You are to right Zoe it is laziness many years ago one of my customers was a food manufacturing company, after completing the work the guy asked me if i wanted any curry, spices or food of that nature as i dont like curry i declined but during the course of the conversation he stated that English girls were too lazy to cook thats why he was getting rich on fast food meals i beat a hasty retreat not wanting to get into a discussion on that but did see his point as one friend practicaly lived on take aways his wife being to tired to cook when she got in from work at 4.30 in the afternoon having done 8 hours work having said that she was too tired on a weekend when she didnt work
cheap doesn't always have to be trash. Convenience foods are expensive, in comparison with REAL food, and vegetables. McDonalds is far more expensive than a crepe or panini.
Laziness is the issue, not lack of money. I am in no way loaded, but I would prefer to slice up a tomato, and make a sandwich, rather than buy a pre-packed one for 4.50.
Why should any animal be slaughtered, tortured, mistreated, drugged and generally abused for the delectation of humans?
To be honest, these type of food scares associated with trash food doesn't bother me. Anyone feeding their kids that sort of thing deserves a wake-up call now and then.
Factory farming of any animal is disgusting, what happened to trying to support local farmers. In our area, we can access pretty much any meat, locally grown, organic, and free range.
@John...fascinated by your American farmer...just read the Blog...and will be looking at buying our meat from him in future...what I loved about American steaks is that they are tender as well as tasty, best in the world as far as I am concerned...tender is rarely the case with French steaks...which nearly always are too chewy for my liking.
@Steve ...I know....about the crackling...I buy it separately in France...but was amazed when I went to Morrisons supermarket this week....(I dont have one locally....this was 20 miles from me) and found packs in the cooler section with strips of crackling....just like in France! In Eymet the local butcher knows the Brits like the pork and crackling together and sells joints still attached!
Forgot to say unregulated horses going for slaughter ( even microchips go un read at abbatoire ) = possibly not very healthy animals be it from riding schools pumped with whatever drugs to keep them going or horses full of worms .. yuk
While horse meat maybe a perfectly safe meat its not on our list,We have found an American farmer who has grass fed beef he is a couple of hours away from us but his beef is at least a known quantity and reasonable http://grasspunk.com/2012/12/15/fencing-gascon-style/
Alot of good points there Catherine , I feel there will be plenty more scandals revealed in the food industry yet as I think only the DNA for horse meat was looked for and not other species
I also wouldn't knowingly want to eat horse meat for lots of reasons especially as I know how they can suffer on the long distance transport never mind the suffering when they arrive :-( regulation is already in place to some extent for cattle and sheep and pigs etc who really shouldn't have to travel too far but equines suffer seriously long journeys without enough rest often taken live to Italy so when killed they can be labeled as home grown .. back to false labelling again . They even take mares in foal to slaughter to eat the foal as a délicatesse
Please take a look at the World Horse Welfare site where they are campaigning hard for equine welfare
http://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/help-tomorrow/campaigning
One good thing out of all of this is many folk seem to be saying they are going for locally produced food which has to be better for everyone
The difficulty is with consumer demand - many people would love to eat ethically but with the price of 'organic' supplies, compared to cheaply prepared burgers, they really don't have a choice with the way food is rising in price all the time. The big companies profit from this, you only have to look at the adverts where they are saying how much cheaper their products are than someone elses. You don't need to be too bright to work out though that cost cutting means the quality has been compromised.
@Carol. Those of still in France rerely see crackling !
You are absolutely right Catharine that the huge issue for animal welfare is transport - it is outrageous that farmers who, by and large, take good care of their animals (even if in some cases if only because it costs them money if they don't, rather than for ethical reasons) should have to load them up into lorries where they travel for days to abattoirs where they are held in pens and ' looked after' by people who aren't farmers but commodity handlers. There should be a local abattoir a maximum of half a day' s travel (including loading and unloading) away from the farms, with decent lairage (holding facilities) to enable animals to recover from the journey and be properly inspected by vets before slaughter. We have a duty to the animals we eat - I have no problem eating meat but I have a HUGE problem with how we treat the creature which ends up being that meat. And don't get me started on the horror of battery hens, cheap chicken and eggs come at far far too high a welfare price.
i think this just proves you cant trust people 100 %
supermarkets in particular are buying food thru middlemen and factories who get their supply from other wholesalers and subcontractors which creates the opportunity to pass of horse as something else.
i have never eaten horse although have seen it even in Auchan - and one day may try it , however if i do its out of choice and not hidden in amongst a burger or something.
The only place i have eaten this type of food is Flunch - steak hache for a Fiver lunch and just wonder how secure their supply chain is !
For me the animal welfare is an issue as well as what the horses have been fed / drugs used along the way which could be passed along in the process.
sadly this issue is more about money / greed and profit than consumer safety.
http://tag-on-line.blogspot.fr/
good article from a friend on here about the "horse" and buying from cheap shops. Never had a ready meal in my life, don't enter cheap supermarkets, buy fast food or eat it. Buy all my food from organic, can see my pork/beef/chickens/veal running about before it hits my table.
In Newbury I have a local butcher who supplies meat only from local farms...all within 10 miles...I am absolutely happy with the meat there...but didnt manage to find the same in my town in France...where the butcher locally had pre prepared dishes of food in the window...that often stayed there for days and put me off!
+Eating on the hoof? - we should hold a Gallup poll!
I was thinking about this all week...as I am now back in the UK....so surrounded by horse meat products apparently...a friend who often holidays in Thailand made a comment about a bowl of well known tinned soup I had eaten this week...I commented how comforting said chicken soup was and she asked if I was sure it was chicken and not cat....I said obviously I couldnt be sure...but surely she realises on her yearly sourjourn to Thailand she had probably eaten plenty of dog amonst other things...to which she replied...'oh no, not us, we only eat in restaurants where they cook your meal at your table' well frankly...cubed beef, horse, dog, rabbit, cat, Kangaroo or rat can be difficult to name once cut up....unless you see the animal killed and portioned, how could you ever tell? so not convinced by mince for example...I think I would stick with pork wearing its identifiable crackling to be absolutely sure I knew what I was eating...