Topic: Foie Gras uproar: P&O Responds...

I've got it MadMacStew! I realise why we've been going around in circles.

When you wrote:

QUOTE:

...vegans tend to suffer from deficiency diseases!

...you actually meant to say that vegans are more at risk of suffering from deficiency diseases. There's an important difference. I hope you will bear with me if I use an analogy to illustrate the difference between 'tendency' and 'risk'.

It tends to be colder in Scotland than in England. Therefore, people in Scotland are more at risk from frostbite than people in England.

So do people in Scotland tend to suffer from frostbite more than people in England? Well, they may be more at risk, but they tend to wear gloves. ;)

I hope this helps.

Regards

I'm from the North East of Scotland, Montrose on the North Sea coast - that's why I live in Leicestershire! :-)

One of my favourite movie moments is from 'He-Man', where the protagonists (from a parallel Universe) have found some very tasty food which comes on little white sticks. When one of them points out that it's a bone, not a stick, the girl is horrified that she's eating something that used to be an animal!

For some reason I've come to this thread late and just waded through 12 pages to reach MadMac's (currently the last) post. What a fascinating thread, both in content and response. All I can say is that life generally isn't fair for either humans or animals and that life is short for both. Different cultures around the world produce contrasting moral standards and sadly a great many of the world's humans live with permanent hunger and also extreme cruelty. We are so very lucky to be living in the prosperous first world (even with the current economic recession) and the fact that all of us on this blog are wealthy enough to enjoy cruising says a lot. So I won't get in to the arguments on fois gras or veal or veganism, it's all been said, but whilst we still enjoy free speech (or almost); keep going everyone, it's a great community we have here. Jane

Hi Dave/MadMacStew,I have enjoyed your parries and thrusts on this subject and have just read a synopsis of a new book called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (militant born again vegetarian) which mentioned that the average American consumes 21,000 animal equivalants in a lifetime.It won't put me off my roast lamb tomorrow ,but it's certainly "food for thought"(no pun intended)Kind regards to you both Stan.

QUOTE:

UK bred veal isn't really an issue for me. Veal crates are an issue. I'm not sure how widely these are used these days on the continent and I'm not sure how much I can rely on labels saying meat is British as I believe that animals slaughtered in the UK count for a British label even if reared in Europe and shipped over for slaughter.

As I am not sure I can rely on any veal not having come from veal crating methods I steer away from it. I will discuss my views with others as not all know about some methods of veal production. Personally I seek to air issues and provoke debates rather than force my opinions on others.

If people are happy to eat veal knowing how it is produced then this is a matter for their own conscience.

I stress that there is a big difference in UK reared veal and veal reared in some parts of Europe - it is the latter that is the problem. I accept that male calves need to be culled and I would far rather their meat be eaten than wasted. However I see no reason why their life, however short, needn't be comfortable and free from unpleasant practices.

There is no need for an animal to be mistreated just to satisfy the delicacy of some people's palate.

Hi

I know this is a very old post but can I give you a piece of info regarding beef / veal labelling.

All beef must carry the following except beef that is used in products like a shepherds pie etc.

it must state

Origin: e.g. United Kingdom

or if the word origin is not used it must state

Born in UK
Reared in UK
Slaughtered in UK.

origin UK means all three.

it must also say Slaughtered in UK followed by the factory number

and Cut in UK followed in factory number.

Therefore if an ROI animal is slaughtered say in Northern Ireland. The label must say the following:

Born In Ireland
Reared in Ireland
Slaughtered in United Kingdom
Slaughtered in United Kingdom 123
Cut in Unnited Kingdom 123

In ireland this is overseen by official veterinarians in UK its trading stds. not sure how reliable they are? no reason to say they are not!

If the is born outside the EU then 'Third Country' is used to replace UK or Ireland above.

Hope this answers you Q and now off you go to Tesco to check it out!

Tom

QUOTE:

I don't actually have a problem with labelling, as living in the 'Heart of England' means that I have fresh farm produce of all sorts available in my vicinity - even ostrich! That said, you're quite right that meat raised on mainland Europe and slaughtered in the UK can be labelled as British. You can tell genuine UK veal quite readily, as it's noticeably pinker than the traditional milk-fed product, hence the generic term Rose Veal.

see previous post. continental reared veal cannot be labelled british unless its in a pie / sandwich or other composite food.

Like Jane, I've come late to this thread, but unlike her I cba to wade through twelve pages of posts. My immediate reaction is ffs it's a cruise forum, lets not have the animal rights fanatics highjack it like they've highjacked so many other things.

We all have a right to eat what we like providing we don't force other people to eat something they don't want to eat. I eat meat, I don't write posts encouraging other people to eat meat, or telling the veggies that they should eat it, so I don't need to be told I'm wrong and I shouldn't eat it.