Very curious how people judge their meat/animal product purchases and what metrics you hold as important in order to make said purhases.
For now lets just stick with the western world staples, and not dive into things like invertebrates and molluscs, as examples. I know its splitting hairs based on human populations and diet but in English forums i doubt its as common as it is in the real world (outside of shellfish, crustaceans and a few snails). Think pork, beef, fish, chicken, goose, duck, deer etc. Basically massively farmed species. Milk, cheese, eggs and ither such common animal products that arent directly eating dead animals are included as they are more or less the same difference. Perhaps the spiritual option can be divided as some religions are ok with farming animals, but not ok with eating their flesh. But that would make another fun poll in the future.
So to the direct question: What metric do you hold a priority when purchasing meat?
Financial: I care mostly about price per unit (kg, pound, liter etc)
Health: I care mostly about quality (in regards to human health).
Moral: I care mostly about the well being of the animals (pre killing and the process they endure).
Environmental: I care mostly about eating animals that dont impact the environment as negatively as other species.
Spiritual: I care mostly about eating animals that are allowed to be consumed based on a teaching and/or spiritual/religious system.
Don’t care: I care mostly about what I feel like eating and give zero thought about the consequences of my actions.
Political: I care mostly about the country of origin of my meat (Eg. dont support Chinese products or, dont support US pork etc)
I am vegan. (note vegetarians that eat eggs, cheese etc, please use the above options based on your egg and cheese etc purchases)
Whatever is actually available at the store? It’s not as if there’s much choice in Taiwan, or - for non-Chinese speakers - much in the way of information about origin.
I guess I don’t use a metric. Or maybe “Avoid PXMart” (too many bad experiences), “Carrefour grudgingly” (fewer bad experiences), “Costco OK but a pain because I need to clear out the freezer ahead of time.”
That was certainly true years ago. Now there are numerous options for nearly every category. Taiwan might not have evey single thing grown and processed in the exact way you want at dirt cheap prices, but nor does north america have proper pigs blood spicy hotpot at dirt cheap prices.
I tried to word the poll questions carefully, hence: “I care mostly about…” if you care mostly about selection of things you want, the obvious answer is: “Don’t care: I care mostly about what I feel like eating and give zero thought about the consequences of my actions.”
For some they are willing to bend on habit to allow for the other provided options. for others they want what they want and are willing to sacrifice the other options. Thats kinda the point of the poll…which do you hold more important? Its ok to be honest, and we can discuss our personal preferences as we go along
May i ask why only eggs? If you eat dairy or meat, why not them for morals and just eggs? Perhaps you are a vegetarian that eats eggs? i think i see your point and very much respect and agree with that
I just realized right now, but very simply: eggs seem to be the only animal derived product where animal welfare is prominently labeled.
I guess I’d happily spend much more money on meat if it was advertised. It’s not.
I admire vegans and strongly feel that is the ONLY morally acceptable way of life… but I’m too complacent (I hope that’s the right word) or lazy to try. I guess tauean would be one of the best places to start this way if life, though … For example one of the best “beef noodles” I know are vegetarian.
Yeah, this - even if I’m not sure how much to trust the labels.
The other meats I buy: Italian and chorizo sausages … not many options for those! Bacon? Is there any bacon here that emphasizes animal welfare? Ground beef? I almost always buy that from Costco. If Carrefour even has it, there usually aren’t enough packages for the 450g I need for whatever recipe I’m making. Pork shoulder, again, I only know two options, Carrefour & Costco. Lamb, Costco only. Sandwich meat … I mostly just get ham from Costco. The City Super and Carrefour options don’t exactly reassure me. Milk? Are there options with happier cows?
In the organic stores, there are very expensive cuts of chicken, but as far as I can tell they’re about organic, not animal welfare. I may have that wrong. I’ve bought those before.
Thats a very good point. It is interesting to see “free range” and any number of other slogans about animal welfare slapped onto the box of eggs. But why not milk, cheese and other non meat animal products?
Though in many countries meat is marketed based on farming style, especially beef. Maybe not Mcdonalds and those types of places, but quality and effort is rarely left off the label A&W, for example, advertises no hormones and all that. So althoughtthey are still garbage food and immoral sourcing, they are better than say mcdonalds. Small changes create big differences when scaled.
In taiwan we can fairly easily buy more moral based meat produced locally. Its a small trend these years in AG, but t quite costly. That said, eating healthy and not wasting the food, its not.much different in price than e ating copious amiunts of cheap food and throwing a decent chunk of it into the garbage can. So i find it isnt unreasonable, but it requires a bit of a life style commitment. Can be hard to do ,but ultimately quite satisfying to the body
Certain yummy meats are hard toget here, especially good deer, and even consistently good beef cuts without selling a kidney. Taiwan has pretty damn yummy seafood, but would probably mostly score poorly on either the health, moral and/or environmental cards. Its all variable. So what do we care most about?
A long ton is defined as exactly 2,240 pounds. The long ton arises from the traditional British measurement system: A long ton is 20 hundredweight (cwt), each of which is 8 stone (1 stone = 14 pounds). Thus a long ton is 20 Ă— 8 Ă— 14 lb = 2,240 lb.
From Wikipedia.
The long ton was used before the 20ft container became standard to measure displacement on cargo ships
Or as they say in China, 櫥窗裡的那隻狗狗多少錢.
To answer the question: I try to look for “higher welfare” meat (and eggs) even though I know the branding is mostly bullshit. If I’m in a location where it’s possible, I buy direct from the farmer. Cost is not particularly important to me because I don’t eat a huge amount of meat.
If I’m eating in a restaurant then I’m not thinking about any of these considerations at all.
Send me a message. There are almost none this year after the last typhoon. But can chat in private.
Edit. I have been told of a person in Nantou supplying green sichuan peppers. I saw his and they seem the same as ours, but he only sells green (i presume because the pretty pink ones ar hard here due to fungus and would require a LOT of spraying).
Cheers, i hadnt ever heard of that measurement before. Thanks for explaining. It helps confirm modern day metric standard is far supperior than than illogical fractions and rocks haha.
