TES+COS!!!!!

[kate egg]

Farm Assured has absolutely no meaning at all And what gets me is the use now of a photo of a 'farmer' on the label - what is that supposed to prove???? The packed in the UK but product of the EU is very naughty. Goodness me we shouldn't need to take a magnifying glass with us every time we go shopping but it seems we will need to if we want to get it right

[Babycakes]

I don't like the pictures of the farmers on Peskys food either. I think it's deliberatley done to mislead people into thinking they're buying something that has been raised on a lovely sunny farm where little lambs gambol in spring and chicken peck around the farmer's wife's feet as she scatters grain for them before going tot he firlds to feed the pigs....
When in reality it comes from a huge, stinking concrete building more like a factory than a farm.

[Sunny B]

Of course that's exactly right, Babycakes. Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall did a couple of competitions on the Compassion in World Farming site - one to choose the most misleading poultry label, where you could complain to the supermarket that produced it, and one for the most truthful, and believe me, you'd have to be a pretty desperate person to buy a chicken with the winning label on!

CWF have been bombarding me with their literature ever since I signed up for "Chicken Out", pig farming looks pretty grim, to be honest, and I've now decided to only eat fish, deer and rabbit when I'm in charge of the buying and cooking.

[Sunny B]

Oh, and I think it is probably best to go for the Freedom Food label, or Soil Association, rather than a pic of Smiley Farmer Giles!

[kate egg]

Well I am just off to the supermarket - guess I shall be gone a while................

[spudley]

i went to sons of morris this week to get a stock of staples, pasta/rice and of course tinned beans. i thought that they had some pretty good offers on a lot of stuff. stopped at farmers market to get mr spuds meat. They are going to put a big tes+cos where we shop, but out of purely personal choice i think that i will stick to sons o morris, (no doubt though i will end up having a wander around just to have a look see........)
They had some pretty healthy grape vine plants and i couldnt resist impulse buying one- budget blown......impulse buying i need to whatch that, but they were right at the start of the store....i still fall for mossies marketing tricks..

[Sunny B]

Never mind, Spudley, when the vines start producing you will not have to buy grapes or wine from aforementioned supermarket, so will save in the long run!

[spudley]

fat chance of that sunny B first sniff of a ripe grape and the chickens will be there in a shot...

[aparker155]

Wow - just read this thread - frightening!

On the subject of supermarket meat - I am a keen meat-eater and was sadly raised on supermarket meat . When I moved to my current home I was recommended to try the local butchers which mostly sells British and preferably local meat (sometimes raised themselves) and game. When I first tried beef from there I thought it had 'gone off' because it actually had a flavour and I wasn't used to that. I wouldn't ever go back to buying supermarket meat now (except for the chicken wings that I give to my dog), although it costs more from the butchers I would rather eat less but good quality meat!

On the subject of where food comes from - I saw a TV programme a while back (could have even been Hugh FW) which said that you can import food from e.g. USA and as long as it is processed in some way in the UK then you are allowed to say it is from the UK - how disgraceful is that? The example given was chicken from Holland (I think) which was then imported into the UK and cut into strips and repackaged and they could put UK as the country of origin on it!!!!!