Jamie saves our bacon

themadchef

Interesting programme. The bit where they castrated the male piglets and the slaughtering were hard to watch though.

I can't see why they are showing the slaughter and castration so graphically, it may well have the opposite affect of getting people to eat pork.

People love pink little piggies. A Lot of people eat without giving too much thought to how the animal lived or died. How many people will think "aww the poor little piggy" and no longer buy meat after watching this.

Have to give them one thing though, they're out there fighting for the business. "Keep our British farmers in business".

It's on channel 4 now

Alicat

I found the castration and slaughter very difficult to watch. I had to keep looking away. I love my rashers but it is horrible to see some of the pigs living such a cr@p life!

I thought the programme was quite good though, Jamie was very informative in regards to how showing people how they could get the best out of the different pork cuts and how easy it was to cook.

mike65

themadchef wrote: »

How many people will think "aww the poor little piggy" and no longer buy meat after watching this.

Almost nobody, for much the same reasons peeps still buy bargain priced burgers and sausages.

Lump

Lets be honest, most people know where meat comes from..... dead animals....... most people can work out that to keep costs down they probably aren't treated very well with a field per couple of animals. I'm not saying it's right but in my opinion these programmes aren't going to change peoples minds.

Alicat

I'd certainly be more curious to check out the packaging of any pork products I buy now though.

Wonder what Ireland's pig farms' conditions are?

smiddyboy

Alicat wrote: »

Wonder what Ireland's pig farms' conditions are?

I was thinking the same thing. As Ireland falls under EU legislation are there pig farms here that use the same inhumane system we saw on the show.

I always assume that 100% Irish means that the welfare of the animal is pretty high, but at the end of the day they could be kept on some shocking states!

MayoForSam

Saw a bit of this, that pork shoulder he did with the crackling yum yum....

Ear to the Ground on RTE last Thursday did a bit of an expose on the Irish pig industry,you can watch it online (http://www.rte.ie/tv/eartotheground/av_index.html).

Isn't pork meant to be similar to human flesh as regards taste and consistency?

smiddyboy

MayoForSam wrote: »

Saw a bit of this, that pork shoulder he did with the crackling yum yum....

Ear to the Ground on RTE last Thursday did a bit of an expose on the Irish pig industry,you can watch it online (http://www.rte.ie/tv/eartotheground/av_index.html).

Isn't pork meant to be similar to human flesh as regards taste and consistency?

Thanks for the link.

I did a wee bit of searching around and sadly it seems that some of Irelands intensive pig farms replicate some of the horrific practices that Jamie highlighted in his show.:(

I am dissapointed in this as i would have though that Irelands farming history and pride in high quality produce would have been reflected in the practices of the farming.

Similar to the British flag mark on the packaging of British pork products when i see an Irish produced product i immediately assume a higher quality than mainland EU suppliers.

Ireland should follow the UKs lead and copy the welfare standards that they have adopted.

Here are another couple of links regarding the welfare of pigs that i found...

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/food-drink/serious-food-for-thought-1573778.html

http://www.ciwf.ie/farminfo/farmfacts_pigs.html


Anyone know where you can find any free range pork??

muckety

Its very hard to find free range pork and bacon in Ireland. Theres a couple of producers in the south of the country (west cork as far as I remember), and theres a butchers in Enniskillen north of the border who sells really nice free range pork - they also supply Fallon and Byrne in Dublin. The meat is delicious, so much tastier than the cottonwool-ey intensively reared stuff, but pricey!

mike65

hellfirepigs

Thanks Mike, brilliant!!!!!

yurmothrintites

This reminds me what my 4 year old godson said the other day.
He was eating his dinner: Chicken, vegetables and spuds happily eating away as everyone was talking and he suddenly froze and looked at his mum and said..

'Mammy...is...this...chicken...like...the...the chickens like the chickens???
on the farm....the white chickens....on the farm??'

The look on his face was priceless, he had gone a dark shade of blue! Nevertheless after it was explained to him that in fact, yes it was the chickens on the farm, he continued eating his chicken... making the occasional sound of enjoyment.

So funny watching a four year old make the connection with meat and animals for the first time.

Mr.Lizard

yurmothrintites wrote: »

'Mammy...is...this...chicken...like...the...the chickens like the chickens???
on the farm....the white chickens....on the farm??'

The look on his face was priceless, he had gone a dark shade of blue! Nevertheless after it was explained to him that in fact, yes it was the chickens on the farm, he continued eating his chicken... making the occasional sound of enjoyment.

So funny watching a four year old make the connection with meat and animals for the first time.

Even more fun should be had by seeing what else he's willing to eat.