I don't want to eat American meat

Of course the politicians who are keen to have American meat here wont actually EAT the stuff - they have the money to buy local organic meat. The other stuff is for the rest of us plebs. And, sadly, some people won't care as long as it's cheap.

Enough to get him elected Blinko and some still singing his praises on here!

And of course the electorate believed him

Well, some of them did...

This is hardly ‘news’. We were warned about such US Trade Deals (and the NHS) during the last GE but Boris laughed it off and said it ‘wasn’t on the cards’.

And of course the electorate believed him!

I shan't eat it either. I hope it has a big label saying ' from the USA' then I shall take pride in avoiding it. Perhaps we need a petition insisting that if a product has meat from the USA then it does have a huge label with an an American flag on it ? They love their flag don't they? Well , there you go!

NotSpaghetti, I understand- Especially now, when food insecurity is expected to triple in number over the course of 2020- Preference has already fallen by the wayside-

I buy from a local butcher, sorted.

I think grannypiper that we need to start asking restaurants , pubs and retailers exactly where the meat comes from In their food and if they can’t tell us then we walk away. It seems as though the labelling is less than accurate.

If meat doesn't come from the fields around me i dont buy it, the only exception is Pork, that comes from 20 miles away as our local alnd is too valuable to put pigs on.
I would like restaurants to tell us on their menu which country their meat comes from, that way i can bycott the ones that use meat from overseas.

I think some on here are just not "getting" the fact that so many people in the UK buy on price.

We are a very economically divided country.

I've just tonight been and picked up a box of beef from friends who are beef farmers - they do everything bar the actual slaughtering so there are no middlemen involved. I wouldn't want to buy meat which has passed through so many processes and countries before arriving on my plate!

VQ Halal should be killed gently with prayers but this isn’t always the case due to time pressures. It can be quite a messy process. In the UK I believe 85-90% is stunned first now, so you’re right, nothing wrong with Halal. Kosha meat on the other hand I don’t know about as last I heard they didn’t approve of stunning as it marks the beast.

One of the main sticking points with the USA trade agreement as I understand it is the labelling. The U.K. wants to label to say where /how the meat was raised and packaged. The USA wants it labelled so it can come in in bulk and be re-packed here and sold as British. I think this used to happen with Danish bacon being sold as British as our animal standards, even within the EU, are higher than Denmark, Holland and Germany. The Red Tractor stops this.

What's wrong with Halal meat? I've eaten it. It was British bred meat just slaughtered differently and no less 'humanely' than in an ordinary British abattoir.

The problem with American trade deals is that they'll flood the market with very cheap meat which will undercut our farmers until they can no longer compete. British meat will still be available but only to those who can afford it. Once our meat industry is destroyed they'll put the prices up. Most people will have to make the choice between meat from factory farmed animals pumped full of anti biotics and growth hormones and chickens dunked in chlorine or become vegetarian. I never thought anything would make me become a vegetarian because I really like meat but only being able to buy American/non EU regulated meat would make me.

I always buy meat from a local butcher, free range and British. Most beef from America is from animals who never see daylight, intensively farmed and fed on grain. We need much better labelling on the front of packaged food to state the country of origin.

That must be difficult Charley. We are in a semi rural area and the butcher in the next village buys from farmers.

Can you buy on line?

kittylester I would love to buy from a butcher who did not sell Halal meat! I would not know where there was one hence I buy meat at supermarkets.

Use a butcher or farm shop. Or read the labels.

The meat we eat is from British Farms, with the occasional NZ lamb.

Look for the Red Tractor symbol ?

It may not be as easy to avoid eating this USA imported crap produce as we hope; I beleive that one of the conditions will be removing country of origin from meat products. So, unless you buy direct from your local trusted butcher, you are going to be buying blind.

what about all those air miles? In Uk we have cows, sheep, pigs...don't we have a duty to support our own farmers first\?

I don’t eat chicken in restaurants now as it’s usually from Brazil or Thailand or somewhere else with appalling animal husbandry standards. Or pork. The way many EU countries raise pork isn’t good either. It’s a problem as I can’t eat vegetarian as everything they make has to have garlic in and I’m garlic intolerant. I’m not too worried about eating out now as, unless it’s a local pub advertising local produce I find myself limited to seafood and omelettes!

Food from the USA isn’t any worse than a lot of other places in the world where we already import cheap meat from. The best way to protest is not to eat it. Then we get to export our quality produce to them and they learn to appreciate the finer things in life.

Buy British meat then, it’s easy.
Witzend DH popped into our local Tesco some months ago and bought 2 ready meals, Thai currys , both had written on the back, ‘chicken from Thailand’.
So we have to be vigilant and read the backs of the packaging in case they try to sneak foreign meat in.
I must add that we don’t usually buy processed food, he was very naughty and has promised he won’t do it again.

It’s easy to avoid any product you don’t wish to eat - read the label. I only buy Scottish meat and as far as possible, I buy locally produced meat. It’s a bit more expensive but we now go days without eating any meat at all, so it balances out.

I did get caught out with a local butcher, though, which is why reading the label or asking questions is important. I bought some bacon and when I got home, found it was Dutch. I was quite cross about that, even though it was my own fault for not checking, because it’s a much-eulogised local business who I assumed would only sell Scottish/British produce.

I never buy non U.K. meat anyway, except the occasional joint of NZ lamb. I won’t buy any non U.K. ham or bacon - I’m very wary of factory-farmed methods in EU countries. So we don’t eat a lot of it, but it’s got to be U.K., higher welfare.

All the chickens I ever see for sale here, whether in cheaper or more expensive supermarkets, and whether free range or not, are always U.K. origin anyway.