bees and pesticides on countryfile

[mexbigshow]

might be of some interest


Adam Henson visits Renishaw Hall stately home in Derbyshire, planting red grapevines in the vineyards, while Tom Heap investigates a link between certain pesticides and a significant decline in bee numbers

 

[Brosville]

And Julian Little from Bayer tries to swear black is white (as usual)..........

Then they go onto a chicken concentration camp.......... - herrumph!

 

[region2]

Chickens look fine to me...

R2

 

[Brosville]

Having been a free range egg farmer, I am horrified that any animal should be kept completely divorced from fresh air and the earth - no wonder factory-farmed chicken meat is now some of the most unhealthy you can buy, choc-full of unhealthy fat.......
It only makes financial sense, in every other way it is an utter travesty.....

 

[tkwinston4]

I am with you all the way Bros. RSPCA should be ashamed to be encouraging that type of farming.

 

[Ely]

Britain is too over populated to live on free wild chickens like African nomads. Unless there is a plague that wipes 90 percent of the population out then food needs to be mass produced to meet demands. Unless you are willing to starve. Free range isn't sustainable for the whole population, just the green wellies that can afford to pay a little more for their food. Sad but that is how it is.

 

[Brosville]

"Britain is too over populated to live on free wild chickens" - cobblers, complete and utter misleading twaddle! - as the recent campaign by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall pointed out, it is entirely possible to produce healthy free-range chooks - sadly people are willing to waste gazillions on Sky subscriptions and X-boxes, and too little on their diet - you can buy a perfectly good free-range bird from Lidl or Aldi for well under a fiver nowadays, so it CAN be done!

Next time you look at the el cheapo concentration camp birds in the supermarket, look for the tell-tale "hock burns" where the ammonia in the intensive houses has burnt into them (over 80% of birds suffer from it) - contemplate the fact that they are forced to grow so fast, their legs often collapse and they push their bloated bodies around, their breasts acting as a "skid". First job of a morning in such places is to wander around picking up the dead ones who've succumbed overnight - utterly sickening, and the meat from such regimes is proven unhealthy......

 

[Erichalfbee]

49 days is mind boggling and for that silly woman to say that the kids are always glad they came because they could see how well the birds were treated is unbelievable.
The idea that "free wild chickens like African nomads" is the only alternative to intensification is laughable.

 

[tkwinston4]

Being a vegetarian for the past thirty years my conscience is clear. Perhaps that is the way to go???

 

[Brosville]

There's little question that a vegetarian diet can be a healthy one, and that it would probably be a very good idea for the western diet to include less meat than it now does, especially intensively produced meat as it is produced in planet-wrecking ways - it's barking madness to haul GM soya meal from thousands of miles away to feed these poor living fat balls.......
(who are incidentally kept crowded to keep the heat up, they eat less food, and grow faster)

 

[Ely]

Ok I see your points. The thing is British pubs restaurants already struggle to make a profit on their produce. Many close everyday, mine included. Buying in intensive farmed food makes a huge difference to their annual profit and whether they stay open or closed. As I said, shame it has to be that way

 

[Brosville]

I think that buying in cr*p is a sure route to the bottom (in all ways) - good wholesome food can be prepared from cheap in-season ingredients, and need not cost a fortune - there was recently an excellent series by the Hairy Bikers on how they've tried to revivify Meals on Wheels using exactly those tactics, by ditching the pre-prepared factory made rubbish, and cooking fresh, for frighteningly small amounts of cash!

 

[Ely]

I think that buying in cr*p is a sure route to the bottom (in all ways) - good wholesome food can be prepared from cheap in-season ingredients, and need not cost a fortune - there was recently an excellent series by the Hairy Bikers on how they've tried to revivify Meals on Wheels using exactly those tactics, by ditching the pre-prepared factory made rubbish, and cooking fresh, for frighteningly small amounts of cash!

I agree but we had to close because we couldn't keep up with the cost of wages for the labour involved in preparing, cooking and serving meals made with frsh good ingredients. That is why most pubs you go to these days has a kid on min wage zapping bought in crap in a microwave. The masses seem content because it is cheap and the pub benefits from a much higher profit margin. Whats more is, pubs restaurants like ours that were trying to do it properly suffer because the general public don't realise the extra overheads to produce good food and then you are deemed 'too expensive' even when working on a 60% GP before tax. Places like McDonalds and pubs that by bought in package food (made from intensive farmed food) alter the perceptions of the public, they 'spoil' them.

We had customers eating with us that greatly enjoyed and appreciated the good ingredients and fresh cooked food. But it seemed we catered for a minority. The Majority, the masses, the great unwashed were down the road stuffing their face with their own body weight of intensively farmed chicken in the KFC for next to nothing.

Television, especially celebrity chef programmes are never realistic. It is very consieved and leave out all other overheads and just focus on a small point. It isn't as simple as they make it seem in the real world. Their main focus is entertainment

 

[Hivemaker.]

I agree but we had to close because we couldn't keep up with the cost of wages for the labour involved in preparing, cooking and serving meals made with frsh good ingredients.

Far too many pubs and restaurants anyway,need loads more to close.. and people learn to stay at home and cook their own food.

 

[VEG]

you wouldnt say that if your business was a pub. The problem is government allowing food to be filled with all sorts of crap.

 

[Hivemaker.]

The problem is government allowing food to be filled with all sorts of crap.

No one is being forced to buy the crap are they.

 

[VEG]

take a look at the rubbish advertised on tv all those iceland ads and so on they are all pumped full of whats known as value added, basically fillers that dont do anyone no good. There were never any over weight kids when i was in school as all the food had to be made from scratch then.

 

[Hivemaker.]

take a look at the rubbish advertised on tv all those iceland ads and so on they are all pumped full of whats known as value added, basically fillers that dont do anyone no good.

So don't buy it,don't eat it....plenty of other good stuff to eat,seaweed,stinging nettles,dandelions,pigions,deer,rabbits..the list goes on and on,and catch,gather,prepare and cook all your own food. Plenty of snails around as well if they have not been contaminated by Bayer.

 

[Brosville]

I've just seen a TV advert for a certain "Junk Chicken chain" - 12 bloody quid for a few chunks of "died in a pool of it's own misery" chicken, "chips" that can't be called chips (because they aren't!), and some blasted fizzy phosphoric acid "beverages" (for 2)
Hells bells, you could prepare a feast for for far less for 4 people......... all using fresh wholesome food! (and it's a fallacy that you need loads more time to do it properly, all you need is some skill!)

 

[REDWOOD]

49 days is mind boggling and for that silly woman to say that the kids are always glad they came because they could see how well the birds were treated is unbelievable.
The idea that "free wild chickens like African nomads" is the only alternative to intensification is laughable.

What are they feeding them on 49 days to plate !!!!!!!! not good