Eating Eco food

[Cerveza mas fina]

Who's doing it and why?

I used to buy many eco products over the past few years but before the holidays we went full eco at home. That basicly means everything we buy is eco (if available) including meats etc.

Few reasons for this:
-Non eco meat is laced with meds, don't want my daughter to grow up on that and hormones
-Eco stuff is slightly more expensive (meat more then slightly...) so we will eat less when sticking to a budget


So we eat better food, but slightly less of it, while sticking to a budget. Really a win win win situation. Get healthier, save money. Biggest objection for a long time was that meat was more expensive (a whole small eco chicken costs 21 dollars, a small non eco one can be 6/7 bucks) but in the end maybe we can eat a bit less chicken and eat good stuff.

[toku]

you're still dying

[Reb]

Thought this was an interesting read:

http://www.vn.nl/Archief/Samenleving/Artikel-Samenleving/Groene-sprookjes-5-mythen-over-biologisch-eten.htm

[Kara]

I eat it but not all the time and not because I think it's better for me than the quality chicken found in Taco Bell.

[archnemesis]

There are certainly some benefits with eating environmental friendly food, but eco/organic is mostly a marketing strategy. As the article Reb posted mentions there are many ways to bypass the rules so that you can retain high yields while selling the products at a higher price.

[T-Short]

As much as possible, especially red meats and dairy products. Organic red meat is the most important to minimise CO2 impact, even though I don't eat tons of it.

[Fifstar]

I try to eat all meat and most dairy products organic, although it is often not possible when eating lunch with colleagues. Vegetarian options often aren't that appealing.

My main reason is the better keeping of the animals. I know there is some controversy around that but I still feel it is better than just not giving a fuck. Also has the side effect of eating somewhat less meat due to the higher prices.

I also eat some eco products because eco supermarkets often have products that normal supermarkets don't stock.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Yeah I realize there are ways around rules and it's not perfect or waterproof. But as Fifstar says not doing anything because it's not perfect is a copout (very Dutch way btw it seems also considering the resistance to wind energy there as well).

My eco chicken gets 4 m2 to walk around on, which whatever way you slice it is better then being a in a cage where it can't even turn around.

@Reb: That article is really cherry picking studies, ideas and opinions. I don't have the time to go into every point but its so bad I don't have to. Beans flown in from Kenia are better for the enviroment because Kenian farmers use natural compost? If British farmers used that (which is the whole point of eco) than that wouldn't be the case. Typical Dutch anti everything shit from the author.

[Kara]

If you give a shit about animal quality of life don't eat much meat, or at the very least don't waste any of the meat you do eat.

Having killed animals that I later ate, I can tell you that all the open range in the world doesn't mean anything when they die violently and involuntarily.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I don't waste meat

Also I don't think we eat that much of it either, this is what we bought for the whole week for two people, saturday till saturday,(no fish this week) and the chorizo is just for me:

1 whole chicken
350 grams minced beef
350 grams diced beef
1 pork tenderloin
6 slices of bacon
1 chorizo

It is possible to like meat and not be morally against eating it while also not wanting an animal to suffer for months.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Yes, whenever possible.  Being in a farming state means I get lots of options too.

I did like the prevalence of smoked salmon in Europe when I was over there but I'm just not able to get it in here unless its frozen, which gives it a funny taste.

[Cerveza mas fina]

You don't have smoked salmon in the US?

I bought a whole smoked mackerel today and ate half of it for lunch Om nom nom nom

[tiesto]

You don't have smoked salmon in the US?

I bought a whole smoked mackerel today and ate half of it for lunch Om nom nom nom

Of course we do, as you can imagine lox is everywhere around Long Island. But TEXP iirc lives in the midwest and not on one of the coasts, and its doubtful he has anywhere near the number of bagel places and Jewish delis that exist in the NY area.

[Mr. Gundam]

We buy hormone free meat and milk. Mostly organic.

The more important thing for us is buying local produce, trying to cut down that carbon footprint.

[Phoenix Dark]

Sorry, I don't eat dolphin.

[Kara]

It is possible to like meat and not be morally against eating it while also not wanting an animal to suffer for months.

I didn't say it was impossible, I said that focusing on the quality of life before a horrible experience is an intellectual sleight of hand. Do you know what happens to male chicks at open range chicken farms? It's generally quite distasteful.

I'm not opposed to eating meat, but I don't try and delude myself about it. (Ditto for plants, another arbitrary distinction imo.) If I am to suffer the ignominy of a normal lifespan I hope to live to see the day when in vitro food is common.

[Huff]

I only eat food off of trees

[Fifstar]

Well eating organic meat is obviously far from a moral "get out a jail for free" card. I still believe it's a bit better than eating conventional food. Going vegetarian or vegan would be far better from a moral point of view (I actually was a vegetarian from 11 to 14 years old). For me it's just just the (small) step that I can bring myself to do right now.

[brob]

I generally buy meat from a butcher, as opposed to grocery stores. () Locally sourced stuff that hasn't been frozen and shipped to china, etc. But I don't really eat much meat these days.

It is possible to like meat and not be morally against eating it while also not wanting an animal to suffer for months.

I didn't say it was impossible, I said that focusing on the quality of life before a horrible experience is an intellectual sleight of hand. Do you know what happens to male chicks at open range chicken farms? It's generally quite distasteful.

I'm not opposed to eating meat, but I don't try and delude myself about it. (Ditto for plants, another arbitrary distinction imo.) If I am to suffer the ignominy of a normal lifespan I hope to live to see the day when in vitro food is common.

the bore's foremost cheeseburger ethicist

[Fifstar]

Most butchers buy their meat from the same meat factories as grocery stores though.

[brob]

I kinda skimped on my post a lil. My butcher shop is an old family operation that buys from a set of local farmers, so they generally have a rather slim selection and it's all very seasonal. It's more expensive than grocery store meat, but meat is in general rather expensive so I prefer to pay a little more for much higher quality.

The same goes for fish, although my local fish market also carries non-local fish in addition to the local stuff.

[Kara]

I realized I never said why I bought this stuff in my first post despite being asked to, since I don't really cook much and live in a frat house, I prefer to buy small portions of meat which in KKKapitalist AmeriKKKa somewhat narrows your choices in that regard. Non-X, Y, Z meat from the cac market and turkey bacon from the dollar store are the two easiest solutions to this problem.

I also like the thrill of danger I get shopping in cac markets where the children are likely not immunized against painful/ lethal diseases.

[brawndolicious]

Not something I usually do, I can't bring myself to care really at all about the suffering of a chicken or even a cow since they don't seem to have the mental capacity to care much about the environment they live in. You can argue that they would like a chance to stretch their legs more(particularly for chickens which live in tiny cages) but cows at least seem to be better than fine in artificial environments. Actually a part of slaughterhouse design is to have repeating patterns on the walkways or else the cows get scared.

Pigs are actually intelligent animals though so I would feel bad but compared to chicken, beef, and fish which I eat everyday, I only eat pork maybe a couple times a month so it's not a big deal to go to an organic deli/restaurant. I actually don't think I've ever cooked pork myself so that tells you how often I consume it.

As far as cow hormones/antibiotics/the slaughtering process, I never saw any research showing a problem with those and I think it's mostly stupid paranoia new methods potentially being harmful. I heard that cows themselves suffer with hormones due to metabolic/weight issues but it's easy to find hormone free non-organic dairy products and I thought euroland already put a ban on those hormones?

[Beezy]

Not something I usually do, I can't bring myself to care really at all about the suffering of a chicken or even a cow since they don't seem to have the mental capacity to care much about the environment they live in.

Most humans don't either.

[Samson Manhug]

I live in a very rural area with lots of grassfed cows wandering around. I was driving through Kansas or Colorado recently and off in the distance saw acres of black disrupting the green terrain. As I got closer I realized the black were cows. It was one of those industrial cow farms you hear about from people are trying to sell you organic beef. What an eye opener.

We shop from the local farmer's market and buy all meat organic when available. Produce I prioritize by what part of the plant I'm eating (leaves and things that make direct contact to pesticides must be organic.) We also grow our own vegetables which helps with the cost.

I've never heard "eco" before. I guess that's just European for organic?

[seagrams hotsauce]

My mom surreptitiously fed me shark this week under the guise of 'swordfish'. Jokes on her, I hate sharks and would have enjoyed it more knowing I was dining on the flesh of my natural enemy.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I've never heard "eco" before. I guess that's just European for organic?

Uk says eco, continental europe variations of eco in their owm tongue.

Must have been super sad to see that farm