What is more important to you - cheap food or high welfare standards?

[Scrowy]

There has been news coverage today that the US has said that to enable trade relations the UK may have to consider lowering some food standards (chlorinated chicken, growth hormones etc).

As a beef and sheep farmer I'm genuinely interested to know if the British public really cares about animal welfare standards or if the reality is that money is tight and as long as it's meat people aren't actually too choosy about it's origins if the price is right?

Please don't pander to me, please be honest. If the truth is that you would like to think you would choose high welfare but when it comes down to it at the supermarket shelf you choose the cheaper option... just say.

The one that hasn't been in the press is something called ractopamine. It's fed to pigs to make them fatter, and sometimes causes them to fall and break their legs. It's legal in the US but banned almost everywhere else.

Great thread OP. Watching with interest. Mostly vegetarian here, we have our own chickens for eggs, take a couple of hoggetts each year from our local shepherd which mostly does us for the year. We pay about £90 per animal, I hear a leg of lamb is about £40 in a supermarket. We get game too, which is free, abundance of venison around us at the moment.

I tend to buy from the butchers so I'm assuming their me At is a higher quality than a supermarket. But I don't grab the odd reduced meat if I'm in there.

I would love to buy organic and the highest welfare but on a very tight budget I have to go for what I can afford.
The thought of eating chlorined chicken though makes me stomach churn.

High welfare and British for me, for both meat and dairy.
I think organic makes a difference for chicken.

High welfare isn't just about the treatment of animals...it's also about what we're giving our bodies. Meat pumped with hormones or washed in chlorine does not sound like a healthy option for my plate. Id rather not eat meat than eat something so unnatural.

We already buy most of our limited meat from the butcher who sources locally but would do this exclusively if American meat trading standards became the norm for supermarket fare.

Higher welfare standards every time. Organic and free range too.

And non-halal if the precise method of killing (with/without stun gun) is unknown- bleeding to death without stunning first has got to be horrendously distressing for the animals.

Even when we were on the bones of our arses, we bought free range eggs or went without.

I buy the best I can afford. I usually buy British and mostly from the butchers who is supplied by local farms and make their own burgers and sausages. There are just two of us so I very rarely buy a joint of meat. I do seem to spend a ridiculous amount on food given that there are two of us. I try to save on other things like value brand pasta.
I would rather buy less meat from local producers than cheap imports

I have to say both are important for me and my family. So we don’t actually eat any meat or dairy, eggs, etc.

OP, it’d be worth your while posting this question on Netmums.co.uk too as you’ll likely receive an alternative view due to the difference in demographic.

High welfare standards. We only eat free range eggs; and try to eat free range chicken, turkey and pork. I guess lamb is free range anyway?

Welfare is far more important to me than low cost meat. I'm poor as well (rely on benefits due to disabilities). I'd rather go without meat than eat a mistreated animal pumped full of chemicals.

I have a feeling I was banned from netmums a few years ago

Yes definitely welfare standards

High welfare, free range and organic here. We eat less, or more veggie food if we run out of money by the end of the month.
I'd rather not eat meat than eat rubbish meat that animals have had a shit life to produce.
I've mostly stopped eating chicken when out because if it doesn't say it's free range, it won't be.
But I'm also aware that not every non meat alternative is necessarily good for the environment either.

High welfare and I’m prepared, and do, eat a lot less of it to mitigate the cost.

I think it depends on budget and MN is skewed towards more middle class, higher earning women so that's going to affect the answers.

I buy meat from.our local butcher and pay a higher price for that. I would never buy chlorinated chicken if it is introduced here. BUT I can afford to buy higher welfare food.

I think for most people cost is the deciding factor. In the same way people buy from Prinark because it's cheap, people also buy cheap food. They might say they care about animal welfare but the reality is people will jump at the opportunity to buy a chicken or a joint of pork for a fiver.

Welfare. I'm not exactly hard up (but not on a massive salary either) and I do spend a lot on food.

I was not impressed with the comments today from the American ambassador with his jibe about "museum farming".

High welfare and organic with as low miles as possible. Organic does matter to me as a consumer. I'd rather eat less meat than but meat from an animal that's had a miserable existence.

I would absolutely refuse to buy US import meat, the welfare is hugely important. If I could only afford US cheap meat I'd not eat any meat or only rarely buy the higher welfare meat

Welfare / British and low food miles. As others posters have said I’d rather go without than buy cheap imported meat.

Not just welfare standards but supporting local - I buy all my meat from my local butcher who gets it from local farms. Also buy my eggs from a free range chicken farm just up the road from my house.

If I couldn't afford to shop this way I honestly don't think I'd eat meat, I'd go vegetarian before I ate the cheaper/lower welfare products.

ForOldsLandsEye but you raise exactly the point I was trying to make. If you ask, most people will say that they will always choose high welfare, but this isn't reflected at the checkout and it's actually quite hard to find properly high welfare meat at the big supermarkets.

To me this suggests that actually for most people price point is more more important than origin/welfare.

Welfare, definitely!
DS and i dont eat much meat to be fair, and i dont earn much, but we have organic milk delivered, buy veg from our local organic farm shop etc.. Also as PP said, i am seriously concerned about the overuse of growth hormones and antibiotics, living rurally i observe a lot of negative farming practises, and from what i hear American standards are even worse, so no way am i touching that produce.