A matter of meat
Jenna Firth's SHOPPING IN A FREE RANGE WORLD:
Research conducted by www.GoldenRiverFarms.co.uk has found that a whopping 32% of parents with children aged between 5 and 8 will only allow them to eat organic or free range meat.
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Jenna Firth
A view that many will find a little over the top maybe, but one that I am totally in favour of - I only wish that number was a little higher. There is nothing that upsets me more than to see a child eating fish fingers or chicken nuggets and frozen chips or Smash for tea. All too often you see parents go to the aisles in Asda or Iceland to stock up on their ‘freezer foods’, and why? All I ever have in my freezer is meat from the butcher and some frozen peas!
Although this recent research suggests that things may be on the up for the free-range and organic meat market, it seems convenience still dominates.
Yesterday someone told me I should get myself down to Lidl, as they have started to stock thinly sliced potatoes with onions in a vacuum packed bag which you can just open up and put in the oven for half an hour. ‘Amazing’ was how they were described.
Personally, I’d rather peel and chop a few potatoes, add a bit of onion and pop it in the oven myself. At least I would know what I was eating. But when I mentioned this, my comments were met with a face of ‘yeah right, when you have your baby you tell me you’ll be hand-making all your own food’ face. A face I often get when I talk about what choices I hope to make in early motherhood.
I have come to the gloomy conclusion that some people choose to use their children as an excuse not to cook proper meals, along with the price factor of organic and free range meat. It always seems to be ‘I’m too busy’ instead of ‘I make time’. Others, it appears, just jump on the ‘trendy free-range bandwagon’.
The report issued by www.GoldenRiverFarms.co.uk stated that 86% of the 32% of parents mentioned above said the health aspects were their main concern when choosing to only allow their children to eat organic or free range meat. But sadly 10% admitted they opted for free range or organic as they view it as ‘fashionable’ and wanted to keep up with the latest playground trend.
When Jamie Oliver is no longer ‘cool’, will these numbers keep rising? When he is slightly aged and grey with a pot-belly and his cheeky chappy ambience no longer works, will we look back and think ‘what a waste of time?’.
Now I don’t know, maybe in the years to come people will really take to buying meat that is reared as it should be – outside in the fresh air – and not just because a celebrity chef tells us to. Maybe I am in for a reality check and maybe I will join the ranks of those who feeds their children processed food that has preservatives-and-goodness-knows-what-else galore, but I sure hope not.
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21 Comments
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by Peter Cottle, W.Yorks
Thursday, February 04 2010, 7:57PM
“Jenna
While thinking more regards free range and healthy eating i wish you well with your child to be so might i suggest that as soon as you can get Her/stroke him on solid food you try raw foods maybe rabbit ,start at an early age and the benifits are there for years to come,catch it youself wild ,not pet shop and you cannot be more freerange plus economy wise it could not be cheaper once the taste is aquired you will never loose it , hence start at an early age, your healthy life style will be with you forever and you can forget these false fashion lead pretend greenies , good luck with your country real life style family
Peter”
by Peter Cottle, W.Yorks
Thursday, February 04 2010, 3:06PM
“Hi Jenna
please dont believe any of these research reports like all things they can be twisted to give the answer the person commisioning the report wants,
like you though i think free range is great and i dont mean the range bit, if people got off their backside and done a bit of hunting the food is free, Note that Jessica Eco Cornwall, I hate the word Educating people i can teach myself all i need to know to get by, anyone who says the puplic need educating are the ones themselves in need of help,
anyhow get out hunting and taste great food,plus i hope we have some more of this snow as it makes tracking the game very easy and more for the pot,
keep up the great work Jenna, good job there are people like us in this world,
Peter”
by Jenna, Shopping in a Free Range World
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 3:43PM
“I merely mentioned that Jamie Oliver had enlightened many on what free-range means. I appreciate he is the 'marketing face of Sainsbury's' but I never mentioned I was an avid supporter of him and what businesses he choses to promote. A little off the point, dont you think?
Regardless of who pays his wages, you cant deny that many people couldn't give two hoots about free-range meat before his show. Now, many people have made the change and become more aware of both animal welfare and what they are eating.”
by Jenny, Cornwall
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 2:03PM
“Publicity for Sainsbury's i mean.”
by Jenny, Cornwall
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 1:57PM
“Yes - and isn't Jamie Oliver the marketing face of Sainsburys - a supermarket, of which Jenna you seem to hate so much. The whole chicken stunt, well, you know what they say 'all publicity is good publicity'.”
by Carol Sell, Truro
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 1:48PM
“Unfortunately Jenna, you are one of the many people that have fallen for the myth of "free-range" food portrayed by Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
I think you should perhaps look at welfare standards, mortality rates between free-range chickens and battery/perchery birds and also while you are there have a look at what constitutes a "free-range" chicken. I think you might be surprised....”
by Jenny, Cornwall
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 1:21PM
“I personally don't believe that:
'if more people started buying it now, in the future, the cheaper it would be'
Food is a global commodity and therefore its price is mostly effected by factors across the whole world for example exchange rates, droughts in australia and diseases such as foot and mouth in mexico. I don't expect to see any significant change to this for some time, this is my opinion. Also it does costs to rear an animal, and that cost will always be there. Lots of farmers already run on relatively low margins and the ones that have chosen to produce organic may have found they have received a premium (not the case for lots last year when they had to sell their meat and milk as conventional due to lack of demand for organic and therefore lost money, quit or reverted to conventional). I do not think prices will drop if more people start buying organic, purely because I can't see a reduction in the price of rearing the animal. Hopefully food prices won't drop.
I don't know the exact figures but 50 / 100 etc years ago a household would spend a far greater percentage of their income on food than they do today. Decent food is worth more - not less!”
by Mary, Polzeath
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 10:39AM
“What are they allowed to feed free-range meat (cows, sheep, goats etc etc). Have you ever tried gulls eggs very free range?”
by Gary, Saltash
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 10:00AM
“Jenna, I am not an expert and I have no doubt your animals have acres to roam in. As I understand it not all countries have legal standards defining what free range means
Quote just found from the net to backup my comments
Free range does not imply in any way that the hens were fed any better than in factory farms.
The "free roaming" does not provide the main feed supplies, which means that free-range hens can be fed the same animal-derived byproducts or GMO crops, as in factory farming. This is also the main reason why free-range eggs are cheaper than organic eggs. Critics of EU-style free-range regulations point out that commercial free-range egg farming, in general, does not live up to these consumer requirements, since the regulations allow the use of yarding rather than free range. Yarding combines a high-density poultry house with an attached fenced yard, and both its methods and results are closer to high-density confinement than true free range.
For the record I have not doubts what you Jenna refer to as Free-range is not what we find in our local Asda's, this is the point I tried to raise below
This is why I feel many walk away from Orgnic and free-range products, the term is open to abuse.”
by Jenna, Shopping in a Free Range World
Tuesday, February 02 2010, 9:42AM
“George - The reason I make these choices is because I believe in them. I dont profess for one minute that I will be the 'perfect mother' as you put it, but I do plan on sticking to the choices I have already made regardless of how hard it may be in those first years.
After all, no one ever said it was easy!
Jessica - Thanks for your comment. It is important for more people to be educated on the benefits of free-range and/or organic produce.
While it does in fact cost more to produce today, if more people started buying it now, in the future, the cheaper it would be.”