'Happy' meat

Here on the IOM we buy local meat, we know which farms are the beef cows, we see everything out in the fields, etc etc and when I go into the butchers I know that for example the lamb shanks I am being handed are Manx and have had a happy life, well looked after at slaughter.

I suppose my question is can you subscribe to meat boxes in the same way you can with fruit and veg? Or how would I know that the butchers have taken ethically sourced produce? I am quite fussy eggs have to be free range (we buy those local too) and I would hate to go into a huge supermarket and be buying meat not knowing where it's come from or how it was looked after.

Yes u can get meat boxes.We get quite a lot of our meat from the local farmers market- we ring the farm a few days before and they bring it to the market with them.

Abel and Cole do meat boxes, they look good value too. HTH

Yes u can get meat boxes.We get quite a lot of our meat from the local farmers market- we ring the farm a few days before and they bring it to the market with them.

Right ok, how do you find farmers markets? I'm going to be North West Merseyside/West Lancs

We are in liverpool and get ours from a farm near St Helen's who have a stall at the local farmers markets.
http://www.forsterorganicmeats.com/
http://www.visitlancashire.com/food-and ... rs-markets
http://www.local-farmers-markets.co.uk/merseyside.html

there is a new one here too
http://www.legharms.com/
and quite a few farm shops in W lancs too.

Our local butchers does meat packs of various values, the meat is all local (and soooo delicious!), and I'm sure many butchers would deliver if you asked, if you're close enough. Good butchers will do pretty much anything if you ask nicely, just say how much you want to spend each week and ask them to make up a pack! If you want something in particular the just ask a few days before you want it they can order it in if needed. I recently started getting eggs from a local producer, free range and mixed sizes (some are huge!!), £3 for 30 eggs!

Supermarkets may not be entirely truthful aboout their meat's origins, animals that are slaughtered in the UK could come from other EU countries, but still be labelled as British meat. Value meat is rarely local.

We sometimes buy meat from the farm we get our veg box from and we also get meat packs from out local butcher in the village x

Oh thanks for this, would llike to look into as well. Is it much more expensive or just good at lowering the amount of meat the family eats?

Have a look at riverford stockley farm. They do meat boxes and are local (im in lancs), I know their veg is home grown/sourced ethnically etc but you'd have to check meat but I think it's the same x