To ask if you will buy British meat rather than OZ/NZ with lower welfare standards?

[Mamaboo22]

Partly inspired by the farmer thread…

The Brexit trade deal with Australia has opened up tariff free trade for meat which can be produced to a lower animal welfare standard than employed by the UK system

Our UK farmers could be undercut by imports where poorer practices are employed

Will you support homegrown meat, UK farming and the standards they work to?

I struggle to have a lot of sympathy for British farmers, TBH. Most of them voted for Brexit and claimed to know what they were voting for. This is what they voted for.

Indeed they aren't, but a trade deal with NZ is definitely coming.

In fact the UK opened negotiations with Aus and NZ back in 2017 before the EU warned them off. It was the sort of shithousery that the EU tends to engage in.

I only buy local farm meat now. It's organic, high welfare, etc. Stealthy deregulation worries me, post- fucking Brexit.

I'm not buying lower welfare anything. I'd rather not eat meat.

@GuildfordGal

I only buy local farm meat now. It's organic, high welfare, etc. Stealthy deregulation worries me, post- fucking Brexit.

I'm not buying lower welfare anything. I'd rather not eat meat.

This is what my UK parents have done. They hardly eat meat now and when they do it's organic, from a particular farm, in Surrey, as it happens.

I'm reluctantly coming to the conclusion that they're right.

(I've got a whole beef rump in the fridge right now and I can't tell them about it!)

I only buy good quality, local meat and free range eggs. Or, if they're too expensive or unavailable, I go without.

It's a rule I've had since I can remember (maybe it was passed down from my DM?) and won't change.

I'm Australian. I didn't know our meat or animal standards are lower. I'm hoping the discussion will wash back into our farming standards.
I don't see the point of sending meat across the world. Goes against everything I believe in about food miles etc.
The context of this deal is that the grossly incompetent Aust government has messed up our trading relationship with China leaving us desperate for someone else to sell stuff to.

Australian beef farming involves a lot of feedlotting and growth hormones, or so I'm told.

Although the apocalyptic "Disaster! Disaster!" stories in the press ignore that Australia hasn't any surplus to sell the UK right now.

I bet Australian ready made lasagne doesn't contain horsemeat either.

I also live in Australia but from the U.K. - the meat we get here is miles more expensive than that I buy when I come back to the U.K. so I also can’t really understand the fears of cheap meat coming in to the U.K. and undercutting British produce.
I also didn’t know it was lower quality - but I buy the “no hormone, no sow stall” stuff anyway.
But even the cheap options are more expensive than that you can buy in the U.K.

Equally I suppose there could be a whole raft of meat that doesn’t get sold to customers in the shops but goes straight to companies for processed food. Maybe it’s that instead?

Good point to the PP who mentioned a lot of farmers voted for Brexit. I don’t remember if that’s true in Scotland or not but it does give me pause regarding loyalty.

Meat isn’t cheap in NZ or Australia.

Exported meat isn’t the same as what’s sold domestically either. It’s a higher grade premium product just like every other exported primary product.

NZ has high animal standards.
Australia has feed lots because there has been a huge drought for the last 5 or more years in the majority of the country.
Most farmers have had to severely destock. What’s better a feed lot or leave all of the stock to starve?

Also isn’t it an agreement that there will be an agreement in the future rather than an actual done deal?
Australia’s totally incompetent federal Govt will fuck it up and screw their own country over so don’t worry too much.

@Mamaboo22

Partly inspired by the farmer thread…

The Brexit trade deal with Australia has opened up tariff free trade for meat which can be produced to a lower animal welfare standard than employed by the UK system

Our UK farmers could be undercut by imports where poorer practices are employed

Will you support homegrown meat, UK farming and the standards they work to?

Why is NZ being dragged into this?

@Mypathtriedtokillme

Meat isn’t cheap in NZ or Australia.

Exported meat isn’t the same as what’s sold domestically either. It’s a higher grade premium product just like every other exported primary product.

NZ has high animal standards.
Australia has feed lots because there has been a huge drought for the last 5 or more years in the majority of the country.
Most farmers have had to severely destock. What’s better a feed lot or leave all of the stock to starve?

Farm kangaroos instead.

I wonder how many would eat meat if they had to kill their chosen animal themselves? Some really enjoy eating meat that's up to them but so many aren't conscious about where it comes from.

We've been getting nearly all our meat from a supplier in Somerset who only has locally reared and slaughtered animals. If we need to top up from a supermarket, we make sure it's British. It is disappointing that many farmers voted for Brexit (and fishermen), but that doesn't stop me wanting to support the industries and reduce food miles.

Do people always know where the meat they eat is coming from though? Will people stop for example getting a takeaway curry if the meat is not British or sending their child for school dinners. I expect most places like this will use whatever is cheapest.

I was reading yesterday about Australian welfare standards and was horrified. Check out mulesing. I had never heard of it but it is so very upsetting. Such a barbaric practice.

I prefer to buy local meat, vegetables, and where grown, fruit (I cannot have UK grown bananas, or incidentally, tea).

What we should all have is information that is not in tiny print, so we make a decision with knowledge.

@Mamaboo22 you do know we haven't actually lowered the UK standards don't you, so any meat being imported still needs to meet our levels, even if the exporting country will.allow different standards for its own market.

Not sure why people keep mentioning NZ, the trade deal is with Australia. They are not the same country!

NZ is in talks regarding a deal at the moment.

I already try to buy local for meat anyway. What’s the point it being shipped halfway round the world when there is good or better available from farms in the next county?

Not everyone can afford or has access to quaint little farm shops and organic meats.

I eat NZ lamb and if its competitively priced, the i'd buy Aussie beef too.

UK farmers on the whole wanted Brexit, so they should have realised this sort of thing would happen and this is just the start, FTA with NZ and South America will make matters worse for them in future but tbh labour shortages is their biggest concern

Most people will buy cheapest including schools and ready meal manufacturers. Eventually the more expensive British farmers will go out of business and there will be no choice but to buy lower welfare Australian meat.

Another triumph for ‘patriotic’ Brexiters.