tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post1610949604287165709..comments2024-03-26T17:53:49.471+00:00Comments on Mark's Veg Plot: Food fraudMark Willishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04558305122821209520noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-17753218052594412382016-10-11T20:13:43.088+01:002016-10-11T20:13:43.088+01:00I'm glad you had a rant as it is something I t...I'm glad you had a rant as it is something I too care about. We are lucky to live in an area known for the quality of it's local food. We still have 2 greengrocers, 2 bakeries, 4 butchers. We do buy as much as possible from these shops. The meat and chicken may cost more but the taste is no comparison to the supermarket. We offset the cost by growing more and eating more vegetable based dishes. I'm glad I make my own pizza! Sarah xDown by the seahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06148800326418238027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-10076487697127851092016-10-11T19:10:07.454+01:002016-10-11T19:10:07.454+01:00Nice rant - Historically there are no shortage of ...Nice rant - Historically there are no shortage of examples where people have preferred profit over honesty. It's just we can, none of us, avoid the need to eat. With current distribution systems food dishonesty can have an adverse impact on a lot of people in a very short time. Malhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17169050358049841998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-9680135561115620712016-10-11T07:22:47.832+01:002016-10-11T07:22:47.832+01:00Nice harvest!Nice harvest!Endah Murniyatihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16175364514530314348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-34300355489884393272016-10-10T21:34:24.334+01:002016-10-10T21:34:24.334+01:00Great post Mark! I too like growing much of my own...Great post Mark! I too like growing much of my own fruits and veggies because I know everyone 'personally', so to speak. And we try and get other fruits locally as best we can. We have a good local source for beef and pork, local in this case being less than 100 miles away. We used to have a good source for chicken but the farmer moved away.Dave @ HappyAcreshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03441364543023807886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-5043947142653584862016-10-10T14:51:12.976+01:002016-10-10T14:51:12.976+01:00ofA brilliant post Mark.
We had the big shock of ...ofA brilliant post Mark.<br /><br />We had the big shock of our local farm shop, no small enterprise but Bodnant Farms which is a big landowner and so called quality local food retailer here in North Wales, and just along the road from us. Selling freezer packs of pork and gammon on special offer and labelled as British, when in fact they had bought it in from the Netherlands (where around 95% of all pork is intensively reared) and it had been merely packaged in the UK. It caused a huge outcry and no doubt damaged their reputation considerably.<br /><br />We have to be so careful when buying food these days, and it seems that sometimes even reading the label isn't enough!! Like you we grow most of our own fruit and vegetables and have our own flock of genuine free range chickens.Suehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04177854521955532744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-60610471582457953472016-10-10T14:21:14.293+01:002016-10-10T14:21:14.293+01:00Most people neither know or care where their food ...Most people neither know or care where their food comes from, as long as it's cheap enough, this has the knock on effect of big companies getting away with food fraud. Up until a couple of years ago Whitby Prawns were marketed as 'Whitby Bay Prawns' when in fact they came from several countries. Super Markets sell produce with the label 'Joe Blogs Farms', using a name just as a marketing ploy. One of the biggest food frauds is 'Free Range Eggs' the vast majority of these birds will never have seen the light of day mainly because of flock size 30.000 birds per unit and also the way the houses are set up which does nothing to encourage a bird to go outside.<br />However one of your commenters Andy is wrong when he says that fields can be spayed one year and then be used to produce Organic food the next year. To sell anything other than poultry or pork as Organic the land must undergo a three year conversion period, which means no banned substances can be used during this time. At one time some farmers going into conversion would use all manor of chemicals to aid production, then go into the three year period, after a couple of years of full Organic status revert to conventional, then again go back into the conversion period. Thankfully this loop hole has now been closed. Anne Wilsonhttp://anirishalternative.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-54373976194580192272016-10-10T04:30:15.549+01:002016-10-10T04:30:15.549+01:00Top article!
Re food education and farm visits for...Top article!<br />Re food education and farm visits for children, and nano dairies, check out our face book page for Incredible Farm https://www.facebook.com/IncredibleFarm/Helenahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06884886829559694146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-15205101452651702022016-10-09T19:02:32.555+01:002016-10-09T19:02:32.555+01:00This subject is the same for many many different p...This subject is the same for many many different products from food to mobile phones. This fraud is everywhere. Even when you pay top money you don't get quality, think of washing machines and tumble driers bursting into flames, or cars with faked emissions. Chicken that doesn't have the texture of chicken in a Chinese take away. I even saw some chicken breasts advertised as having "only 12% water" on the shelves the other day. When this happens everywhere you can't trust anything and the other day I read that most organic food comes from the same huge multinationals that make grow or sell the standard stuff - presumably from the same farms, same fields that had pesticides sprayed on them the year before. And of course you have the compost that you can't trust.<br /><br />The problem with all this lies with listed companies having to make more profit for their share holders. When they can't get more market share, when they can;t pay lower wages and when they can't make cost savings through efficiency, and when most of their services are farmed out to china or elsewhere they must use cheaper poorer components or cut corners, or simply lie to increase the profit.<br /><br />...but I have to say the majority of people are content with how things are, or ignorant of how things are and don't want to know. Not me, I can get wound up over such things :)Andyhttp://ourlittlefield.blogspot.co.uk/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-79349241694700342912016-10-09T17:48:47.826+01:002016-10-09T17:48:47.826+01:00Yes, a lot of foods available in the superstores a...Yes, a lot of foods available in the superstores are probably sold below the cost of producing it, with milk, chickens and eggs being prime examples.<br /><br />Sadly though, in these economically restrained times people are very cost conscious and have become accustomed to cheap food. As you say, a lot of them will have no idea where it comes from, price is all.<br /><br />Despite the best efforts of celebrity chefs to persuade us otherwise, most people just can't afford the extra cost of organic or free-range produce.<br /><br />The farmers markets are a good source of locally-grown produce, but the cost of complying with regulations involved in slaughter and processing their own animals is often prohibitively expensive. Same with butter and cheese.cumbrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10047500383078884463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-88059085472024907132016-10-09T17:07:10.278+01:002016-10-09T17:07:10.278+01:00Whilst agreeing with most of what you say re food ...Whilst agreeing with most of what you say re food fraud, the man leading the research on salmon, Prof Tocher believes that "Farmed salmon is just about the best way of getting omega-3 in our diet. All the other fish are much lower than mid-Atlantic salmon, including wild salmon." The simple reason the amount has declined in farmed fish is that there are more fish being farmed and the amount of oil containing food has been reduced from 80 to 20% of their diet. In fact it could be argued that the fish farmers are actually being 'good' in that it has been recognised that the increase in (such as) anchovies needed to maintain such a high rate of feeding would be unsustainable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-89680547146044904432016-10-09T16:53:19.119+01:002016-10-09T16:53:19.119+01:00Interesting! The Hatch chile story is a classic ex...Interesting! The Hatch chile story is a classic example of the problem.Mark Willishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04558305122821209520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-7577546211932966112016-10-09T13:41:45.018+01:002016-10-09T13:41:45.018+01:00I was unfamiliar with the term "food fraud&qu...I was unfamiliar with the term "food fraud" but understand the concept. Here the biggest perpetrator of false information about food origins that I have come across are, unfortunately, farmers' markets.<br /><br />At this season, the Hatch green chile fraud looms large. Good story here for those unfamiliar with it: the Hatch green chile identity crisis<br />http://www.freshfruitportal.com/news/2013/08/08/u-s-the-hatch-green-chile-identity-crisis/Jane Stronghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05016381279699618539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-22866931007086253162016-10-09T12:44:16.134+01:002016-10-09T12:44:16.134+01:00This sort of thing is a bog deal over here in the ...This sort of thing is a bog deal over here in the states. Too many city folks know no connection between the plastic wrapped food at the store and its true origins and processes. Having grown up on a dairy farm with a grandmother who was a dietician, I've heard it all my life. Raw milk (which I grew up on) is a huge source of contention and mostly treated as poison. Our local "fancy" grocer (super-market) taps into the locally grown movement by putting the names of their suppliers and mileage from farm to store right on the front wall. In my household, just about the biggest struggle is that my husband always wants to buy the cheap ham "steaks" which are just a step above bologna with dubious origins and ingredients and I insist on buying slices with the bone still present.SmartAlexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06219182373225762230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3840827850297141825.post-13750865961625103692016-10-09T12:42:01.089+01:002016-10-09T12:42:01.089+01:00As a diabetic, I am very careful about what I eat....As a diabetic, I am very careful about what I eat. I educate myself on what is healthy food and what is not, but I am appalled at the ignorance of some of my friends.<br />If even a few people read your post and change their eating habits, you have done a great service for us all.Leahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05201714466868118083noreply@blogger.com