The Pig Business Blog

One of the big arguments thrown at organic and ethical food is that it’s too expensive and acts merely to distinguish the wealthy from the junk-scoffing hordes.

Organic is certainly more pricey, but it is not just the wealthy who buy it and nor is it just those on lower incomes who buy junk. But the argument isn’t about class and organic food and it’s not about whether organic food is too expensive. It’s about cheap meat being the most costly meat ever produced and it’s about how much we as a society truely value our food and where it comes from.

Organic meat costs more because it takes account of the environment, it takes account of animal welfare and it produces good quality meat that we should pay a good price for. Cheap meat, (which most of the time you cannot even call food let alone meat), is produced regardless of the impacts on our health and on the environment. It is produced for money, in the pursuit of maximizing efficiency and to live by the code of fatter, bigger, faster, cheaper.

It is efficiency gone mad, demonstrated in factory farming.  Indeed what could be more efficient than thousands of animals packed into the smallest spaces possible, barely seeing the outside (if at all), fed unnatural diets, filled with antibiotics and treated like factory equipment.  An interesting definition of efficiency and a ridiculous idea of progress,  where the real massive costs are borne by the animals in their confinement, the environment in its degradation, and the population in its increasing risk to health.

The example of Asda’s 2p sausage is a case in point. Put on the shelves to help families in the credit crunch, Asda were seemingly trying to do us all a favour. It’s typical however, of the short term quick fixes we think have benefits to our society, when in fact eating less meat and buying more vegetables instead would probably have done people more good and certainly would have been more beneficial for the planet.

But it goes deeper than this, into our very culture and way of life. We now take food for granted as abundant and ever present.  The 2007 Family Expenditure Survey showed spending on food and non-alcoholic drinks has dropped sharply from 33% of a weekly household budget in 1957 to just 15% in 2007. Proportionally therefore people are spending less of their income on food.

Obviously many of us now have more disposable income than in 1957, which we have used to enrich our lives and have a better standard of living. We spend more on leisure and have a greater choice of ’stuff’ to choose from than ever before. And yet when it comes to food consumption we seem to have gone backwards. Buying too much of the wrong thing, such as snacks and fast food and adding to other related problems of health and wellbeing.

DEFRA figures show that over the past three decades our consumption for uncooked meats has remained relatively unchanged in terms of grams per person per week, but meat in ready made meals and convenience meat has more than trebled since the early 1970s. Arguably we eat more now out of sheer speed and convenience than we ever have done. By making food as cheap as possible and as fast as possible we have devalued it.  Much of the enjoyment and social family time element to eating has been removed.  For many it seems mealtime has become a part of the day which gets in the way of our lives and our culture of overworking.

We just don’t seem to have time and don’t value the very thing we consume the most.

Because we don’t value it, we don’t value our farmers either.  Supermakets are obsessed with providing cheap food which, more often than not, comes at the expense of farmers who are held over a barrel. Intensive farming then often becomes the only economically advantageous way to farm, getting the maximum amount of meat from every animal in the shortest time possible. Animals are farmed indoors, and the traditional image of the farm is dying to the extent where we have become ignorant about the food we eat. A recent survey of UK teenagers for instance showed 26% thought bacon came from sheep and 29% thought oats grow on trees. What’s the bet the same teenagers could tell you where their nearest MacDonalds is? Food has become uninteresting and a chore for many people. I mean why cook when you can put a ready-meal in the microwave? The joy and appreciation of food has been lost by many, reserved for special occasions. Only then are we willing to pay a little extra.

Shouldn’t we instead place more value on the very thing we consume the most? Shouldn’t supermarkets and farmers be adding value to their meat rather than taking it away? I’m not saying all meat should be ridiculously priced and nor am I saying this has to translate into buying less food. It’s about buying smarter, healthier, and better. Local butchers often have good quality meat at fair prices, box schemes are not always as pricey as you might think and eating a few more vegetable based meals never hurt anyone. In fact will be good for us and good for the planet, if only we could stop and think about it….