A Taste of the Unpalletable:

As a child one of my favourite meals was lamb chops. I would gnaw at the bone until there was not a scrap of meat, fat or marrow left...so imagine my mothers surprise when, aged 12, I announce....

"Mother! I am NEVER eating meat EVER again as long as I live!!!"

I had just seen a TV programme about abattoirs & vivisection, and was horrified to realised that what i saw in the local butchers and on the supermarket shelves was neither free range nor 'fair-game'... I didn't eat meat again for 5 years...

O the days of nut cutlets and veggi burgers made from something resembling 14th century prison gruel.... thank god they are passed!.... at age 17, I could no longer resist the temptation of fast food chains and BBQ's and my carnivourous side kicked back in with a vengance.

...however, I still believe that in the developed world we are far too reliant upon meat & dairy produce & that the methods of farming and slaughter used are unnecessarily cruel. I always try to source the cheapest, cruelty free products I can & am happy to find that the variety & quality of these has greatly improved over the last 20 years!!! (although vegan cheese still has a long way to go before i'l use it on my pizza's... yuck!)

Did You Know:

• We throw away the equivalent of 350,000 sheep each year-made up of cuts of lamb which have been left uneaten or leftover lamb portions.

• The equivalent of 33 million chickens go to waste each year in the UK; this includes chicken based meals, uncooked portions and leftovers.

• We throw away £140 million worth of fish including fresh, battered and breaded; 40% of this is thrown away whole and in unopened packs.

Source: Love Food Hate Waste

Some of the key guidelines to ensuring your meat & dairy has been treated to the highest standards of welfare are:

• buy British raised & slaughtered produced rather than imported products which are often from countries that do not asure the same standards of animal welfare.
  
• buy locally which will enable you to personally inspect the living conditions provided to the animals by the farmer/producer & ask questions about their practices & principals. Any producer who is attempting to raise his animals to the highest standards of welfare will be more than happy to declare complete traceability and assurances.
  
• buy products from animals that we feel are raised in decent ways, people are not only encouraging good lives for those animals, but for all UK livestock animals, by rewarding the farmers who adopt ethical practices.

Whether Meat-eater or Vegetarian, most of us wish to make the most healthy & ethical choices available to us when it comes to food. I hope to provide in this hub links & ideas which will help all of us to make the kindest choices we can...

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT OR CONTRIBUTE !

The RSPCA's Freedom Food farm assurance and food labelling scheme, is one way that UK consumers can buy meat & dairy, knowing that the rearing of that animal has been guided by highly ethical standards.

Jamie Oliver is not only a patron of the BHWT (Battery Hen Welfare Trust) but having raised UK consumers awareness of the plight of chickens & laying hens, is now also championing the cause for naturally & ethically raised pigs in the UK pork industry. Alongside the RSPCA, he is calling for more clear & consistent labelling on pork products & clearer definitions for terms such as "free range" & "outdoor bred" including much better laws to protect pig welfare.

How Vile the Veal?

Veal has fortunately lessened in popularity in the UK over recent years, especially since its production in the UK is banned. However this means that when it is found on the menu in restaurants, it has been imported from the continent. Bizzarely,this is not banned, even though welfare standards are much lower than in the UK.

One way to still enjoy the tenderness of veal but with much less guilt is to eat pink or 'rose' veal instead of the inhumanely produced white veal.

Why British Pink Veal?

• Pink Veal Calves are suckled by their mothers, eat natural food and live outdoors in summer. The calves live for about six months. (Dairy breeds are not well suited to beef production and since the ban of white veal farmers currently shoot the male calves when a few days old or they are exported to Europe to be used as white veal)
• the calves are fed a more natural & balanced diet of grass, hay, and milk. (White veal is white because the cows are fed a liquid diet consisting mostly of milk, denying them needed nutrients and causing diarrhea & sickness)
• Pink veal needs & therefore contains less medication than their crate-raised counterparts. (White Veal is often crate-raised in order to restrict movement. Calves sit in there own excrement for much of the time causing illness & infections)
• Blind taste tests showed that testers couldn't tell the difference between pink veal and white.

• The RSPCA gives high-welfare veal its approval with its Freedom Food label. Until demand grows for pink veal, unwanted male dairy calves will continue to be shot or exported.

Organic rosé veal from Eastbrook Farm, a founding member of the Good Veal Campaign, is sold via Helen Browning Organics. "not just great meat but one of the most constructive and humane solutions to the particularly challenging ethical problem of redundant dairy calves." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Alternative Meats sells rosé veal from farms monitored and approved by the RSPCA Freedom Food scheme.

Heathy Happy Hens:

The Battery Hen Welfare Trust aims to work with UK farmers to improve conditions for all chickens.

By buying British Free-Range eggs and using products that contain only Free-Range egg, we enable UK farmers to continue making changes toward all chickens in this country living more natural & fulfilling lives.

"WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE BRITISH FARMER TO PRODUCE THE EGGS THAT WE WANT TO EAT."

If you wish to adopt some Ex-Battery Hens the Battery Hen Welfare Trust has rescue co-ordinators nation wide. If you do not wish to keep your own chickens you could always sponsor an ex-battery hen instead!

Meat without Murder:

"Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium." Winston Churchill

It seems that for all of its controversies regarding ethics, advances in stem cell research may have finally provided an answer to meat consumption which no longer involves "murder".

PETA are offering a $1,000,000 reward for "the first scientist to produce and bring to market in vitro meat" by June 30, 2012.

The successful contestant must:

• Produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.

• Manufacture the approved product in large enough quantities to be sold commercially, and successfully sell it at a competitive price in at least 10 states.

Faux-off the Foie gras!:

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is looking for the chef who can create the best recipe for purely vegetarian foie gras in their Fine Faux Foie Gras Challenge.

There is a $10,000 prize on offer. The closing date for this is November 2009.

Honey honey, oh sugar sugar:

Many people question whether or not honey is an ethically produced source of food. A vegetarian beekeeper has spoken out against the Vegan Society's attack against beekeeping with his own in depth explaination & justification of the processes used to keep bees happy & healthy.

Agave Nectar is an alternative to honey which is produced from the same plant as Tequila!!! Unlike sugar and artificial sweeteners, it contains naturally high levels of fructose (fruit sugar). It can be bought in the UK at many supermarkets & from The groovy Food Company.

Hawthorn flowers taste like honey. Infuse them with hot water.