Robin Ellis

Robin, I have to admit that I do enjoy a good piece of beef, and a nice piece of steak. I do buy my meat from a butcher who knows where his meat has come from. I do pay that bit extra, but I would rather do that & know that the meat is edible and tasty. I have in the past bought meat from supermarkets, but find there is no taste at all in it. I try to keep our intake of red meat (which includes lamb chops) to twice in a week, three times if a make a casserole.  I have to think about Jimmy’s insulin. Now this is where your invaluable book comes into it own – it has been used already.
Best wishes, Elaine

Sometimes I am surprised how cheap meat from the supermarket is compared to other food. At least in Germany it is so because here the competition between the supermarket chains is very hard. Meat has become a mass product and the quality suffers. Cheap prices support factory farming. Meat has no time to ripen. I think many farmers feed too much silage and concentrate. This all has effects on the quality of meat and milk.

I have seen meat packs with origin data only in Austrian supermarkets or in German organic markets. In Tyrol there are still many small mountain farmers who produce good quality.

We should make it like the Southerners and eat meat as a side dish and not as a main course.

Martina

I do think it is folly (from both an economic and resource standpoint) to cycle our protein through an animal before we consume it. I do enjoy bacon and sausage now and then, but otherwise my diet is (as Pollan recommends) mainly plant-based. I initially turned to plants out of concern over e.coli (I now know that plants are not safe from e.coli contamination) but I have stayed away from meat because of concerns over the quality of commercially raised meats (added hormones, antibiotics, unnatural diets). I do live in a rural area where many “know” their meat, and that is an exception – whether free range chicken/eggs, grass fed beef, or wild deer.

Debra Wade

Submitted on 2011/08/15 

Since the mad cow disease scare meat in our local butcher’s and supermarkets has to show the provenance, even down to the individual animal. At least it used to; I haven’t checked recently. Certainly the origin of fruit and veggies are regularly shown, i.e., Italy, Chile, Israel whatever.

Argentinian beef is a good bet too, because the animals are ‘free range’ in that they walk to their water, eat grass and don’t get pumped up with undesirable chemicals and additives. It is natural meat (which I have eaten with a spoon, it was that tender!), which is mainy why Argentinians don’t have a cholesterol problem.Since the mad cow disease scare, meat in our local butcher’s and supermarkets has to show the provenance, even down to the individual animal. At least it used to; I haven’t checked recently. Certainly the origin of fruit and veggies are regularly shown, i.e., Italy, Chile, Israel whatever.

a presto, Keith