Tuesday 7 September 2010

A happy cow makes a tasty steak

Despite the title of todays blog I'm actually a wannabe vegetarian. My desire to be vegetarian started with a lecture on intensive farming practices at school at which point I promptly decided to stop eating meat unless it was humanely reared. After passing on the content of my school lecture to my mother she started buying meat with the RSPCA Freedom Food badge of approval.

The downside of ethically rearing animals is that it is more expensive and so without my mum on hand to purchase my food, I became predominantly vegetarian at university. Sadly vegetarianism doesn't agree with me and after a lengthy period of anaemia I reluctantly returned to eating meat. Since then I have always tried to buy organic or Freedom Food meats and eggs which are from more ethically reared animals.

Freedom Food is the RSPCA's farm assurance and food labelling scheme. It is the only UK farm assurance scheme to focus solely on improving the welfare of farm animals reared for food. This means providing them with an environment that meets their needs – needs not confined to space, food and water but psychological needs too, providing a stimulating environment that enables the animals to exhibit their natural behaviour. The guidelines also cover the most humane slaughtering practices and the RSPCA inspects the farms to check they are complying with their guidelines.

Even if you're not that bothered about animal welfare it's worth buying ethically reared meats from a health and taste perspective,
An animal that is stressed will have higher levels of stress hormones in its tissues which reduce the quality and flavour of the meat. Some studies also suggest these substances are then transmitted to humans when the meat is eaten and may then contribute to disease and ill health.

The following supermarkets all stock freedom foods marked with a blue 'f' symbol:
Asda
Tesco (who have just started stocking Freedom Food smoked salmon)
Sainsbury's

For more information please see:
http://www.rspca.org.uk/freedomfood
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