21 July 2010

Lamb no longer a cheap eat

21 July 2010 | johnboy

The Canberra Times is delving into the rising price of lamb across Canberra.

Lamb cutlets are approaching $50/kg at butchers in the swankiest ACT suburbs and the shortage of sheep meat may push prices up further.

The extra cost is due to a scarcity of sheep Australia-wide, which is good for farmers in the region watching lamb prices continually break records and approach a whopping $200 a head at saleyards.

If it’s no longer going to be a cheap option should we get more creative in how we cook it?

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zllauh10:57 pm 29 Mar 15

saving a few extra bucks does ?goes a long way, A buck saved is a buck earned !

Heard on FB about the prices of this mob and that they ?also have local produce. Luckily they are in dickson ! give them a try http://lostriverproduce.com.au/

worth a try

sirocco4:07 pm 03 Aug 10

pajs said :

Sirocco, Grail’s paragraph on bringing refrigerated or frozen meat up to room tempreature before cooking was an attempt at humour and making a point that there can be good reasons for doing something, even if the exact explanation is not right.

And organic is hardly pseudo-science, and not the same as biodynamic. Not to mention that you can follow some aspects of BD without subscribing to Steiner’s philosophies.

Thanks pajs – if Grail’s comment was tongue-in-cheek then fair enough – it certainly makes more sense that way.

Alrightly, on revision after reading the standards laid out at http://www.australianorganic.com.au, organic does not seem to be too crazy (although – but I stand by my comments on biodynamic. But these same procedures state that in order to be certified biodynamic it appears you must create and use kooky, nonsense Steiner-potions.

pajs2:41 pm 03 Aug 10

Sirocco, Grail’s paragraph on bringing refrigerated or frozen meat up to room tempreature before cooking was an attempt at humour and making a point that there can be good reasons for doing something, even if the exact explanation is not right.

And organic is hardly pseudo-science, and not the same as biodynamic. Not to mention that you can follow some aspects of BD without subscribing to Steiner’s philosophies.

imarty1:23 pm 02 Aug 10

Been watching a bit too much ACA gazman?

sirocco8:52 am 01 Aug 10

Wow, thanks for the very informative post Grail.

I had really no idea what organic and biodynamic certifications meant; for the last few years I had felt that these certifications were harmless methods that might even have had the potential to produce better-tasting meat. I would buy them if they were in front of me at the supermarket and at a reasonable price.

Having read the National Standard published by DAFF and followed it up with a bit of a read on the original Steiner work I am now convinced that the methods are based on batshit-crazy pseudo-science.

It suggests to me that if you open your mind too much, your brains will fall out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFO6ZhUW38w

To quote Tim Minchin:
“And if anyone can show me one example in the history of the world of a single Homeopathic practitioner who has been able to prove under reasonable experimental conditions that solutions made up of infinitely tiny particles of good stuff dissolved repeatedly into relatively huge quantities of water have a consistently higher medicinal value than a similarly administered placebo…”

Specifically I think I lost you at:

Grail said :

I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking it helps improve the flavour, and prevents the meat becoming tough and stringy.

Do you also sharpen your knives under a pyramid?

I think I will now actively avoid purchasing organic/biodynamic foods wherever possible, now that I’m better informed.

cb602:40 pm 31 Jul 10

agree with grail for most part but there are two major deceptive parts to organic certification:

the first is locating organic feed which is often not easily available or must be freighted in from across the country which just adds
to unnecessary carbon emissions all in the name of being organic alternatively the flock are fed minimal nutritional requirements.

second i KNOW for a fact organic certified farmers who practice intensive farming and switch back to non organic practices
when not being audited ! haha

anyway, i’m TRUE free range farmer not with lambs but chooks and mine range at 100 hens per acre and you are right in
Australia there’s no friggin regulation to ensure consumers are getting what they pay for.

….same goes for some certified organic i hate to inform you ! 😛

gazman1:30 pm 31 Jul 10

all our good lambs or lamb meat are exported , while we get to buy and eat Old Sheep. Beef is getting really bad too now. I stop buying it because last time I got bone fat n gristle for $23 a kilo .

p15:06 pm 26 Jul 10

Grail said :

Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s bullshit. Coming back to the issue of cooking lamb, I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking it helps improve the flavour, and prevents the meat becoming tough and stringy.

Do you do this before or after stuffing a horn with poo and burying it?

astrojax2:03 pm 26 Jul 10

rebcart said :

…and here was me thinking that the ‘biodynamic’ label on a few of the dairy products I like the taste of had something to do with the bacterial cultures in them. I really should have looked it up.

As a scientist, I shall now look on those products with disgust. (Won’t some other brands pleeeeease start producing non-homogenised milk? I’ll love you, honest)

+1 for non-homogenised milks!

and grail, i’m sorry but:
Coming back to the issue of cooking lamb, I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking

wtf is this ‘essential energy’ of which you speak??? spooky stuff, i think my computer is scared now, too.

Hells_Bells7411:16 am 26 Jul 10

“@: the fact is that you cannot distinguish between “feedlot raised”, “feedlot finished”, or “pasture finished” lamb in the supermarket because the stuff labelled “Free Range” might be sheep that were born in a pasture

Dunno. Never, ever seen these labels you have described placed on lamb.”

I say, if you can’t tell the difference, then there’s no real problem.

Would still be nice to aim for ethical treatment of animals across the board though.

Grail1:58 pm 23 Jul 10

@Pandy: you’re correct about the range of other certification agencies. The point still stands that the only discriminator the consumer can rely on is a trademarked organic label issued by a recognised certification agency: everything that is not labelled by an organic standards certification agency is in the same “non-Organic” bucket, regardless of feed-lot versus pasture-fed status. The point also stands that a farmer trying to sell pasture-raised meat has no way to distinguish their product from industrial meat. For my purposes, I’d prefer to get my meat from animals that were raised healthily and happily, it’s bad enough that my favourite food involves killing animals – I’d prefer that they were at least given the chance to be happy while they lived.

@Pandy: There’s no mention of moon cycles, but there is mention of things like “allopathic treatment”, “management plan” and “risk management”. Ha ha! Bunch of weirdos, “allopathic treatment”! What a load of cobblers!

@Erg0: you can replicate the stirring process at home: half-fill a teacup, stir it vigorously in one direction to get a vortex (whirlpool), then stir it in the opposite direction to get a vortex, then switch directions again. You’ll get chaotic bubbling as the vortex collapses and reforms spinning in the direction that you’re now stirring. I’m not sure how prescribing the technique for thoroughly mixing a suspension or solution makes biodynamics somehow unworthy of an Australian Standard. If you’re worried about this prescribed process for thoroughly mixing a solution, you should see what allopathy practitioners are doing! They use *magnetism* to induce inverse vortexes to induce chaos and entropy in their allopathic preparations. Magnetism! Chaos! Vortex! What a bunch of crackpots!

Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s bullshit. Coming back to the issue of cooking lamb, I’ve found that standing the frozen or refrigerated meat in a stoneware or metal (not plastic!) bowl of water for a few hours to absorb essential energy from the room before cooking it helps improve the flavour, and prevents the meat becoming tough and stringy.

@imarty: “The grain fed lamb is generally sold into the food service and export trade due to its consistency.” – there is still a large amount of feedlot lamb on the domestic market. The proportion doesn’t matter – the fact is that you cannot distinguish between “feedlot raised”, “feedlot finished”, or “pasture finished” lamb in the supermarket because the stuff labelled “Free Range” might be sheep that were born in a pasture, spent 4 weeks with their flock in the pasture, then shipped to a feedlot to spend the next 3-4 weeks being “finished” before slaughter. The distinction is important to some people.

Grail12:21 pm 22 Jul 10

indigoid said :

I know what the organic part is about. I asked about the free-range part.

“Free range” is a marketing label. I addressed the issue, if you had bothered to read my post you’d see this bit, which I will quote here since you obviously have a short attention span and an even shorter temper:

where “free range” means “our chickens have more than 1 square metre to run around in!”

We have no guarantee that the meat that is labelled “free range” actually came from animals that were able to range freely, so the label on the box is meaningless. Certified Organic™ meat will be from free ranging animals, because free ranging on pasture is part of the standard for Certified Organic™ certification.

So I actually answered your question twice, but since you had neither read my post in full, nor read the Certified Organic standard, you didn’t know that.

The Australian Standard for Organic and Biodynamic Produce is AS 6000, but it’s a hundred odd dollars and protected by Copyright so I can’t just give you a copy. For educational purposes, I’ll quote the relevant section of the new standard is §2.11.2.4 LIVESTOCK – Requirements:

Livestock shall be managed to ensure they range freely for a substantial majority of daylight hours on pasture. All livestock shall have an adequate supply of clean water.

You can purchase a copy here: http://infostore.saiglobal.com/store/Details.aspx?productid=1140829

The relevant section of the Australian Certified Organic Standard (this is the free-as-in-beer document, not the $100 one, so there’s nothing stopping you actually reading it yourself) is §5 in its entirety, but the best wording is §5.1.23. Agistment and Finishing:

Feedlotting of livestock, battery production systems and other means of densely confined and intensive production systems without access to pasture (landless animal husbandry systems) are not permitted within organic production systems.

I’m not just posting Certified Organic™ propaganda. I’m trying to answer your question about “what is free range.”

Please don’t tell me you “know what the organic part is about” when you clearly don’t.

Grail4:52 pm 21 Jul 10

As for “what aspect of these free-range lamb farming practices differ from the usual”:

Organic (with a capital O) farmers must not use any herbicides, and drenches (vaccines) may only be used when there is an identified problem affecting the animals on that farm, the vaccine must be suitable for that disease, and use must be stopped immediately the problem has been resolved. So contrast this with “normal” agribusiness where animals will be given broad-spectrum drenches on a regular basis as “preventative” medicine (and thus killing all the dung beetles and earthworms on the property, leading to salination and wind/rain erosion).

In the meantime, spraying your paddocks with Roundup to prepare them for crops renders the paddock – and subsequently anything grown or grazed on it – non-Organic, and will require at least two years of rehabilitation to become eligible for Organic certification. Use other means to control weeds, such as planting cover crops and turning them in before planting your crop seed (ie: never leave the soil bare).

To deliver an Organic cut of meat to a customer, the entire chain from paddock to shopfront has to be certified Organic: no pesticides or herbicides used except to treat actual problems, strict control on what chemicals are allowed to be used in the feeding, raising, slaughtering and butchering processes, and ethical handling of the animals from birth to slaughter.

Organic farming is basically using modern knowledge to do old fashioned “animal husbandry” as opposed to the modern trend of “agribusiness.”

Apart from the obvious raising of crops or animals, Organic farming is about keeping records – part of an Organic certification is complying to the relevant Australian Standards of documenting the processes on the farm, and tracking compliance to those process.

You can find some information about Organic gardening on the COGS website: http://www.cogs.asn.au/organic-principles/growing-organically/ while the 114 page Australian Certified Organic Standard can be found through the Biological Farmers of Australia website: http://www.bfa.com.au/index.asp?sec_id=135

Hope this helps someone.

PS: The Australian Organic Standard was recently amended to become the Australian Certified Organic Standard, since “Certified Organic” can be trademarked while “Organic” cannot (for the obvious carbon-chemistry reasons amongst others). Thus when you are out shopping for high quality produce, look for “Certified Organic” with the sprouting seed logo (see aforementioned BFA website for details). There are plenty of dodgy operators in the food industry who are using “organic” as another buzzword just like “free range” or “new! improved!” – where “free range” means “our chickens have more than 1 square metre to run around in!”

But that’s a different rant, for a different day.

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