Why Choose Sustainable Food (and can we afford it?) Part One - Meat.

Sustainable Food - what in the hell does that mean? Sustainable food in reality is food that has the least amount of impact on the earth by way of cultivation and the way it is processed. It generally yields less than modern day farming practices, and that can be reflected in the price and availability.

Let's start with that old chestnut - meat. So if you are a vegan or vegetarian, you might want to come back at a later post ...

If there is one thing that you buy that is sustainable make it meat. It doesn't need to be organic (although this is a really great idea if you can afford it) but for meat to have value in - a) what you get and b) the goodness you get out of it - it's best to buy as fresh from the farm as you can. Sustainable meat comes from a good butcher or a farmer that you have made friends with. Or it could be animals that you raise yourself and this is an awesome option because you know exactly what type of beast you have, how humanely it has been raised, what it has been fed and what chemicals it has been in contact with. You can also get this information from the farmer and a good butcher will choose beasts based on that criteria. A stressed steer tastes like an old boot - so why would you pay $28 per kilo for that at your supermarket?

Grass fed is always best. It's best for the life of the animal as they are roaming around doing what they do naturally, getting all the benefits of foraging and exercise, and that is reflected in the end product. It will be full of vitamins and minerals, loaded with omega 3's. It's all good. This goes for beef, lamb, pork and chicken.

Now you think that would make that end product a lot more expensive than your local supermarket ... here's the kicker. It's about the same price (if not less) from the butcher, and if you can buy in bulk it's about 1/3 of the price that you will normally expect to pay. For example: this week I am buying a side of lamb from my butcher. This will be about 10-12 kg of meat. There will be a leg, a shoulder, loin, rump, neck and a few other pieces. Loin chops usually retail for about $30-$40 per kilo. A leg of lamb approx $16-$20 per kilo and so on. I'm paying $10 per kilo! Yes, you require a chest freezer - but it is so worth it. Both with cost and quality. And I know I am buying a lamb that a couple of weeks ago was hanging about a field not far from here with his mates. He wasn't fed on cheap maize and pumped with chemicals while standing in his own crap wondering when somebody is going to turn the light on in the shed that he has lived most of his miserable life in. So for me, there is no choice. I've chosen a sustainable meat, full of the vitamins and minerals that it is supposed to, the animal had a pretty good life until D-day. I'm putting money into a local business that takes pride in what it does. It's costing me less than if I was to buy it meal by meal. It's all good here.

So it's the same with pork and chicken. Just this weekend TV news has shown a disgusting piggery in NSW. These poor piggies had a life of hell. They were fed on a horrible diet of cheap grain and chemicals. They were crowded in a massive dark shed and if one got sick and died (which hundreds did) they were just left there until somebody noticed and removed the carcass. There is nothing right about buying mass-produced meat. It has nothing for us nutritionally, that's if you can get past the inhumane conditions the poor wretches were raised in. Do you really want to put that in your body? Mass-production of meat has no benefit for us, the earth or the animals.

That's all I've got to say about that tonight. Look out for Part 2 - Vegetables.