The red meat industry’s new Nothing Beats Beef campaign is part of an annual $26 million marketing spend to encourage us to eat more red meat – which also includes Sam Kekovich’s annual Australia Day rant to drive us to eat more lamb.
But the chicken industry is fighting back. 90% of Aussies eat chicken at least once a week, and 60% of us eat chicken at two times or more each week. More than half of Aussie chook eaters rate chicken as the best value and healthiest meat meal option.
The Australian Chicken Meat Federation claims almost all chicken meat sold in Australia is locally-produced (except for some small amounts in imported canned and frozen products), no growth hormones or steroids are used in Aussie chicken farming and our chooks are not caged – a reason why chicken may also be Australia’s meat of choice.
While Australia needs to be more humane in all areas of animal farming for food production, the reality is that the cost – economically and envirnonmentally – of producing red meat compared to chicken is atronomical. Beef production in particular in Australia, from earliest times, has contributed to Australia’s topsoil degredation and to massive greenhouse gas emissions through methane. A trip to any cattle grainfed feedlot or slaughterhouse would turn even the most hardcore meat lovers off meat for life.
Part of ethical eating and Earthcare is knowing where your food comes from, how it’s produced and who was harmed in the process.