Not just chlorinated chicken

[Pepper Pig]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... deal-uk-eu

[suffolk]

[Seatallan]

Appalling. I'd also imagine such practices increase the risk of further Coronavirus-type events too.

[Herbidacious]

Horrendous.

[earthmaiden]

Along with several other matters currently being discussed on these boards I really am, for the first time in my life, getting really concerned for the future of our nation, quite aside from the planet. Each day brings more horror and stupidity.

I was just looking for a quote from '1984'. I couldn't find it but was horrified at how apt all the ones I could find had become.

Do I just feel old and give in - which is tempting - or go down fighting?

[Pepper Pig]

You and me both EM. It’s a dilemma isn’t it?

[Pepper Pig]

This has just appeared on my Twitter feed.

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/02/28/fowl ... ains-poor/

[suffolk]

Farmers have been shouting about this for several years ... but who listens to farmers ... what do they know ?

As anyway ... it’s not important
https://farming.co.uk/news/leaked-email ... uks-future

[KC2]

[wargarden]

to bad the articles are badly sourced with incorrect information.

[Gruney]

[scullion]

[earthmaiden]

This would affect other economies outside the EU too. A lot of chicken used in mass catering currently comes from Thailand. It is easy to imagine that an agreement with the US could have an impact there as well.

Of course we want cheap food if we've barely enough to live on but perhaps addressing some of our social issues would be more helpful than throwing badly raised chickens to the masses and declaring all is well.

As for farming being uneconomic, surely sustainability and food security should come into the equation somewhere? I thought we learned that during 1939-45. We haven't enough land to feed our vast population properly now but the time could come when we had to try (even Coronavius is starting to limit our normal interaction with the outside world ).

[StokeySue]

I don’t want to be rude - but that article is not news. It’s something that has been widely known for a long time

US food producers have 2 concerns
1 making a profit
2 providing food at an unfeasibly low price to support a political stance that’s really a modern version of giving the proletariat bread and circuses

[suffolk]

One of the problems is that the media (and also government ministers) keep referring to ‘chlorinated chicken’ as if being chlorinated is the problem ... it is not ... it is also misleading because dressed poultry in the USA is also treated with lactic acid and other washes, none of which are the problem per se.

The problem is that the poultry welfare regulations in the USA are so very much lower than in the UK and EU. These poor welfare standards result in the poultry in the US being kept in crowded and unhygienic conditions leading to them carrying harmful bacteria necessitating the chlorine washes or other treatment to help to prevent food poisoning in the consumer.

Whilst a difference in methodology means there is dispute about how to compare the actual levels of food poisoning, it is accepted by most reputable bodies that figures for food poisoning in the US are much higher than in the UK.

The concern being voiced by UK farmers is that whilst we were in the EU the welfare standards applied not only to them but to their competitor farmers within the EU and there was obviously a level playing field. However if the UK is forced to accept imports of US poultry produced to much lower welfare standards and consequently cheaper, the UK farmers will be unable to compete on price unless they also lower the welfare standards for chickens on British farms.

The term ‘chlorinated chicken’ is journalistic shorthand and misleading ... what is more the USA is now saying that they don’t use chlorine any more, they use lactic acid ... an attempt to pull the wool over unsuspecting eyes in the UK.

Instead of using the term ‘chlorinated chicken’ it would be more useful if this poultry was described correctly as ‘low welfare chicken’.

[earthmaiden]

Well said Suffs.

[miss mouse]

Then there is Trehalase

https://www.mdmag.com/medical-news/diet ... -virulence

there is a link to the original paper in Nature.

[dennispc]

Lots here, so I’ll be brief.

Sue, you’re never rude, accurate is a better word. Yes, it’s old news, oft quoted by me when vegan friends give me links to articles that are American based. ‘I don’t eat American food’.

We also have Trehalose

“In September 2001 Bioresco were granted authorisation to market Trehalose in the EU by Commission Decision 2001/721/EC." (Food Standards Agency)

The byline times article says, “Well into the 1980s, most British people ate crap”. I’m quite sure there’s more food crap sold on our high streets, supermarkets and takeaways now than ever was eaten in our house in the 1980’s. We ate what the UK produced and what we could afford.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, people did take notice of farmers (and fisherman).

https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-online/ne ... -leave-ge/

[dennispc]

And maybe wargarden has read this, (no idea if its accurate)

https://briefingsforbritain.co.uk/fact- ... -checkers/

[suffolk]

George Eustace and Owen Paterson were government ministers and had no mandate to speak on behalf of farmers ... a very large number of whom to my certain knowledge voted Remain

https://www.nfuonline.com/news/brexit-n ... eferendum/

[Gruney]

I just hope the provenance of any meat or meat products is clearly labelled - I will boycott any American meat, and support British farmers.

[miss mouse]

[suffolk]

[miss mouse]

[suffolk]

[suffolk]

The fishing issue has also been subject to disinformation and disingenuous reporting.

A friend of a friend who is one of the country's leading QCs was saying just the other day that the UK fishermen were sold out by their own industry ... he confirmed my memory of the trawler owners being given huge sums of public money in compensation following the Icelandic Cod Wars. He said that the intention had been for part of this compensation to be used by the trawler owners to compensate the actual fishermen, but because their legal employment status was different to most of us, (paid per trip) they were not legally entitled to redundancy etc. The QC in question fought long and hard on behalf of the fishermen to get some compensation but very little was granted. The trawler owners scrapped their vessels, sold their quotas to the French and Spanish and bought themselves villas in Spain and took early retirement. The UK fishermen were betrayed by their own folk, not scuppered by the EU.

[miss mouse]

[dennispc]

[suffolk]

Interesting https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/0 ... fleetwood/

[dennispc]

[StokeySue]

[Seatallan]

[miss mouse]

It is the ref to Nature, second para

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25178

[StokeySue]

Thank you
Still can’t read the whole article, and critically can’t see the numbers
Interesting but it’s one study in an unknown number of mice.

[scullion]

[miss mouse]

[dennispc]

Article in today’s Times is on the side of farmers. Don’t subscribe, reading it a coffee shop so took a photo. Had to reduce, so you may have to expand it to read.

[miss mouse]

Politicians have despised farmers and farming for at least 100 years, 'Industrialisation' was the aim, import food which I agree is very odd given that we are an island with a shaky economy.