To think that if you cannot afford free range chicken/turkey meat and eggs...

[LolaTheShowgirl]

...then don't buy at all?

I mean the suffering these birds go through in cramped, dirty sheds is unbelievable. There is usually no natural light and the birds are usually ill before they're culled.

If you can stomach it, please look at these:
WARNING: NOT NICE PICTURES!
HERE

Veggie food is generally cheaper so if you are struggling to feed the family, is probably worth going for some veggie meals.

Actually, mrsmaidamess, a lot of poor people ARE vegetarians. They're called the mass of Hindus in India, and they're all slim. Don't tell me about the shorter lifespan; that's a lack of access to medicines, not diet.

I'm not suggesting the poor of the UK do this, as the Hindus do it for religious reasons, but they DO live.

Free range eggs are only 20p or 30p more than battery, hardly going to break the bank.

So unless people on low budgets can afford hand reared hand corn fed chickens then there kids should go without? Crikey what a world you must live in....

I'm vegetarian but DH and DS aren't. I always buy free range eggs and usually buy fr meat. Still agree that feeding children is more important.

The problem I have with veggie food is the carb count. Not many low carb veggie protein sources. Have discussed before how I don't eat much in the way of carbs (have lost 75kgs over the last five years). So while we do have lentils, tofu etc those all come with carbohydrates. Which is excellent if you need the fuel but with our sedentary lives we just don't.

does anyone remember those feed your family for £10 articles (a week, not a meal!) that they used to have in woman's weekly back in the day?

It was all like Tuesday: Main course - lentils. Dessert one Mars bar, sliced and shared between a family of 6.

I wonder what the bare minimum you could actually feed an entire family on is in 2009.

Please look at my profile. what you will see here are 3 birds ion the day they were rescued from a battery farm, they had no feathers, they were about half the size they should be and they were petrified, they had never seen daylight before. they did not move for 3 days as there legs had never been used before, they ate there own eggs as they had no idea what they were.
They are now healthy happy birds, If a pet of any description was kept in the conditions these poor birds are they would be removed and the owner prosicuted.
There is only one way this cruelty is going to stop and that is if people stop buying it, There are plenty opf things to feed your children that do not cost such suffering for a poor animal.

Is the view nice from up there on the moral highground? Some people genuinely can't afford to buy free range, organic, ethical food. Should they deny their children nutrition on the grounds that they can only afford a cheap chicken? Where are the morals in that?

sockmonster suggest an equivalent protein source for the same price please. I am not disagreeing with you that it is cruel, I am saying that not everyone has a lot of options.

Growing kids do need the carbs from healthy sources like vegetables though. It's the crisps, biscuits, cake etc etc that they don't need.

buy cheaper cuts of free range meat, thighs and drumsticks are about the same price.

All of you saying that it's about between feeding your children in your budget, therefore having to choose a battery chicken but your children are not going to DIE if they don't have chicken, or have it less regularly, so you can afford to buy a chicken that's had a normal life. I think many of you just choose to turn a blind eye for an easier life.

I buy the best meat I can afford, some shops I don't get much at all, as I won't buy the cheap stuff. It is partly because of the welfare of the birds but also I wonder about the quality of the meat. I won't give my kids sausages for example that are more bulk agents than meat so it is about not giving my kids crap. That means decent meat or no meat. I am not agreeing with Lola though. I think her post is offensive, I am just putting a different slant on it.

also there is not much differnce in the price of free range and battery or barn eggs. I find it frigtening how people are so willing to ignore the plight of aniamls as if we have the right to treat them this way, I am on a very low budget, I feed my family, they are healthy.

'All of you saying that it's about between feeding your children in your budget, therefore having to choose a battery chicken but your children are not going to DIE if they don't have chicken, or have it less regularly, so you can afford to buy a chicken that's had a normal life. I think many of you just choose to turn a blind eye for an easier life.'

You only have to feed yourself, Lola, not a whole family. So if this matters to you enough for you to say others should be vegetarian if they are poor, then why not put your hand in your pocket and start offering to buy food for families?

Otherwise, you're being patronising.

And I myself don't eat non-free range meat or eggs.

sockmonster, that is terrible those poor chickens. are they living with you now?

I'm a veggie too, I guess my thinking is swayed by this, in that if I had to choose I would want to eat something that had had a better life.

Yet at the same time, I don't want to eat anything that has been killed for me.

Do meat eaters, and this is an honest question want to eat meat everyday, or has it become a norm, to have meat in some shape or form?

It's interesting to think that maybe, if it wasn't an everyday staple, that you could buy better meat.

I totally agree OP. And pre-DCs I was adamant about only buying free-range etc and we ate less meat as a consequence. Since having children I have slipped back a lot. No excuse but my DC are not hot on lentils and veg so we eat more meat and meat products. Having said that we always buy free-range eggs and usually free-range chicken. It's the other poor bloody animals that suffer from our household

So where do you buy these cheaper cuts? There are no butchers within a 5 mile radius of where I live. So my meat has to come from the supermarket, or the box scheme I use. They simply don't sell the old fashioned cuts anymore (though I am pleased to see the return of the lamb shoulder at the supermarket the other day).

If you really want to make a difference, don't patronise people - hassle the supermarkets.

I tend to go to Whole Foods at Kensington these days because they have a proper butcher downstairs. But it is hard to get to, costs a bomb and takes some cooking know how to get a lot out of some of the more unused cuts. Not everyone has these options open to them.

So suggest an equivalent that you can buy from the local Tesco/Sainsburys for the same price - these are the only choices many people have.

I'm not convinced farm animal welfare is really high up most shoppers priorities anyway. I don't think free range eggs are that much more expensive but there are families out there who are literally counting every single penny.

Having said that, it's a national disgrace how these animals are treated.

It's always up to the consumer to change things. Why? Why can't the suppliers + supermarkets make an effort? Those supermarkets make massive millions in profit yet I don't really see their own efforts in terms of animal welfare. They always have to be pushed and pushed and pushed.

Agree FBG - the most ethical (and cheapest way) is to buy decent meat but eat less of it. Most cheap meat is full of all sorts of disgusting additives which definitely are not good for kids anyway.

I myself can't afford it and I haven't had chicken or eggs for a long time now. I don't think it's worth the birds suffering for any selfish persons enjoyment. Veggies don't eat chicken and they still find the nutrients from somewhere.

they do, they are rummaging around in the back garden diggiong up woirms as we speak. They cost me a pound each and lay me eggs every day, oh there you go, thats a cheap protein.