But there is a cost of living crisis, I agree the supermarkets are the villains, but they are the main places to buy, they have killed off most of the opposition who cant compete. Intensive farming comes from farmers working to a price to suit the masses.
It can be somewhat balanced out by less waste and/or the food being of higher quality meaning that portion sizes don't have to be as large. Took us a while to adjust to some things - even something as simple as a chicken from the butcher we use, when you look at it, it looks so much smaller than the plump things you get in the supermarket, so you think it won't go as far.. yet, it actually goes further because it is not full of water and also has more taste to it. Even the veg can be significantly different.
KFC comes to mind, places like that just want cheap cheap cheap, I think they, and the others, should have to buy free range chicken and then see if their business can survive. All the kebab shops are probably running on badly produced meat as well. Might help cure the obesity crisis in the process.
A few month back i sore a bullock hanging from it's legs over a surry pit to drain it's blood, lots of control there for highgene i do wonder which butcher it when to and would you get to know that's what happen
Cheap christmas veg is what is called (or at least was, it now probably has some new silly business term) a lost leader. The shop still pays the same to the farmer, which is still very little, but they are excepting they will lose money on the product because it gets people through the door to purchase more profitable Christmas specials. A friend works in lidl and they had a war with aldi over the price last year with each chain undercutting the other by a penny every other day. I can't see an extra penny bringing in more customers but they wanted to say they had the cheapest veg.
I thought I saw an advert for somewhere like Asda and they were selling sprouts at 8p each? Maybe I got it wrong.
The dead geese were found in an area where the population are immigrants from a particular area. I'm not saying it wasn't the born and bred locals but it's quite common knowledge around here that the tradition of that country is for hunting wildfowl. We had a problem somewhere else in the county where most of ducks were disappearing, as well as the odd swan, and the coarse fish population also took a hit, especially carp which is a Christmas traditional food.
I think sometimes we miss the point - we don't have elephants here but we do have our own native species which we cull due to someone deciding they are considered disruptive and/or too many in one place and not all are used to provide food. Killing any animal solely for "sport" is to be condemned but it does happen here as elsewhere. Those who can afford it are prepared to pay for the "privilege" whether in the UK or elsewhere - goes back a long way and continues to this day. Look at those countries which are still involved quite openly in the sale of internationally confirmed endangered species for "natural medicines". Kept in appalling conditions and killed in the same manner. Likewise the trade in ivory and rhino horn - supposedly illegal but money always talks. As for how we raise food from animals here, some regulations are in place but are neither sufficient nor always adhered to. Much of our food is too cheap when you take account of the cost of rearing or growing but that is what the population has come to expect and accept.
I thought it was 8p a sprout too! I was reading a book at the time, and only heard it out of the corner of my ear. Kept me awake for a little while at lights out, trying to work out how much a typical portion might cost! Waitrose were also having a loss leader on the veg yesterday, bags of carrots, parsnips, potatoes and sprouts for 40p a bag. Reader, I bought them.
At a proper shop yesterday a stalk of brussels was about £2.00. Growing up we always had a stalk of brussels, bought or gifted; they kept better than the picked ones. Also grew our own in the garden and often had brussel tops cooked like cabbage, no difference in taste really. Nutmeg goes well on brussels.
We used to have a butcher shop in the village but nobody took it over when he retired at the age of ninety. The next real butcher is in town and a pain to get to so I no longer bother. Some of the big supermarkets are on the edge of town (not out of town sites) so I use them. I find that each one is better for different cuts of meat and I can usually tell by looking which is OK (used to teach cookery at college evening classes as well as owning a delicatessen over 50 years ago). Some cuts don't need distinguishing a great deal and I just bought a whole leg of lamb in Tesco. I skin it and remove most of the fat anyway, then make a spicy marinade (Moroccan style) and marinade it for four days. It comes out flavourful and tender when slow roasted. The reason I'm mentioning this is that I only bought the lamb because it was on offer. If you possess a Tesco Club card it was £6.25kg instead of the more normal £15.70kg.
