Owen Patterson - an MP past his sell-by date?

[Barbirollians]

Yes, but appalling rumours are often just that, whipped up by the tabloids.

I bridled when I read it though !

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Why do we need to import so much stuff anyway?

Because we do not have enough land to support our ever-increasing population.

We could do more though. Importing food from the Southern Hemisphere is madness.

[Beef Oven]

Why do we need to import so much stuff anyway? Surely with many foods, including meat, we should be self-sufficient instead of importing sub-standard rubbish from who knows where?

Well, it's all part of the Common Market deal that we signed up to. Better than all that New Zealand, Canadian and Australian stuff we used to import.

[burning dog]

As for Waitrose I'm always amused when people propose them as somewhere really "classy". They do some sort of 'value burgers' anyway. The only difference is you'd be eating a Cambridgshire winner. Best to shop at Fortnums for Ribot or Sea Bird II

[amateur51]

There is an appalling rumour going round that Findus knew that their lasagnes were made with horse but thought nobody would find out as the recipe included maskapony cheese !

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

we import so much because it is cheaper [one might wonder how that comes to be so] and the trade in the EU is open, labelling is a mere inconvenience innit? not like you go to jail for lying .... just apologise on page 18 and stiff the court £50 fine ....

i am mostly vegetarian and long ago stopped eating processed meat products [what is in a hot dog?]

on all the occasions Owen P has been on the news this last few days he has the knack of seeming completely lost and gasping for breath ...

[Resurrection Man]

As for Waitrose I'm always amused when people propose them as somewhere really "classy". They do some sort of 'value burgers' anyway. The only difference is you'd be eating a Cambridgshire winner. Best to shop at Fortnums for Ribot or Sea Bird II

Well, as Stephen Fry commented on one episode of QI..."Thank God for Sainsbury's. They keep the scum out of Waitrose".

[Resurrection Man]

Here is the link, as requested, to the Owen Patterson comedy show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L81U8p4FbFg&list=UUTrQ7HXWRRxr7OsOtodr2_w&index=9

[ahinton]

Does it really matter? It's only the people from council estates that buy this awful food anyway and they don't care, so why should us better-off people on these boards worry?

I'll ignore your patronising remark about those who live on council estates, not least because you have no hard evidence as to precisely whose grocery purchasing habits are whose, but apart from the fact that you also do not know how well off people on these boards are, we should all worry quite simply because, although no health issues have yet been detected, this kind of trading is thoroughly dishonest and quite unnecessarily so. Horse meat should not be in anything described as 100% anything else, but there nothing wrong with eating horse meat in principle as long as the relevant safeguards in the rearing, slaughtered and the rest have been taken. I've written elsewhere on this board about how best to avoid these kinds of issue - and that's to buy fresh rather than packaged wherever possible and to shop at outlets where the retailer knows as much as possible about the source and rearing / growing of the products being sold and, if as many as possible are locally sourced, so much the better.

[ahinton]

I think I am safe enough. I shop at Waitrose.

That's as safe as you're likely to get with supermarket grocery shopping, but there are plenty of reliable and high quality small independent grocery retailers, including butchers and farm shops with butcheries, where you can sometimes get as good or even better produce for rather less.

[ahinton]

Why do we need to import so much stuff anyway? Surely with many foods, including meat, we should be self-sufficient instead of importing sub-standard rubbish from who knows where?

We could be more self-sufficient than we are, to be sure, but I think that matters are improving on that front for people who prioritise buying fresh over buying packaged foods.

[ahinton]

Because we do not have enough land to support our ever-increasing population.

We could do more though. Importing food from the Southern Hemisphere is madness.

That's not entirely true. I've nothing against importing foodstuffs that we cannot produce ourselves but, as you say, there's still far too much of this that's wholly unnecessary.

One other thing that bothers me the most, actually - one sees these shooting parties in the winter season where tawffs spend many thousands to participate and yet most of what's shot is then destroyed and not sold to be consumed; that is utterly scandalous when there's so much fine British game around and so many malnourished and poor people around who could do with it.

[ahinton]

Well, it's all part of the Common Market deal that we signed up to. Better than all that New Zealand, Canadian and Australian stuff we used to import.

So you're in favour of massive food miles, then? with all the added cost of bringing produce to Britain from those countries? We see less NZ lamb in Britain now than was once the case, thank God (and that's not a criticism of it per se) but you'll struggle hard to find any Welsh, Dorset or British saltmarsh lamb in NZ! They've got more sense than to import it from the Brits.

[ahinton]

Well, as Stephen Fry commented on one episode of QI..."Thank God for Sainsbury's. They keep the scum out of Waitrose".

Yes, but it wasn't his original phrase; he was quoting, thought I cannot for the moment remember from whom.

[eighthobstruction]

Why do we need to import so much stuff anyway? Surely with many foods, including meat, we should be self-sufficient instead of importing sub-standard rubbish from who knows where?

PROFIT, Share prices, avarice....