I want to eat ethically produced meat

[itsasecret1]

So I tried being vegetarian and I found it incredibly hard, mainly because DH is a rampant meat eater and I do all the cooking, making two separate meals was too much work and too expensive. We've come to a compromise (of sorts) to eat less meat and when we do have it - it needs to be ethically produced.

From what I've seen most supermarket meat is rubbish. The only one I'm considering using for meat now is Ocado / Waitrose. Does anyone shop there, can you vouch for their organic meat products?

We meal plan and stick to a budget of £240 a month for food, so this is going to be tough but what I'm considering doing is spending £60 at the start of the month on meat, stocking up the freezer and then using the remaining £47 a week to shop in aldi for all the other bits we need.

I just wondered if anyone did anything similar, had any tips or ideas?

Do you have a butcher or farmers market near you?

Are you near Wiltshire at all?

If you are organised to buy meat in advance and freeze it, check out Field and Flower. Their meat is amazing, not certified organic, but all done ethically (I believe) and prices are inline with the expensive stuff at Waitrose. They deliver in boxes and very well packaged meat so a lot fits into a surprisingly small space.

There is no ethical knife that slits their throat.....

What's the point? Ethical or not, they're born to die. I'm a meat eater by the way so not trying to say you shouldn't eat meat, but why are you bothered about them having a happy life when they exist purely to be killed.

Have a look at HFW book Meat he has good suggestions about how to eat less meat in your situation of needing to budget for ethical meat. Things like using small amounts of tasty meat to 'season' a dish giving a meaty flavour. His veg book will be good for your meatless days too.

• I am not sponsored by River Cottage

Definitely look into a local farm supplier if there's one near you. I do believe in the massive difference between ethical and profit driven meat/poultry raising. Cheap chickens raised in sheds have a horrific life as do caged hens for eggs. Yes it's all a means to an ends but surely better to eat animals raised/slaughtered in a humane environment vs animals that have a life of misery from birth to the plate.

@BlingLoving I was also going to suggest Field and Flower. I’ve always found their customer service incredible so maybe drop them an email and they might offer you a discount code?

I don't know how anyone can believe in this internet age that there's such a thing as ethically produced meat.

Farmers market or similar will put you in touch with local small-scale producers that will be happy for you to visit (if you want to) to see how they rear their animals. You will pay Ocado money for the privilege if you want specific things but you will get a good deal for quarter/half an animal for the freezer. Most of these places will be able to put you in touch with someone who produces whatever you're after, for example chicken can be quite hard to find produced that way but you'll easily find pork and lamb most of the year round.

Why do we get evangelistic weird meat eaters on the vegan threads and vice versa?

If you could expand on your definition of "ethically produced meat" then that may be more help in trying to resolving your dilema.

It's not evangelistic it's fact.

£60 a month on meat 😮 that's quite a lot!

Your local butcher is a good starting point, though Morrison's has good information I have found, and proper knowledgeable butchers in branch.

No meat is ethical. All animals died the same way so you could eat them. You are better off just eating the meat you usually buy from the supermarket. It's all been farmed,transported, kept in a slaughterhouse and killed the same way.
'Ethical' meat is a lie.

I produce fantastic meat. The lambs are naturally weaned, grassfed, slow growing. They are kept in amazing condition, and travel a very short distance to the small local butchery. The taste is fantastic, much better than the supermarket. People pay a lot for the meat, but still not enough for it to be viable as a business (is a complicated hobby).

They have a much happier, better, natural life than most people's pet dogs, (and most of those don't die naturally).

Here www.smilingtreefarm.com/

@ivegotalpen talking out of your arse. I know my animals live & die as well as they can due to the choices I make along the way. I even toured the abattoir I use, during a full working day, before selecting them. Object to people eating them, I can understand your logic on that one and respect your choice, but don't lie about everything being the same.

@Pinkyyy
why are you bothered about them having a happy life when they exist purely to be killed.

Because it matters to the animal that it has a good quality of life prior to death, and not an existence filled with pain, stress and suffering. No animal ‘knows’ that it’s bred for slaughter/production and even if it did a good life would still be preferable. Plus not all livestock are actually born to be killed - plenty are ‘breeders’ and their quality of life also matters to them.

Might be worth educating yourself to avoid looking ignorant and lacking in empathy.

If everyone became vegan tomorrow it'd still kill animals via landmass being utilised to grow crops and culls to prevent crops being desimated. Anyone who thinks animals aren't killed in the production of food is thinking out their bum. Just because a domesticated animal didn't go to a slaughterhouse as a direct process of someone eating a food product doesn't mean that animals didn't die somewhere along that process.

Riverford do an organic meat box. It’s delicious but exceedingly expensive.

www.andyrummingsbeef.co.uk/shop Does this producer tick some of your boxes?

The major supermarkets all sell organic meat nowadays, though it is fearfully expensive. Lamb is most expensive, then chicken, then beef. Pork and turkey are v hard to find.
We're fortunate to have a solely organic butcher's shop nearby, but some butchers will stock organic meat too, so check with your local shop (assuming there is one).
Don't forget eggs- no larger than Medium sized, and organic free range. They're expensive, but taste so much better. I remember a programme on R4 years ago saying that the battery hens had been bred to produce large eggs, but that was painful for them to lay. I've only bought medium since.

@Veterinari I'm not interested in looking like I lack empathy. If you're bothered about animals, you shouldn't eat them in my opinion. Their welfare isn't of any interest to me and the people who say that they only eat 'ethical meat' are hypocrites.