http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7230959.stm
OK, you might think that I'm just banging my eco-friendly hippy drum again....but what the hell do Tesco think they're doing?
Even if you take the whole animal-welfare issue out of the equation, the only possible way they can make these sort of discounts is by buying in chicken from places like Brazil. We don't know much about the hygiene, food standards etc of imported meat from outside Europe, and the Food Standards Agency only actually check a few birds being imported (under 50% of cargo is stopped and searched, and only one chicken from each container is checked, so millions of chickens are going unchecked).
Have the supermarkets leant on the UK Farmers (broiler chicken producers or not, they are still people and still need to earn a living, I concede) to such an extent that 3p a bird is no longer viable for them? The farmers are struggling as it is. Many would become free-range producers, but simply do not have the outdoor space to allow this. They WOULD be committed to breeding less birds indoors and thus improving conditions, if the price paid by the supermarkets was enough to let them actually make a profit, and therefore a wage.
Even reducing the chicken to £1.99.....3p to buy a broiler chicken, maybe a few pence to wrap it in plastic and polystyrene - they are still making an absolute fortune!
I would appeal to people to think twice about buying 'bargain basement' chicken - for your health, for local farmers and their families AND for the birds themselves. Buy something else instead.
Just refuse to buy chicken from the supermarkets until they sort themselves out and start being fair to farmers and give the farmers the opportunity and finances to choose what they would like to produce.
You deserve to know what you're putting in your children's mouths - and a pile of non EU regulation antibiotics, water and growth hormones wouldn't be the sort of thing you'd put on their toast, is it?
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
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Welcome To Holland....
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills... and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.
And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things... about Holland. "
By Emily Perl Kingsley
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills... and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.
And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things... about Holland. "
By Emily Perl Kingsley
