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The Dogmother

Hmmmm, freerange chicken at Te$co

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I always glance at the chicken shelves when I go to Tezzers - out of curiousity more than anything else (I buy all my meat from the farmers' market, or Lesley). They have been devoid of freerange chooks for ages now, and the sarcastic little notice about the backlash from 'certain TV programmes' has been taken down. I saw last night that they are now stocking freerange chickens from FRANCE :shock::shock: under the brand Label Rouge.

 

Now, what in heaven's name is wrong with supporting the British farmer? I knwo that they are having trouble sourcing freerange chooks in the UK as the suppliers haven't yet caught up with the demand. I know that freerange chooks are better than intensively reared ones, but I don't really like the lack of patriotism and support for our own farmers, who are going out of business because of the demand for ever cheaper produce from the supermarkets.

 

Sorry, rant over.

 

I have emailed Te$co, please feel free to do the same.

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I haven't been able to buy a free range whole chicken or free range fillets in my local Tesco since January. They do have a few organic ones but they are so expensive.

 

Sunday was the first time we have had chicken since January, I bought a teeny organic one costing £8.00. We had roast on Sunday, boiled up the carcass and the chciken s"Ooops, word censored!"s left went into broth.

 

Intensive reared pork has no taste at all and it is like chewing old leather shoes :vom:

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Louise is better qualified to answer this than me Choccster, but I'll tell you what I understand....

 

A lot of the pork meat (so pork, bacon, ham, gammon etc) on the supermarket shelves is (unless stated otherwise) reared indoors, usually in intensive circumstances. So the pigs are quartered and breeding in concrete pens with very little room to move, and certainly never see the outdoors. http://www.factoryfarming.org.uk/pigs.html. A lot of the pork in our big chains comes from Holland, where intensive pig farming is very common. The animals don't get to move around much and live very short lives (like intensively farmed chickens) so the meat has far less texture and flavour. It is also likely to be routinely medicated, so that can end up in the food chain! It defies belief that people can do this to animals that are as intelligent as dogs.

 

Because of their needs, this happens far less with lamb and beef - they need to be outdoors and to eat grass, but they can still be grown fast (so less flavour), heavily medicated, fed feed containing growth promoters (and we wonder why present day humans are bigger and fatter than ever before) and slaughtered early.

 

I made a conscious decision about 3 years ago to only buy meat where I could be assured of its provenance. That is why we shop at the farmers' markets, or the producers own farm shop so that you can see the animals being reared and speak to the producers about medication and treatment.

 

Buy 'free' meat

Buy British

and

Buy local!

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I haven't brought meat from Tesco for years, when I saw Organic beef from Argentina for sale :evil:

 

Living on the Herefordshire border, with a good supply of well produced beef all around me I was amazed that they had to go all the way to Argentina. :shock:

 

Unfortunately, Tesco is more concerned about the profit they make than the origin of the food products, and for far too many years the consumer has made few demands - those that are bothered don't shop there any more.

 

Helen

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Re pigs..makes me furious, we lobbied in this country for better welfare standards and what happened? We got undercut by other EU nations!!!!! We banned farrowing crates and tethering and our shops got flooded with Dutch and Danish products.

For those that dont know about the difference between UK and nasty foreign pork standards, here is some info from the British Pork info site-

 

 

What is meant by stalls and tethers?

Imagine a pregnant sow standing in a metal enclosure (a stall) that is about six inches wider and six inches longer than she is. The sow has just sufficient room to, with some difficulty, lay down and stand back up, but she cannot turn round or move any more than the few inches that she has to move forward and backwards.

 

Stalls are banned in the UK but current EU legislation allows sows to be kept in these throughout their pregnancy (approximately 12 weeks). This legislation will be in place in Europe for another eight years, and even after 2013 EU legislation will still allow sows to be kept like this for the first four weeks of their pregnancy.

 

Now imagine the same sow in a similar enclosure, but one which has no back to the enclosure. To prevent her from backing out of the cage the sow is tethered around the neck or waist by a rope or chain. This practice is also banned in the UK but will continue to be acceptable under EU legislation until 2006.

 

UK and EU legislation allows the segregation of sows with young piglets in maternity crates which are designed to prevent the sow from crushing the piglets and significantly reduce piglet mortality.

 

I always buy outdoor reared if I can get it but NEVER buy anything but British pork.

 

As for the chicken supply there is no excuse for importing from France.

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I'm boycotting Tescos and have done for a while now as I don't like the way they are taking over the UK. Plus, last time I did do a shop there the fruit and veg was rubbish quality and I couldn't buy half of what I wanted as it wasn't in stock anyway.

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Tesco is a dirty word in this house now.

 

We'd normally buy meat from farmers markets or a butcher but I had to do an on line emergency shop last night so thought i'd give ocado a try. I was pleasantly surprised to find they did their own free range sausages, produced in the UK. I also bought some free range ham also produced in the UK. The info for the ham says...

 

"This ham has been made from the finest Free Range pork leg meat. Cured and cooked for a sweet & subtle flavour then glazed with Heather Honey & Roasted to Perfection.

PROFITS DONATED TO THE PRINCE OF WALES'S CHARITABLE FOUNDATION.

Duchy Selections Traditionally Cured Ham is made from Free Range pigs reared outside on the soils of East Anglia and Yorkshire.

They spend their lives outside in family groups and have warm shelters and straw bedding to provide shelter in the winter and shade in the summer.

Naturally reared and naturally fed.

Using a traditional recipe, the free range pork leg is cured for 4 days before being infused, glazed and roasted with Heather Honey.

This old fashioned process produces succulent meaty slices."

 

I also bought some coleslaw made with free range egg.

 

It wasn't much more expensive than normal either. I was very impressed.

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Thanks for that quote Rhapsody.

 

It really gets me wound up... my mother is one who buys 'battery pork', she even saw the programme where Jimmy Doherty showed pork being intensively reared in Holland and lamented about the conditions, but when I pointed out that it's people like her, buying 'cheap, foreign ('battery') pork' that are keeping these practices alive, she really didn't see the point.

 

This is very sad from someone who grew up on a smallholding which reared a lot of it's own meat. She thinks that buying from the local butcher makes it better, but it's still 'cheap, foreign ('battery') pork'. I give up and we now agree not to talk about it. She thinks that I have 'gone funny' - her phrase for anything she doesn't understand, and now knows that I won't eat any meat at their house.

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Can't really add anything Claret and Rhapsody have covered it :wink:

 

Please all be aware that the UK is the only country in Europe to implement in entirety EU legislation and tethere still happen in Europe. Even intensively reared products in the UK are better than buying something from abroad :cry:

 

We are fast becoming a nation that does not produce anything ourselves which is fine so long as there is no war in Europe again - if there is we will struggle to feed and clothe ourselves never mind how dependant we are on Europe for energy etc nowadays :shock:

 

Not comfortable thinking :evil:

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Poet, that's interesting about the ham, was it nice?

 

I bought some 'emergency bacon' once from the Highgrove/Duchy of Cornwall range. I was disappointed, it was thinly sliced and very watery when I cooked it. I like the nice meaty slices from a farm nearby... I can go and scratch thee pigs' ears too - I prefer that.

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We are fast becoming a nation that does not produce anything ourselves which is fine so long as there is no war in Europe again - if there is we will struggle to feed and clothe ourselves never mind how dependant we are on Europe for energy etc nowadays :shock:

 

Not comfortable thinking :evil:

 

I'd suggest reading 'Animal, Vegetable, Mineral' by Barbara Kingsolver - she's American, but it covers this nicely. You can get the paperback cheaply at Amazon now - it's one to keep for reference rather than pass on and has become a bible for me.

 

My mother thinks I have 'gone all weird and veggie' and just serves us fishfingers now :lol::lol:

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We are fast becoming a nation that does not produce anything ourselves which is fine so long as there is no war in Europe again - if there is we will struggle to feed and clothe ourselves never mind how dependant we are on Europe for energy etc nowadays :shock:

 

Not comfortable thinking :evil:

 

Thats exactly what a young farmer near me said the other day. :(

They have not bothered lambing this year and last year it cost them more to put the potatoes in the fields and take them out than they got for them :evil:

The potatoes would most likely been rejected by many supermarkets because of irregular shapes - thats why Tyrells started producing crisps - he was fed-up of being at the mercy of 'the man from the supermarket says NO' :evil:

 

At harvest time we get stuck behind trailers full of potatoes for weeks on end, yet wander in to the supermarkets and I'm hard pushed to find potaotes produced in Worcs / Herefords. Living in this area has made me change my buying habits for the better..*End of potato rant*

 

My local meat is fabulous :D

 

Helen

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I haven't been able to buy a free range whole chicken or free range fillets in my local Tesco since January. They do have a few organic ones but they are so expensive.

 

Sunday was the first time we have had chicken since January, I bought a teeny organic one costing £8.00. We had roast on Sunday, boiled up the carcass and the chciken s"Ooops, word censored!"s left went into broth.

 

Intensive reared pork has no taste at all and it is like chewing old leather shoes :vom:

 

 

I got some from there last week Ali - Tesco of course and its the first time and MArks and spencer also had free range and also organic ones last week

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I hate Tesco :twisted:

 

I am appalled that they can sell french chicken and polish pork.

 

there is NO need to be getting in foreign meat in this country. The company hubby catches chicken for kills and produces nearly 600,000 a week :shock: yes a week! and this is just one factory in Devon. There are factories all over the uk so there is no excuse for Tesco buying outside of the uk. It makes me so angry.

 

For anyone who buys frozen chicken (ie birdseye or similar) you do have to check the packaging as a lot of chicken (even if its 100% chicken) is produced in Brazil, Holland or Argentina. Some prepacked sandwiches uses chicken from Thailand.

 

I have done a complete turnaround on what I buy now. For the last year I havent bought anything frozen and all my meat dishes are using fresh free range meat with dishes made from scratch.

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