Vlog tries to take mystery out of meat labels
Eating Better is working to help people move towards eating less meat and dairy foods and more food that’s better for people and the planet, part of the vital task of creating sustainable food and farming systems.
Eating Better supports farmers who produce meat in a sustainable way. They say that choosing ‘better’ meat that is naturally-fed, has a known provenance and is produced to high animal welfare, environmental and quality standards, can help support farmers without being more expensive for consumers.
Over the last few months the PFLA has been working closely with Eating Better to help with their messaging. During the summer they visited Romshed Farm to interview and film farmer Fidelity Weston.
The resulting Vlog, produced by Eating Better partner Hubbub is split into two halves. The first shows the presenter and Mark from Eating Better in a kitchen looking at the labels of food brought from the local supermarket and discuss what they all mean.
The second half sees the presenter on the farm with Fidelity who talks about:
- Why grass-fed meat must be 100% grass-fed to offer the superior health benefits that purely grass-fed animals can give
- The importance of seeking independently verified labels that really mean what they say, such as the Soil Association for organic or Pasture for Life for grain-free meat.
Buying from the farmer is the best way to find out how an animal has been looked after, says Fidelity.
“Or go to the butcher’s shop, farmers market or even get into boxed schemes, which means you can ask all the direct questions.
“Actually, you should ask these same questions of the supermarkets and see what they mean by the labels they use. It is time to start kicking up a fuss.
“We need consumers to lead a revolution in helping people to find out exactly what has gone into the food they buy!”
Complicated
The film highlights how complicated food labelling is at the moment and as the presenter says at the end of the film, there is no one certification scheme that encompasses every aspect of buying better meat.
But she does say that ‘organic’ is a good starting point but there are also others, such as Pasture for Life that are definitely worth looking for.
