Ethical and cheap

I'm sitting with my friend, drinking hot chocolate (yes, yes, Fairtrade) and she tells me she wants to buy a turkey this Christmas. Hell’s bells, where’s the drama in that, I think, it is December. But she wants one that is ethical and cheap. “Ethical and cheap,” I repeat, spluttering chocolatey foam over my scarf. “Have you learnt nothing over the past few years?” Ethical food production is in; our unhealthy obsession with cheap food is out. The words cheap and ethical are uncomfortable bedfellows. Treating animals well, feeding them properly and giving them space to roam around is not something you can do on a budget. It is cutting corners in meat production that causes problems.

But she has a point. We can't all afford to spend £100 on our festive centrepiece. This year, it is especially hard to find good value but ethically reared birds. Bird flu, bad cereal harvests pushing up the price of feed and the popularity of expensive organic turkeys have all contributed (a report by the British Retail Consortium says the cost of Christmas dinner is set to rise to nearly £16 a head – £2 more than last year). 

I tell my friend she is unlikely to find an organic (which automatically means it will be free-range) bird for less than £10 per kilo. A six kilo turkey that would feed 6 people, from Woodlands Farm - the first organic turkey flock in Lincolnshire - will set you back £60 plus £12 for delivery – orders are taken until 14th December.

Then I suggest if her budget is really pushed, that she buy a non-organic turkey from a reputable company with high welfare standards. White feathered turkeys from the Copas family business - that also sells organic birds - are kept in a barn, but roam freely within it; they are fed on quality cereals, with no growth promoting additives (£8.95 per kilo). Of less concern to the birds is that they are hung for a fortnight after they've been plucked, which is good for us as their flavour develops.

Failing that, she should stir things up a bit. Try a hunk of home-cured gammon. It might not be any cheaper – £15.50 per kilo at award-winning Brown Cow Organic - but there’s great potential for leftovers. Tired turkey curry is no way to start the New Year.

Comments

[Tracy]

Mushrooms don't get avian flu, so my wonderfully delicious Mushroom Wellington centrepiece (Cranks Bible cookbook) will be costing the same as it did last year, and as mushrooms don't mind being kept in a dark shed, there aren't the ethical treatment issues. Being vegetarian is great value.

[DavidC]

We have smoked salmon and champagne for our Christmas lunch, followed by Christmas cake. Works out cheaper than the full roast turkey works and more delicious - we think!

[Brien Comerford]

Right on Tracy!! We must have reverence for the lives of all God's creatures great and small. Meatless cuisine is savory and satiating. Legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and grains are great. For Christmas I might have tofu with booze!

[Ben]

Brien - you're quite a keen poster on blogs, aren't you? I see you all over the place. Don't you have a job?

[Dark Green]

1) Buy a young turkey, 2) feed it up over a year and make sure you treat it well - then, 3) kill it yourself. It's cheap and it's about as ethical as you'll get (if you have to eat a turkey, that is).

[hedgewizard]

This year it'll be turkey from a local farm - not accredited organic but not treated with anything unless actually sick, and as free range as they come. Next year, it'll be one of our own meat birds - provided I can get the second chicken house built by midsummer!

[Mrs L Whelan]

Really? I thought I'd paid a lot for my 11kg organic turkey - £60. In Wales I suppose it's non-London weighting!