h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

<>

Actually, intensively farmed chickens have been bred to put on very little fat, and probably aren't alive for long enough to get fat anyway. This is probably *why* breast meat has very little flavour nowadays - you need some fat to give it taste.

What, like Austria?

Trying to explain the concept of vegatarianism to an Austrian is, in my experience, an absolute non-starter.

Sorry, that was a reply to Z.

Hitler was a vegetarian and Austrian.

Was he (veggie I mean, I know he was Austrian )? Maybe that explains why the conecpt sems to have been wiped from the national psyche. I once spent ages trying to explain it to an Austrian friend of mine, and after about an hour all he could say was 'No meat. People can eat meat and don't want to? Why would anyone do that?'

Humm. I hadn't thought of Austria - I'd thought Africa somewhere.. or perhaps China.

I suppose at least most Austria cities might have curry places and they'll usually do a vegatarian version of anything if you ask.

When I'm at home on my farm, I keep chickens. My parents look after them when I'm at uni. We don't eat the chickens, just the eggs, and when I'm away I'll never buy eggs from caged hens. This is not because they taste better, although that is a benefit of them. It's mainly because I don't like to put money in the pockets of those who practise such appalling cruelty.

I have no problem with meat, as long as it's properly farmed, and no problem with killing animals for meat. I have actually eaten things I've shot myself, which shows that I'm sometimes not exactly a softy when it comes to animals.

If I'd seen the video the 11 year old saw when I was her age, I would have cried quite a lot... I'm not sure if it's right to expose children to these things, but when I moved into a student house a few years ago I was a bit shocked by some of the products they bought (i.e. Tesco value meat) and in the end had to opt out of communal food buying arrangements. At some point in their lives before they actually have to buy their own food, people need to know where it comes from and the conditions involved.

Hitler said he was a vegetarian, but that didn't stop him from eating meat. He liked sausages, specially pork, and his favourite food was often reported to be something involving pigs' trotters. It's a well known myth that Hitler was a vegetarian.

The organic free range chicken I've eaten, which comes from a farm not far from here, is extremely differnt in flavour from any other chicken I've had, a lot gamier flavour, which I've been told by various sources is down to the chickens actually being able to move about and develop muscle mass in the 'normal' way rather than just stuffing em full of whatever it is they feed intensively reared chicken... Don't always get organic/freerange chicken meat, it really makes naff all differnce if your doing something spicey with it what the source of the meat was The free range eggs thing is odd, I've had em from the supermarket and they don't taste free range in the slightest. Free range organic ones I've gotten (from the same farm not far from here via the shop I used to go to locally), taste better, heck of a lot better, but still don't taste like eggs I get when at my Fathers, (a more rural area), from neighbours etc., (I.E., brought over the garden fence, as the expression goes). Maybe thats partly how fresh they are; I've had chicken eggs back at my FAthers that were laid less than an hour before we ate em

I've now pretty well stopped buying factory-farmed poultry. There are some very good poultry & game stalls at my local market, where I now go on a Saturday morning. They also have stalls selling ostrich and kangaroo (haven't tried that yet) as well as traditional English game.

I still buy my beef from that well-known supermarket chain that is generally nicer than all the others. I also get my free-range eggs from there.

RF

It was buying beef from a supermarket begining the the letters T.E.S.C.O that started me getting meat from a butcher. Their prime cuts were full of water, I have not shopped for meat there since and I am not planning on returning.

I don't buy meat from that particular supermarket. I do use it for vegetables/herbs/packet and tinned stuff, though.

No, the one I'm referring to rhymes with "late grows".

RF

I'd guessed that RF BTW since buying a proper French cast iron caserole cooker I've got into the delights of slow cooking. Try old meat like mutton, which needs to be cooked a long while to be tenderized but has gazillions of flavour.

The cost of organic/free range meat although more expensive and possibly out of reach of some people eg.. students,pensioners etc people living on a budget. One thing they should also consider....Smoking and drinking and other unneccesary items all cost money...if they are purchasing cigarettes and alcohol every week - it would benefit their own health as well as the chickens if they spent their pennys on better quality meat rather than the value products.

Just a thought. I was chatting to a colleague who always claims poverty but she smokes and drinks, surely there are some steps she can take to help herself improve her finances.

Well it's not that difficult to live without meat and it's very cheap to be vegatarian.

at the idea that there are Indian restaurants in any part of Austria...

Glad to see the myth about Hitler and vegetarianism busted here too.

Right: we're constantly being told that parents should be taking more, not less,responsibility for bringing up their kids and not leaving it to the teachers.

Showing what amounts to a horror film to my primary aged children is not something I want ANYONE doing without first discussing it with me.

As it happens one Gruesome is mostly vegetarian, and the other one makes a very clear distinction between pet animals and food animals. We have the advantage that 90% of the meat/poultry we buy is from a local organic farm. There is a very good chance that we are eating an animal we have patted on our wanderings.

I'm not affluent by any means, which means we buy less meat and we pad out meat meals. Students and other less well off groups can do the same instead of being customers to supermarkets who are driving down prices.

But the crux of the matter to me isn't where the food comes from, or indeed how it gets to our plates. we have made our decision and it's up to everyone else to make theres. The main thing for me is that some teacher who might think s/he knows my daughters well, isn't the one who has to cope with the nightmares etc after they see films about slaughterhouses.

I don't think a class of primary age kids can be shown a film of a live human birth without parental consent,can they?