When Is A Corn Fed Chicken Not A Corn Fed Chicken?

It seems that the food industry have been in for a bashing this week, especially some of the big Supermarkets. It appears even today though that even buying Organic Veg can be bad for the environment.

There was a right howler uncovered after DEFRA revealed the results of a routine check on the Corn Fed Chickens, you know the ones that always look an alien shade of yellow, that were on sale at various Supermarket chains. It appears that my favorite out of town giant Tesco's” were selling Corn Fed chickens that had not in fact been fed on corn at all. Bearing in mind they charge pretty much double the cost of an ordinary chicken for these we've all been ripped off yet again. Of course they are not to blame, oh no they wouldn't do that would they?? it's the farmers fault as he had “Inadvertently Fed the chickens the wrong feed” Ummmm would this be the same farmer who has probably been farming chickens all his life and quite likely knows more about feeding them than anyone need know about??? It's strange also though that all the other chains passed with no probs. This comes on the back of an earlier clanger in the week from the BBC documentary “Whistle blower” where Tesco's along with Salisbury's this time were shockingly filmed selling potentially dangerous and at the very least way out of date meats etc in it's stores. It highlighted how easy it was for these supermarkets to get away with it by simply altering dates themselves and the fact that they ignored the dates anyhow and instead favored the old “If it smells okay then it must be okay” approach. I guess in some ways, those of us who have to shop in these sorts of places and demand cheap prices for top quality produce are to blame. As in doing so we are forcing the retailer to squeeze out every penny on profit they can from their goods. In saying that though they are making such huge profits that it is a drop in the ocean what they will make by doing this. It does make you think that if you do try and source cheap produce what are you actually getting??

I noticed today too that the Soil Association are considering stripping the Organic status from food flown into the uk. They are even considering a total ban on importing food produce all together. Bearing in mind that it appears that only around 5% of the Organic Vegetables consumed in the uk are produced in the uk i can see there being some problems there. So is buying Organic really the best option? Or is it more a case of trying to buy Local and also Seasonal. It seems that this day and age we all demand every type of say fruit and veg all year round and that as businesses such as the likes of Tesco are at the end of the day in it to make a profit they are more than happy to provide us with our every need. I don't have to think back that long ago to when i was a mere Prototype Little Jonny5, no sniggering at the back, when we all used to have to eat what was “In Season” and it never did me any harm!! i think if anything it probably made the food taste all that much better. Hands up all those like me who used to get excited watching the little tomatoes growing, often in your grand dads greenhouse, anticipating the first sweet juicy mouthful when they finally ripened enough to eat, or if you were lucky enough to live near the countryside going Strawberry picking in the summer and eating more whilst you were picking than what you actually purchased from the poor farmer before you left. It was just taken for granted back then. Waiting for the New Potatoes to come in whereas they are expected all year round now. I guess we, as the consumer have the ultimate power to change this back by simply not buying the stuff, but you and I both know that nothing will happen so there goes another piece of our culture consigned to the “History Files”, as even they are not “History Books” anymore as they are not in black and white anymore, instead they are on Disk.

Whats the world coming to????

See Ya!!