Author Topic: Chlorinated Chicken  (Read 4801 times)

Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #25 on: 02 March, 2015, 12:07:05 pm »
To be honest, it's not practicable to grow all our food or buy direct from the farm, so there reasonably has to be industrialisation of food processes.
I'm really not sure about that.

I'm pretty sure it isn't realistically possible to ensure that the shops are full of fresh red peppers and plum tomatoes year round. I'm pretty sure it isn't realistic to grow large quantities of wheat on fields that are boggy and flood.

I'm also pretty sure that there are vast acreages in the UK that aren't efficiently farmed (not through fault of the farmers). We would do a lot better to grow oats in much of the Vale of York, for example; but the consumers want wheat for their croissants.

The Yorkshire wolds is good sheep farming country but we have lost an appetite for mutton. Consequently there are areas simply left fallow because it isn't practical to make a profit on what can be produced on that land.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

ian

Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #26 on: 02 March, 2015, 12:17:24 pm »
And people want to buy two chicken breasts for £1.99 (or whatever). Food at that sort of price does have an alternative cost. And even those health-conscious, air-miles avoiding, organic consumers, still want their authentic-style hummus and tahini. I doubt we grow many chickpeas or sesame seeds. Yep, I have strawberries and raspberries in the fridge too, so I'm as guilty. Turnip is one of my least favourite fruits.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #27 on: 02 March, 2015, 12:29:32 pm »
There seem to be two currents there, which are contradictory. Firstly, we want the things we want, now, cheaply. So strawberries for Christmas and KFC Happy Basket for 99p. Secondly, we have to eat the things we don't want because of their dominance of the market. So growth hormone meat and antibiotic milk. I don't think these are really contradictory.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #28 on: 02 March, 2015, 02:29:56 pm »
yes a great line from Sir Henry "I don't know what I want, but I want it NOW!! this does appear to be a problem with modern living along with the £1.99 chicken breast (skinless of course) HFW proved that when he tried to force organic chicken on us.
and of course don't forget the supermarkets we all use them because it makes life easier and because of their size they can control the price of food, from farm to shelf, if the farmers can't produce what supermarkets want at the price they are prepared to buy at the supermarkets just go else where, the initial loser is the farmer but at the end of the day it will be the consumer who loses out because food will not be produced in the home country it will come from where ever, quite possibly with very low standards of production very few controls on environmental damage and little control on drug input, just look at the giant pig farms in Poland owned and controlled by a giant us company,  so it won't just be chemically enhanced chicken we get from the us, europe will be swamped with dodgy pork from the us via poland. Oh! another problem, far too many people can't be bothered or don't know how to cook, which I find quite disgusting, but thats another story. And I'm not one of those hairy jumper types although I do like the smell of patchouli oil, I just have a healthy interest in what I eat. 

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #29 on: 02 March, 2015, 05:54:41 pm »
I don't really understand why people buy chicken breasts when you can but a whole bird for the price of its breasts.
A Skinflint.

Kim

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Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #30 on: 02 March, 2015, 06:02:38 pm »
I don't really understand why people buy chicken breasts when you can but a whole bird for the price of its breasts.

I don't really understand why people get their bikes serviced at bike shops.

ian

Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #31 on: 02 March, 2015, 06:51:38 pm »
Because at 10pm I can't be bothered performing a chicken autopsy, I just want to chop them and throw them in a pan. (And my wife, because she's odd and picky about food, doesn't like bones.)

We always blame supermarkets but we are in love with cheap and convenient food. Little thought goes into where it comes from and I don't think people want to know much more than the price. See the recent thread about people discovering chicken in their KFC. They probably think a live chicken has batter rather than feathers. But then most people these days don't have the opportunity to pop to their local butcher and baker. There's a butcher here, but he shuts up shop at about 4pm. And I'll be honest, it's a bit daunting for many people (myself included) – I've no idea what bit of an animal is what I'm a little scared about being interrogated on the subject by a large man in bloodstained clothing brandishing a giant knife.

Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #32 on: 02 March, 2015, 08:21:46 pm »
but that's exactly it, supermarkets are their own worse enemy, but I'm not getting in to that argument, supermarkets are the work of stan
they and we are part of the same vicious circle, thanks to our laziness and supermarkets need for profit (see the vicious circle developing there) we are only too glad to use supermarkets unfortunately this does mean that most villages don't have a local baker, butcher or green grocer and a lot but not all British farmers are under the supermarkets thumb, they do have too much control,   

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #33 on: 02 March, 2015, 09:42:57 pm »
I guess it's easier to get unprocessed/non-supermarket food in a city. We have within a quarter-hour walk 5 bakers, 3 greengrocers, 2 butchers, 1 fish shop. And another shop where we get eggs and non-homogenised milk which Mrs Cudzo claims reminds her, a bit, of the milk she drank as a child, when they had a cow. Even - in fact especially - back there in the village, no one has a cow nowadays and the only milk you can get is UHT, the only meat would be frozen or tinned. Though a couple of people still have chickens, the veg are half as expensive again as in the city. Food goes where it is most in demand.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #34 on: 02 March, 2015, 11:32:19 pm »
yes ironically I live in what would be some peoples idea of heaven, however the realities are quite different, the village has lost it's shop and post office, the next village has a shop and post office and 2 petrol stations that sell food stuff, but to do a proper shop it means either going to Brecon or more recently I've started using the most evil of supermarkets Tesco and that's in Ystradgynlais both Brecon and Ystrad are a round trip of 30+ miles.
Also I find the most depressing of all is the fact that where we live it's very difficult to have a worth while veg patch due to soil and weather conditions, in fact back in the days of the ewe premium the area was classified as a severely disadvantaged area, so if the government calls it that you know it must be bad, 

almost forgot nearest macdonalds roughly 50 mile round trip ;) there are some benifits

Re: Chlorinated Chicken
« Reply #35 on: 03 March, 2015, 09:38:09 am »
almost forgot nearest macdonalds roughly 50 mile round trip ;) there are some benifits

but I bet you can still find the bloody wrappers blowing around the sides of the road!  >:(