Vegetarian

emaherx wrote: »

You were on holidays, you can be forgiven for that (in time )

Had venison terrine in Rosscarbery last weekend - fantastic flavours.

Thespoofer wrote: »

I know this from experience because I've worked in the same abottoir ( again with outside contractor for renovation) and saw one escape.
It fell out of the killing chamber, ran up the line ( past the dismembered carcasses) and out the loading bay door and down into the forest, quickly being chased by 4 or 5 guys in white trying to catch it. You can guess who I was shouting for.

To be completely fair here, most animals bolt once free, regardless of the environment they're in but especially in a new place. How many dogs get loose and take off? I had a horse who I tied to a post, with plenty of grass, break away and gallop off while I was searching for something. Have you ever been to an agri show and an animal gets loose? It's often all hands on deck trying to get them back again because they've took off running. I gave a miniature shetland to a few teens to walk to the beach one day because they were bored. It took 2 hours to catch him when they dropped the rope half way down the road, and he lives the life of reilly. An animal running off when it's loose doesn't mean much.



I'm not vegetarian, but I do try and ethically source my products. I only buy free range eggs/chicken, I don't really buy any pork (I'm not fond of it anyway), and I go to my local butcher as often as I can afford because I know he can drop an animal before it knows what's happening. I do also enjoy many vegetarian meals and would quite happily eat them for my dinner for a bit of variety.



Vegan I can't get on board with. I've worked in a restaurant, and some of the worst customers I've had to deal with were vegan. Completely ignoring the vegan menu, and making staff run in and out of the kitchen to confirm everything was 100% definitely for them. Talking to absolutely every member of staff (including the bar man) to let them know that they were vegan. You could have 2 members of staff for twenty tables, but many vegans want someone to pretty much become their own personal waiter. A close second are people who give themselves food intolerances, but vegans just slightly edge to the top spot.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

‘But while Ireland is one of the biggest beef and milk exporters, it doesn't stop us buying in €157m worth of beef and €478m worth of dairy products.’

Taken from an article in 2012 from the independent.

Yes and I gave you the numbers for where it goes and where it comes from and how much, like you asked. Infact we quite possibly import a lot of our own meat/dairy too in a more processed form. And it's mostly between Ireland and the UK, which is nothing compared to the millage of our fruit/veg imports.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

How would anyone know ? Hotels, restaurants, fast food joints, delis, catering companies and so on, don’t have to declare where their meat is from.
So anyone could be eating beef from Poland, Lithuania or Brazil without knowing.
There’s also a good chance that chicken breast burger, or restaurant chicken Kiev (if thats still a thing), or chicken sambo is chicken all the way from Thailand. So Ireland exports meat to wealthier countries marked as ‘irish’ (which is marketed as better thus more expensive) and imports cheaper meat from countries such as Brazil, Lithuania and Thailand for the unwitting Irish consumers.

Jeez h bicycle - for a self declared vegan your obsessed by meat. Do you dream about it? Do you salivate when you see a nice steak? Or are you just beating a dead horse (bad pun I know!) For the sake of it?

Pay more attention what you eat and make sure you know it is wheres it from, how many food miles it's travelled, whether it's production involves indentured or slave labour and what the environmental conditions it is produced in. Then come back and let us know what you've found out, instead of attacking everyone else with such a holier than thou attitude.

Deleted User wrote:

If you do manage to get any names and numbers of suppliers then give them a quick call and ask them what country, the specific piece of meat you ate, came from.

If?

Amalgam wrote: »

'made' means reconstituted from other meat procured from the same creature..

Denny's Ham has some very vague wording. Cooked in Co. Wicklow.. sold as, 'sliced ham', yet the packaging clearly states the following:



Contradictory or what..

There's a BORD BIA logo, but that could be for the salt they use and nothing else..

Good ol' loopholes, you'd think the trade would have copped on after the horse meat scandal.

Scans of packaging attached.

The chicken product had no such logo.
Let's not make it more complicated than it actually is.

Board Bia wrote:

The Logos have been developed to promote the QASs to the consumer. While the use of the applicable Logo(s) is not
an obligatory part of membership, it/they can only be used on product by members of Bord Bia QASs. Where a Logo is
to be used on product, all links in the production of the finished product must be QAS Certified members. For example,
for meat to be eligible to carry the Logo, the farmer, the abattoir and the processing plant must all be members of the
producer or Meat Processor Quality Assurance Schemes. For horticultural produce, the grower and packer (and
processor for prepared fruit & vegetables) must be members of the Sustainable Horticulture Assurance Scheme (SHAS).
Although retailers are not members of Bord Bia’s QASs they may use the Logos for promotion and marketing purposes
in accordance with the conditions contained in this document. Where retailers are members of the Retail Butchers
Assurance Scheme they must comply with the conditions set out in this document.
The overriding principle, in Bord Bia allowing any Bord Bia Logo to be used, is that the Logo must be clear,
unambiguous and must not mislead the consumer, whether on pack, or on advertising and promotional material.

Amalgam wrote: »

Unless you work for them, how would you know? You're giving them the benefit of the doubt, when, with the gift of hindsight.. you really should not.

EDIT: As long as you sprinkle pepper, sliced onions or any other type of 'processing', in this country, the meat does not have to have the source country listed.

Don't work for Board Bia but I'm a Farmer and know enough about their quality assurance inspections at farm level.

So unless you have some evidence to back up what you are saying?

Amalgam wrote: »

I am saying it is suspect that there is no mention of the provenance of the ham, surely, that would be mentioned anywhere on the packaging, but it is not..

It took a journalist to 'reveal' the nature of the chicken product and that's a shame really. If Denny are quite happy to avail of this food 'loophole' for one meat product, it is quite likely this arrangement exists in other products.

As it stands, that ham packaging is suspect, with or without a Bord Bia logo.

Yes that was some in dept Journalism!

They said "hi, where did this chicken originate"
Denny replied "Brazil"

The product as far as Denny are concerned was produced in Ireland using chicken from Brazil. It is shocking that they are allowed do such a thing but they didn't use the Board Bia logo as they were not allowed use it, so why would they use it on the ham unless they were allowed use it? And they are only allowed use it if the ham came from not just an Irish farm but a Board Bia Quality Assured farm.

Amalgam wrote: »

There's no mention of the *meat's* origin country.

Well salt can't be in a Board Bia Quality assurance scheme.

The overriding principle, in Bord Bia allowing any Bord Bia Logo to be used, is that the Logo must be clear,
unambiguous and must not mislead the consumer, whether on pack, or on advertising and promotional material.