair Trade is going in the right direction but still has a long way to go before the producers really do get a fair deal rather than the supermarkets using the scheme purely to boost profits.

http://www.new-agri.co.uk/06-3/pov.html
"Critics say that fair trade will never lift a country out of poverty; indeed, it may keep it there, because the money generated from sales goes almost in its entirety to rich countries which promote the products. Only about 5% of the sale price of a fair trade chocolate bar (which retails for £1.73 in the UK shops) may actually go to the poor country."
John Vidal & Paul Brown, Feel-good factor: But will it save the planet? The Guardian, May 20th, 2005

"The supermarkets... sell Fairtrade as premium lines, with margins to match. Any intelligent person will ask themselves a simple question: should I pay up to 80p more for my bananas when only 5p will end up with the grower; or should I just buy the regular ones and give the difference to a decent development charity?"
Philip Oppenheim, The Spectator, November, 2005

[Pumper]

The wife and I have recently been converted to Farmers' markets. There are two in our local area, two weeks apart, so we can top up regularly.

We are most emphatically NOT vegetarian and enjoy meat and lots of it. But there's no getting away from the fact that locally grown, non-intensive and/or organic meat is more expensive than supermarket stuff.

But wait till you get it on the plate - the difference is really remarkable... just like the difference between your lottie veg and the mass produced muck. Once you're converted as we were, there's just no going back  :D

BTW We make a routine of picking up a venison joint for about 6 quid, and drool all the way home. Or Pheasants 5 quid a brace. What better Sunday lunch could you ask for, eh?  ;D

[Rosyred]

They are good prices £5 for pheasants...... where you from?

[tim]

Fair, Free, Freedom........

Makes you spit.

[Pumper]

They are good prices £5 for pheasants...... where you from?

We go to the Newbury Farmers' Market every first Sunday of the month, that's where we get the pheasants and the venison.  There's a dinky one on the A327 between Reading and Arborfield avery third Sunday - seriously nice people there. Take a picnic cos they scatter rugs around the gardens so you can hunker down and have lunch (in good weather of course :D). 

[tim]

Oh, dear, did I provoke something?
I meant, of course, very depressing.