Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

755 replies

LolaTheShowgirl · 27/05/2009 09:31

...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

OP posts:
Lovesdogsandcats · 27/05/2009 21:34

Yes I have southestastra.
They couldn't give a shit, especially Tesco.

Thunderduck · 27/05/2009 21:35

...whispers Quorn is vile.

helsbels4 · 27/05/2009 21:38

Quorn is vile My dh is the most un-fussy person you are ever likely to meet and even he doesn't like it. I really would rather go without tbh

bronze · 27/05/2009 21:39

have to agree

we need more rose veal and mutton made available

Lovesdogsandcats · 27/05/2009 21:40

Well go without..just don't replace it with intensive meat.

helsbels4 · 27/05/2009 21:49

Whether I choose to replace it with "intensive meat" is up to me thank you. I'm certainly not going to go without because you told me to.

Salme101 · 27/05/2009 21:52

My great grandfather tried being vegetarian for a spell. He was a miner living in a pit village in the 1920s. I believe he called it a day because he struggled to get enough protein to do such a physically demanding job. I went veggie at 12 after a childhood of crap meat products and overcooked vegetables (brought up on pensions and benefits in a council house, yadda yadda). I lived on the overcooked vegetables for a few years until I left home and taught myself to cook. It was fine.

I suppose what I am trying to say, by somewhat obscure examples, is that I get really arsed off with people saying 'Oh well, I simply must have chicken and it's OK for me not to give a toss about its provenance because I'm poor/everyone else does it and I can't make any difference/because I live in Britain

You don't need lots of money to have some taste, discernment, compassion and make a bit of an effort. Or to put it another way: Nothing is too good for the workers!

pointydog · 27/05/2009 21:59

The thing is, people ahve a knee-jerk reaction to any hint that they are being Told What To Do. Nothing to do with reason. So you just end up in this situation with people saying, I'll eat crap and support rubbish farming methods if I want to. Which is why the government need to sort it out.

It's the syndrome of the mums passing burgers through the school railings when school dinners went healthy.

pointydog · 27/05/2009 22:00

This whole money/class part of the argument doesn't happen i nmany other European countries. Very British.

helsbels4 · 27/05/2009 22:01

I don't think I musthave meat or that my children are entitled to it. I would happily eat next to nothing tbh but when other posters continually say to bulk your meals out with pulses etc but my children don't like them, what else am i supposed to feed them?

It's very naive to say it doesn't take much effort. Come live in my house for a month!

helsbels4 · 27/05/2009 22:05

I certainly wouldn't pass burgers through the school fence! I've already said that I make my own burgers (Only steak mince though, not organic )

I think it's quite naive to assume that everybody that can't afford decent meat automatically thinks that way.

I'm getting bored with this now. I really must bid you farewell and let you all polish your untarnished halos

southeastastra · 27/05/2009 22:08

the japanese eat fish when they're alive dogsandcats

pointydog · 27/05/2009 22:10

There are far far more options than bulk out with pulses, though. It's not necessry to eat pulses at all.

helsbels4 · 27/05/2009 22:11

Well I keep asking for the alternatives but nobody ever seems to answer me! You have to take into account my two fussy eaters! It's a clever trick if you can do it

pointydog · 27/05/2009 22:19

I've not read all the thread, hels, so I might be repeating but I suppose things like buying mince as the basis for a meal (which is a cheap meat that goes far) rather than chicken. Make your own french bread pizzas, tomato-based pasta sauces, macaroni cheese, soup and bread and cheese.

I don't know what your kids like either and I don't want to be patronising so I'll just stop

helsbels4 · 27/05/2009 22:24

Thank-you for at least having a try but my dd wouldn't entertain most of that! Well, some days she just might but the next time she wouldn't!

I shall go away and re-evaluate my children's diet. There you go, success!

expatinscotland · 27/05/2009 22:27

'I would happily eat next to nothing tbh but when other posters continually say to bulk your meals out with pulses etc but my children don't like them, what else am i supposed to feed them?'

hels, you know what? i know where you are coming from and i live in your world.

that's why i think you're basically flogging a dead horse on this thread.

someone is always going to come on here and tell you it'd be different if you lived in Africa and it's all your own failing your kids are how they are and yadda yadda.

that's why i stated long ago that this whole 'discussion' is smug and fuckwittery, IMO.

someone will always turn it back round and make it all your fault.

keep calm and carry on, as the saying goes, as best you can.

because to the rest of us, you're allright.

pointydog · 27/05/2009 22:34

why is eating cheap chicken the answer?

It's no one's fault, having a fussy eater, but I just don't see what that has got to do with cheap chicken.

solidgoldSneezeLikeApig · 27/05/2009 22:40

Pointydog: it's not just about cheap chicken, it's about assorted smug wankers saying that poor people shouldn't eat meat and if they do they are thick vicious morons, rather than people trying to keep their kids fed without having to devote more money and time than they actually have to spare.

HelloBeastie · 27/05/2009 22:45

So, I've sourced a Times article from 2007 that says less than 5% of chicken sold in the UK is free range or organic. here

Are you really telling me that 95% of families in the UK are on such a tight budget that they can only afford Torture Chicken? Or do they just, as mentioned repeatedly on this thread, not give a flying fuck?

helsbels4 · 27/05/2009 22:46

Thanks expat Wasn't going to come back to this thread but couldn't stop myself I am going to give up now! Thank you for the vote of confidence.

pointydog, it all came about because I said somewhere waaaay back, that I buy cheap chicken because we don't have the funds right now to buy "decent" meat.

People then told me to bulk meals out with lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans and the like but I stated that my dc's have very different tastes and whilst my ds would eat pulses, my dd wouldn't. If they can't have meat (cos I'm not allowed to buy cheap chicken ) and they don't/won't eat pulses, what else can I feed them?

That's where it came from!

I'm off to bed cos dh will be in from work soon and it wouldn't do for him to see me wasting time on pointless discussions, not getting my much needed beauty sleep

random · 27/05/2009 22:46

Let them eat cake

IcantbelieveImForty · 27/05/2009 22:46

YANBU - factory farmed foods are full of shit. Why on earth would i want to feed it to my family ?

Too annoyed to post, but wanted to support the OP.

pointydog · 27/05/2009 22:55

ok. Maybe some people have been smug, I've not read much of the thread and it's too late for me to start now. It's just a shame when it deteriorates into a Money/Class issue when all it is, is about good food.

onagar · 27/05/2009 22:59

But it's not really about good food though is it. If the cruel methods produced the healthier food they would still be saying "Don't buy it! It's not worth it just to get food that's slightly better"