I don't want to eat American meat

That is quite ironic Bodach

The UK was indeed very poor but since BSE it has had to transform and now has strict food safety standards.

I think one of the big worries is, nothing to do with the taste, but the lack of transparency about the supply chain.
So we don't know what we are eating!

I have eaten lots of US beef over the years, and I have to say it was absolutely delicious. In the mid 90's, we were living at a NATO/US base in southern Germany, and were able to shop at the US Forces' Commissary Store (Where large signs proclaimed "None of our beef originates in the UK". This was Mad Cow time). Their rib-eye steaks in particular were mouth-wateringly good when barbecued - and their corn-fed chicken was pretty tasty too. I will certainly buy it if/when it becomes available in the UK.

Thanks NotSpaghetti
I know my MP and I will write but the SNP don't have much clout at Westminster.
Definitely worth doing though.

Here is how to find your MP's email addresses:

members.parliament.uk/members/Commons

I've written to my MP about this.
If everyone wrote then there may possibly be some impact. I pointed out many of the thoughts above. It may be a waste of time but it has to be as good as sharing thoughts on Gransnet.

If only it were so simple that you pays your money and takes your choice.

Not true for local authorities. Hospitals and schools will all be tempted to buy cheap and not check not care.
if the difference in price is so great.

Vegetables are no longer safe from GM and have hardly ever been safe from pesticides and chemical fertilisers.

Those of us who care need to work extra hard to keep the highest standards possible for the sake of the planet as well as for the the animals and people.

It's all very well saying that you pays your money and you takes your choice. Not everyone has the money to make that choice. I won't be able to buy British organic meat so I'll have to become vegetarian. I will choose to do that but others will have to buy crap meat because for whatever reason becoming a vegetarian won't be an option.

If you don’t want food produced to lower standards imported please sign the Food Standards Petition

www.countrysideonline.co.uk/back-british-farming/back-british-farming-our-latest-activity/food-standards-petition/help-to-share-our-food-standards-petition/

‘scuse typos but a bit shocked by previous post.

So the farmers must work harder raise and slaughter more cattle just so us greedy humans can eat the cheaply?

I’m not a vegetarian BUT I think we should be grateful to cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, etc for giving up their lives for us ...and as such we should pay a decent price so that what short lives they lead and not in shitty conditions.

I always thought that the basis of economics that the more people that bought a product would lower the prices for future purchases. So if we all started buying British meat then more farmers would raise more cattle and the prices would be lower. Or is that too simplistic?
Sorry to all those vegans and vegetarians - I have tried meat free but failed dismally.

Packing in the Far East has been going on for some time. Prawns caught in U.K. were sent to Vietnam for processing and packing. Probably still happening but how do we know if they are “our” prawns that come back, surprised at cod is sent there.

Going slightly off-topic but wanted to share this; we were shopping for frozen fish in Tesco, I looked at the blurb in the packaging and was horrified to read that the cod was caught in the North Atlantic.............and packed in CHINA! It went back into the shop freezer, just imagine the carbon footprint of that commodity!

I do not really like Quorn much, Stella14, so I’d suggest Shizam buy a really good vegetarian cookbook.

I love Ottolenghi - I suppose it depends what you like to eat though.
Here’s a link to some of his recipes online:

ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/vegetable-and-vegetarian

Shizam, try substituting meat in dishes for Quorn. Always use about 25% to 33% less Quorn than meat and it’s great.

Not all swine raised in the US are given hormones/antibiotics- Those that haven't are marketed as such, and the information is on the packaging-

We exported , in 2015, 95% of British lamb to EU. We still import some ? Why?

My friends in USA will never eat pork because of the antibiotics that are used in the rearing of pigs in their country. I always make sure that I only eat British meat, and will continue that way.we surely have no need to import any meat except lamb from New Zealand

Apparently, we import chicken from South America, via Portugal ,as being in the EU . There was a scandal about what they were fed on and the cost of rearing each one was, 1.2p?

We only eat free range chicken,pork beef,etc. So,I hope ,where we can ,that we support our farmers. I don't know what the 'chicken' is, in Chinese and Indian takeaways,it is like some sort of paste ,stuck together in approximate squares.Weird.
Imported food of any sort,needs to be researched,Vietnamese River Cobbler,then renamed Basa fillets is ghastly. If you google it,the top line says ,Don't eat this fish.

Good to read Artols. I saw a horrific programme on the conditions that pigs, cattle and chickens were reared in the US. At the end there was one farmer raising his beef organically and people came from miles away to buy his meat.

We too raise animals in terrible conditions. Like you I buy what little meat we eat from a locally supplied butcher.

willa45 Here is how the FDA explain hormone use in the US

Since the 1950s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a number of steroid hormone drugs for use in beef cattle and sheep, including natural estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and their synthetic versions. These drugs increase the animals’ growth rate and the efficiency by which they convert the feed they eat into meat.

The FDA approves these drugs only after information and/or studies have shown that the food from the treated animals is safe for people to eat, and that the drugs do not harm the treated animal or the environment. The drugs also have to be effective, meaning that they work as intended. The labeling for each product provides all instructions for safe and effective use and is approved by FDA. For each approved product, the FDA also makes available to the public via its website a Freedom of Information Summary that summarizes the information that FDA used to determine that the drug is safe for the treated animals, the animal products (edible tissues such as meat) are safe for humans to eat, and that the product is effective.

These hormones were banned in the U.K. over 30 yrs ago.
Traceability imposes a lot of cost on the producer, do we really want untraceable food.!

Thankfully I am vegetarian, but there are a few rather smug posters on here who seem to think that the answer is to buy locally from a reputable butcher; if only it was so simple and everyone could afford good quality traceable meat. But, as it looks as if one of the conditions of the US trade deal is that country of origin is not disclosed, general shopping in a supermarket, whether Waitrose or Farm foods will take the decision about whether to buy it or not away from the shopper. Apart from anything else, we should be appalled at the state of the rearing and processing methods which mean that the US meat has to be treated with chlorine and/or antibiotics.

I live in the States, and the only meat I buy is organically raised, grass fed, free range. It’s not all bad over here!

About antibiotics, yes they are used here but in nothing like the amounts used in countries like America.

Chris,
Here in the US, we buy from trusted sources and the meat is very good, not just in taste, but in quality. The US Food and Drug Administration also grades the meat according to quality standards (that set price) and similarly regulates cattle, dairy and poultry farmers. Most antibiotics and hormones have been banned. Organic farmers must adhere to even higher standards.

I get that you want to protect your own farmers.....Americans prefer to buy American too. The problem is when demand exceeds supply, or when there is some other economic quagmire to contend with. Bottom line is that people have to eat. So, things may be far from perfect these days, but there are far worse places in the world to procure your beef than from the US.