WE have all, it seems, been bamboozled. Eggs and fat, previously perilous to our person, are now good for us, according to some experts. We are told we need more omega threes, but less omega sixes. Grains are bad. Flax seed is good.
Navigating the stormy waters of the food we eat, is near impossible without a trustworthy captain or an obsessive-compulsive’s attention to detail. Many of us, myself included, used to place that trust in a supermarket. I choose to shop at Woolworths because I believe their food is fresher, more ethically grown and generally better for me than the competition’s. This belief has been challenged with reports about genetically modified items where I didn’t expect them. Woolworths is not alone. Pick n Pay was fingered recently over a pork supplier.
Social media channels like Facebook and e-mail blogs have made the task of supermarkets pitching themselves as the good guys harder than ever.
When I wrote about restaurants and reported on meals that included the corn-force-fattened liver of geese – foie gras – I’d be berated with a barrage of e-mails and blog comments, many from well-meaning folk, but some from hysterics like those who likened foie gras prep to the way prisoners were treated in the Holocaust. This very analogy raised its ugly head again recently, forcing an editor of a national newspaper to apologise for running an advertisement likening the treatment of commercial pig farming to the Holocaust.
The question of in whom we can trust when it comes to food that is good for us is not only fraught with diametrically opposing views, but also entangled in language we don’t really understand.
Free-range chickens and their eggs must surely be better than battery ones – right? If you investigate you will find cogent arguments in support of raising chickens in confined pens as it separates them from their droppings which those allowed to range freely are not. Yet the most appalling images abound of battery chicken factories that will turn the tummy of the most hardened carnivore. Perhaps not eating flesh at all is the answer until you consider that, according to nutritional therapist and co-author of The Real Meal Revolution Sally-Ann Creed, corn and soya throughout the world are virtually all genetically modified.
“Not only is it devastating for humans to eat cereals, soya products etc, but it’s fed in huge amounts to animals to fatten them up for market, even many ‘free range’ ones – and it’s equally dangerous for them. I’m passionate about not buying anything I know to be GMO (genetically modified organism),” she says.
“Free range is not what we believe it to be. It doesn’t mean that they won’t be fed hormones or antibiotics, it doesn’t mean that they are humanely treated. It seems to mean they get X amount of light a day – and has nothing to do with the quality of the food. It doesn’t mean this is good food at all.”
Farmer Angus Mcintosh calls “free range eggs the biggest lie in agriculture” in a blog post on his website, where he says 24 million out of 25 million egg-producing hens in this country are caged.
Asked about its position on GMOs. Woolworths replied “there are strong views for and against GMOs that are difficult to reconcile. Woolworths is committed to empowering our customers through labelling, so that they can make informed decisions for themselves.”
For Woolworths, free-range poultry means “it has access to food, water, sunshine, shade, they roam freely outside and have access to outdoors and protective shelters. Our free-range cattle and sheep are kept on the veld. We do not allow the use of routine antibiotics and growth hormones. We subscribe to South Africa’s free range egg and poultry regulations and follow European free range standards.”
Sean Gomes, managing director of Wellness Warehouse, says the term “ethical” relates to sustainability, not harming the environment, and supporting animal welfare and the health of people.
“To know if food is ethically produced you need to understand the entire production process behind it. To this end, the closer you are to a producer, the better. There’s a big difference between seeing a label that says ‘free-range eggs’ and actually visiting a farm and seeing laying hens roaming free in pastures. For the big retailer, it’s often impossible due to their size.”
Given the “evils of GMO” that Creed referred to and the high omega 6s in corn and seed oils, the difference between corn-fed and grass-fed or pasture-reared beef appears substantial.
Gomes says “pasture-reared” is the same as “grass-fed”, the feeding regimen for livestock raised on grass, green or range pasture, or which forages in a free range environment throughout its life cycle, with limited supplemental feeding allowed.
The Wellness Warehouse beef is from animals moved a minimum of once a day to fresh grazing; the pasture must contain a minimum of 10 species of grasses and/or legumes; no grain in the diet, no antibiotics and no added growth hormones. The animal lives its entire life on natural veld or planted pasture, must have access to clean water at all times, must be branded at six months with the farmer’s brand mark, and cannot be weaned before 120 days of age.
Gomes adds that organic certification by Afrisco, SGS and Ecocert can be trusted, but Angus Mcintosh says the only way to know is to visit the farm. He welcomes visitors at Spier.
“Cattle are herbivores and not grainivores. The fattest animals we know are fat from sugar. This is why commercial cattle are grain-fed. There are potentially enough grass-fed beef producers in the country, but to get them to supply to a retailer will need a properly co-ordinated effort.”
While Jonathan Skorpen of the LCHF stall at The Bay Market happily trades in Farmer Angus’s beef and eggs, he says “real” chickens raised on a farm and allowed to forage for grubs are harder to find than hen’s teeth.
l See www.BrianBerkman.com or @BrianBerkmanZA for more.