The great dilemma

My first local organic meat box

I watched Food Inc. on TV the other day, and it had an effect on me.  All documentaries about food have an effect on me because it is one of those issues that surprises me.  How can the government get away with letting companies wash our ground beef in ammonia?  How can the government justify allowing junk food to be cheaper than fruit and veg? And the biggest question, why do we tolerate the horrible treatment of pigs, cows and chickens (and farmers) so that we can have cheap meat?  The answer, because the people don't know about it, or think about it.  The consumer lets it happen.  I am completely guilty of this.

A couple of years ago ordered veg and fruit from Able and Cole, a box scheme that delivered to my door.  All the items were locally grown and organic.  It was not cheap, but I thought what the heck, it will also allow me to eat seasonally and make me eat vegetables I never eat.  Eventually I got tired of throwing away veg that I didn't eat and I was tired of the cost.  But instead of buying seasonally and organically from the supermarket, I went back to buying the bargain veg, fruit and meat.  I even went back to buying non-eco friendly soaps because, I will say this, they work better and could get my new baby's clothes whiter and softer.

Now I watch a documentary explaining the horrible factorization of our food and it makes me angry.  The way that a few huge corporations can swoop in and put the farmer under their thumb is amazing.  There was only one woman who bucked the system to let the film crew into her chicken farm because she decided she didn't care anymore.  It was awful.  The documentary mainly focused on meat because it is one of the hugest shocker, but they also mentioned corn and the way it is farmed and utilized.

For this week's shop, I decided to go back to the box scheme.  I was surprised that Riverford Organics had a Meat Box.  It was pricey but I decided to give it a try and opted to get the Quick and Easy Meat Box for £29.  It came today and I am excited to eat it, however, I cannot buy this every week.  I got onto Supermarket.co.uk, my favourite shopping site, and decided to see what this box would cost at the supermarket.  Tesco was the cheapest (not ASDA.  I tend to stay away from Tesco but if it's cheaper, so be it).  I could get everything but the pork for £10.  One problem with this is that I don't know if the meat comes from UK farms and whether or not they are "ethical" farms.  These animals may still be on a feed lot, but are fed organic corn.  I know that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has had problems with Tesco and the fine print of their organic meats.  Never-the-less, next week I may venture into the world of supermarket organic foods.