food: March 2008 Archives

Following recent 'chicken out' entry I felt compelled to post this comment which Chris recommended I move into an actual Entry itself. So here it is with a bit more digression and rambling :-)

Do you actually know that all the rest of the chicken is thrown away by companies/supermarkets selling cheaper broiler farm chickens? These guys are serious profit makers and I would be fairly certain they use at least some of what you don't get (even if not for moral reasons) for other purposes.

Supermarkets are also some of the countries most efficient transporters of food and I know the farmer's markets do sell fantastically better quality but there's no reason to assume you're doing the planet a favor by having 20 half full old trucks bumbling around the countryside and another 500 people getting themselves there and then to the supermarket anyway.

What is actually needed is supermarkets be forced to act more responsibly by law, meaning they aren't allowed to source food from so far etc etc. Supermarket chickens are super cheap because supermarkets are incredibly efficient because its in their interests to be (and of course because that chicken will suffer more). Efficiency concerns drive good strategically driven transport and networks of depots. The morality of what goes on with the animals etc aside, people should be prepared to admit that supermarkets do have some good points and learn from those if suggesting new methods of feeding 60 million people.

Don't get me wrong I dislike supermarkets and most of what they stand for but there is a model underneath at least worth examining. Encouraging them to change is important since they feed the majority and that's not going to change for some time. Admittedly taking one's business elsewhere will do this but it's questionable weather this is more effective than buying selectively in the supermarket since they then have more idea what you do want rather than just knowing that they have one less customer.

BTW I prefer organic and local farmers market stuff any day of the week. I just want to point out that in some ways its currently a far from perfect solution other than for one's taste-buds and health.

Ideally we'd all just stop eating meat, it'd be 10 times better for the planet and that's not much of an exaggeration honestly, it's a real biggy considering how much resource goes into animal transportation and watering and feeding. 1KG of meat requires about 100 times more water to produce. And the livestock grown on this planet for food consume about half of the worlds grain and wheat supplies.C'mon; I mean let's confess, we all know it right?

I mean if the point is animal welfare then stop eating them, if it's saving the planet then there's a many less efficient ways of bringing meat to your table then supermarkets manage. Or is it really because we want that nice tastey lamb chop on our table instead of the fat, injected crap that supermarkets dish up? Many other options exist in supermarkets these days. My biggest bug bear with supermarkets is packaging. Why must I buy my organic apples in a carton wrapped in plastic just so they can write 'organic' on it. Super pisses me off. Giveth in one and taketh with the other. This is where the government should step in and legislate. It would be really simple. It's their f*****g job after all.

It's fun to point fingers at the 'indolent fuckwits' but while we profess to know better and still don't act accordingly then there's more than an pinch of hypocrisy about it all. I see a lot of people liking meat too much and making themselves feel better about not giving it up by buying differently. I include myself here. We could all get a little more honest about this, that's all I'm trying to say. But then I guess we'd have to go and live under a rock somewhere and eat mud if we really want to be able to point the finger. We do stuff cos we like it and people just draw different lines in the sand.

Shit was that a rant? Was that even anything to do with Chris's original posting? I dunno, I just struggle with myself about the whole meat thing and farmer's markets and all that stuff is no answer to the planet's predicament and singling out other groups that aren't FOR SURE doing any worse is a difficult one for me. Just because they draw a different wrong line in the sand.

Oh dear this goes no where doesn't it? Means, 'because I do wrong I can't criticize others'. Ah, I go round and round like a fucktard's verbal merry go round. Help I can't get off!!! arrrgh. Not the most constructive argument I've ever made but this is the 'Isolationist' and I'm new here so bare with me. I wasn't sure if we're suppose to be bleak in a 'there's no hope sort of a way' or slightly more constructive. I guess I'm just becoming more and more jaded buy this stuff. Every time a new 'way forward' is suggested people find it fine to follow unquestioningly. I'm the same. Then you read something a few years later telling you that what you did before was better because of x,y and z knock on effects. But we find a dozen ways to justify it if it suits. We managed to justify theft to ourselves as soon as it saved us €15 on a CD purchase. Lots of things cost too much in this world and lots of companies make lots of money charging for them but the 1st time it was very hard to get caught stealing people convinced themselves it was OK to do so. Coincidence? Organic food from farmers markets just tastes better right?

Don't you sometimes ever feel like we're a bunch of ants running round on an egg that's fallen from a very high nest. I mean it seems to be the case. From an outsiders perspective at least. We know we're not and are trying to act accordingly and steer it somehow but the human mind's ability to head bury is vast and probably as yet mostly unexplored territory :-) we'll see soon enough I guess.