It is becoming virtually impossible to fathom out the myriad of packaging in the supermarket, particularly when it comes to meat. There are little red tractors, Union flags, Free range, organic, woodland trust, named varieties of chickens and other such suggestive phrases such as ‘Wiltshire cured bacon’ which may never have seen Wiltshire.

I’m not a vegetarian, but that’s not to say I don’t care. If you want a brief reminder of where meat comes from, go and read Richard’s posts Ontology 2 and Ontology 3 because I’m not about to rehash the great number of points made there and in the comments.

Personally I’d like that the meat I eat comes from animals that have led a decent and as close to natural as possible life. A natural life for many animals would involve harassment by predators long since eliminated from the British Isles, so ‘natural’ is quite a subjective term in agricultural terms. I’d like to think the animals saw the sun, felt the rain and generally did animal things out doors.

Organic is sometimes an option but is likely to be less so in the future thanks to the links in this post: ‘Is Being Green A Religious Belief’ by SciencePunk . Now, I don’t really care whether being green is a religious belief but I do care about the lack of scientific data in the animal health and welfare information given by the Soil Association .

“When an animal must be treated, the organic standards, state that complementary therapies such as homeopathy should be used in preference to chemically synthesised, allopathic veterinary medicinal products or antibiotics. This is provided that their therapeutic effect is effective for the species of animal and the condition for which the treatment is intended. "

Yes, that’s right folks, we’re going to give the animals homeopathy rather than medicines with demonstrated efficacy against whatever condition is afflicting the poor beasts. The guidelines then go on to list homeopathic remedies and acupuncture as appropriate alternatives to those ‘chemically synthesized medicinal products’.

Is it just me that thinks that alleviating the suffering of a sick animal in the most efficient way possible is more important than the ‘organic’ status of the farm? Yes, overuse of antibiotics and other drugs is bad. Yes, dosing whole herds/flocks/whatevers of animals is absurd as a preventative medicine, but who really objects to a sick animal being given an appropriate and effective treatment.

Well, as long as the bulls are happy:
“a producer about to castrate a bull calf would use aconite first for the fear, and then arnica for the bruising and pain” Oh my!

To their credit, the rest of the page linked to above does state very clearly that sick animals must be treated immediately. When they specify a list of remedies that have been successful in treating animals, there is only one question that springs to mind: CAN WE SEE SOME SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR THAT PLEASE? Just in case anyone was still labouring under the misconception that plant based and ‘natural’ = good, and chemically synthesized = bad, I suggest you head over to Abel Pharmboy’s Terra Sigillata Blog and read the post entitled: University of Colorado Student dies of Opium Tea Overdose . An extremely sad event.

Of course, none of that helps when choosing a suitable chicken or bit of beef for dinner, and the labels on the packaging are probably another complex and headache inspiring matter entirely.

*Yes, this post includes 4 links to blogs on scienceblogs.com. I’m sure that’s probably against some rule, but until someone tells me off, I’ll leave it up :)