About My Quest

Happy pigs in mud, cows in clover. This is the way we like to think of farm animals. Unfortunately this is most often not the case. My love of animals and conviction that eating meat is part of the ideal healthy human diet has led me to seek out meat that is:

Humanely raised and treated
Free range
Grass fed
Hormone and Antibiotic free
Pesticide free
Affordable

Although certified organic food is wonderful because you are assured that the producers strictly satisfy the above criteria the cost of these products is generally very high and not affordable for everyone.
'Organic' is a ridiculous term because it simply means that it consists of natural elements. Many food producers are predominantly 'organic' by the definition set out by reputable certifiers however for a range of reasons they do not bother with the expense of becoming certified.
Many farmers produce food that fits the list above and I plan to find them. I encourage you to band together with friends, family and colleagues to buy in bulk direct from these farmers.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

"The farmer gets $5 a kilo. You pay $69"


This interesting article illustrates the point that I am trying to make. Good quality meat is produced at a reasonable price but the supply chain swallows up the value.
I assume that the butcher in Surry Hills knows where his meat comes from because he could not get away with charging this price if it was not good. I bet it is just as good as the meat that I now pay $15 a kilo to have delivered to my door. See my ever growing list of suppliers here.
Conversely I have paid $15-$20 a kilo in supermarkets for tough as old boots misery ridden meat.
I have of course paid similar amounts for lovely meat from the supermarket but the animals may or may not have had a reasonable quality of life and who knows what chemicals and hormones were used in the production. It is a lottery.
My long term plan is to lobby government to make changes to labeling so that the consumer knows all this information and can make purchasing choices. As the articles states all this information is available. All farmers must fill out detailed information about what they feed the animals, the age of the beast, the medications used. If we could also see this information then we would know what we are buying and the prices would become more standardised.

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