To ask if you buy free range meat?

[moutonfou]

With the dominance of free range eggs, I'm always surprised that free range meat hasn't taken off in the same way. That being said I'm lucky to only be cooking for two and not sure I could afford to feed 4+ people on free range. But I was surprised when I learnt that two free range chicken breasts start at £3.00 (depending on weight) in our local supermarket and have only bought free range since then.

Does anybody else buy it?

I'm really surprised people think most butchers are any different to supermarkets.

There are 3 between my local 2 towns that have direct supply. The others are just selling the same stuff the supermarket are. Don't assume a butcher is better

Just to add, we have organic milk delivered to the door by a local dairy that pay farmers a fair price (dairy based 5-10mins drive away).

Eggs are from our own or topped up with eggs from our local village producer.

DH and I eventually hope to get a small holding so we can raise a bit more of our own meat, I'd love to raise some chickens for eating, chicken welfare to me is the one to strive for the highest level as it has the most effect on their lives.

bubble I popped into a local butcher to see what organic meat they had. They didn't sell it.

Our farm shops seem to sell more organic produce, but I'm rarely passing them. Waitrose and Sainsburys carry a large range so I buy from there.

We live rurally in Scotland, and it's actually quite difficult to get organic veg and meat from local suppliers, the 24hrTesco in the nearest big town carries a wide range. There are 2 really good farmshops that sell local organic meat and shot game (rabbit and pigeon mostly), you can see the free range poultry running around in their fields, beef cattle and sheep. It's a 22mile round trip in the car to one, and more than 30 to the other, which is less than ideal, but we go occasionally and stock up there are no "farmers markets" nearby, strangely you seem to need to go to a big city for those .

I think realistically, the way forward for organic/free range/grass fed and grass finished food is through the supermarkets, not through small niche suppliers. I know that sounds awful but to give economies of scale that makes it more affordable to more people, that's the reality.
For the same reason, I'd like to see a lot more FROZEN organic ingredients in supermarket freezers - why can't I buy frozen organic peas, sweetcorn, carrots, berries etc in supermarkets? There is nothing wrong with frozen ingredients (with nothing added), nutritionally they can be better than fresh stuff that's been stored for weeks (and freezing reduces wastage)