People are paying 2X or 4X the price because Belcampo promises certified organic, regenerative, grass-fed, pastured, certified humane, etc.
Most of those aren’t things you can taste.
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In which case, there’s very little point in paying Belcampo prices for chicken breast you can get for less than half the price at Sav Mart.
The question is if you are willing to pay more money even if the taste isn’t significantly different but the animals have a better life etc.
Its ok
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What this whole thing has established is that if you didn’t do the raising, and don’t see those conditions with your own eyes, there’s virtually no way to know if your actually getting animals raised better or just paying a guilty conscience tax for regular factory farm meat.
And that’s a real bummer.
Shopping at Belcampo answers that question.
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There are certifications in other countries which are much more stringent and could be used also in the US. One example is the Demeter system
in Germany which has worked very good. The current problem with Belcampo has just shown that this particular system doesn’t work but I think it is the completely wrong conclusion to say either you have to raise animals yourself or nothing else will work. There isn’t only black and white but many shades of grey.
The problem is not just the system for raising/processing food or even labeling requirements. It’s the idea that ‘the system’ is there to be gamed / rules-lawyered / worked around, rather than worked with. It’s a problem that exists everywhere capitalism exists, of course, but the attitude is especially prevalent, and problematic, in this country.
To fix such a system would require both societal political will regarding the issue at hand (food sourcing / production / labeling / consumer protection) but regarding campaign financing, lobbying, a host of other deeply entrenched systematic issues that, as has been shown over and over, we as a country are either unable or unwilling to overcome.
I simply have zero trust in any ‘benefit’ that I’m TOLD is there, but that I cannot see/taste/smell/touch myself.
If I buy this t-shirt at 3x the price of the cheap 3-for-$12 packs at Target, am I helping fight terrible overseas labor practices and supporting American jobs or just propping up a toxic CEO that plays a good PR game? (see American Apparel, or Away luggage). If I LIKE American Apparel shirts, or Away bags, and think they’re worth the price on the basis of the product itself, fine. If people think Belcampo meat actually tastes better (hell, I’ll settle for ‘different’. ‘Better’ is subjective) then they should pay for it. But at this point, taking a manufacturer’s word on some fuzzy social benefit just makes me look gullible as a consumer.
Also, I’m with @Emglow101, in that for the most part, I don’t think MOST folks CAN really discern the difference between organic free range blah blah blah and Harris Ranch Cow-schwitz raised meat. Chefs and other professionals train themselves to recognize and discern differences between, say, grass fed and grain fed beef. But, unless you’ve had such training, AND the meat is cooked in such a way as to make those differences matter, will 90% of consumers be able to tell? Especially if they’re just ‘making dinner’ as opposed to doing a distinct side-by-side comparison? I have my very profound doubts. I would challenge any but the most sensitive palettes to tell the difference between burgers made with high end vs FoodCo ground beef as cooked by Joe Nobody on the backyard grill and then smothered in ketchup / mustard / mayo etc.
If it’s not included in the package, assume it’s marketing bullshit.
But then, given the last few years, I’m feeling especially cynical, so maybe I’m over-correcting a bit.
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I can taste the difference between grain-finished and 100% grass-fed beef, which is the main reason I was never a fan of Belcampo.
I can taste the difference between cheap factory-farm ground beef and the expensive stuff including trimmings from dry-aged steaks, which is why I don’t put anything on my burger except maybe a little mayonnaise or aioli.
The certification system may be working fine for the production and wholesale side of the business.
The problem is that there’s no certification of their retail stores or restaurants, nothing to stop them from perpetrating fraud.
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You can. I imagine a larger percentage of FTC folks would also be able to tell. We are a self selecting group that has a distinct interest in food and taste and such. I highly doubt this is true for the “average” consumer, and I would doubt that many of the more ‘enlightened’ (ugh) consumers who THINK they can tell actually could in a blind side-by-side. Various experiments with wine have already proven that stripped of context and clues (bottles, labels, colors) there is a marked difference between “what people think is good” vs “what people actually like” and “what people can actually discern meaningful differences of”.
I have a friend that raises chickens. They run around a big old yard, eating bugs and seeds and veggie scraps as well as chicken feed. When I’m lucky enough go collect some eggs from her, they taste better than generic store bought eggs. That is, IF I make them relatively simply. Some butter, salt & pepper. Maybe some chives or a little cheese.
If I’m throwing them into a stir fry with garlic and ginger and and all the other accoutrements, or putting together some monster omelet full of sausage and peppers and onions and cheese and and mushrooms etc, I’d think that sorta… wasteful. Why cover the extra yumminess of hand-raised eggs with all that other stuff. And baking with them? A total wash. I’ve made cookies and cakes with backyard eggs and factory farm eggs. So long as things are fresh, I’d defy anyone to tell the difference.
If I COULD only use her backyard eggs as my only eggs, I gladly would. I’d even pay her more than factory eggs, exactly for the same ‘social’ reasons a lot of people want to eat organic, farm-to-table, etc. But in this case, I KNOW the chickens are, indeed, ‘happy chickens’. I see them. I’ve fed them. I’ve collected the eggs myself. I have no such assurances with the package at Safeway marked ‘cage free, organic’. Maybe they are. Maybe they’re not. But at $5.99/doz vs $2.49/doz, I know what I’m making my next batch of cookies with.
I get eggs with my CSA box and buy most of my pork from the same farm.
I don’t buy factory-farm eggs or meat because they’re ecologically destructive and the way they treat the animals is disgusting.
I don’t disagree with you on many assessments but the question is what to do about it - one possibility is to say nothing works anyway or to see if there are ways to do (small) steps to improve things even if there might be setbacks on the way. If we don’t do anything it will all get much worse very soon on an environmental level. (and all the points you bring up are not only related to food but to every way people and companies interact with each other - there will be always some who cheat.
This thread is making me realize I must eat A LOT of meat. Because I can take the difference in all of them.
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I was pretty disappointed in myself as a kid when I set up the pepsi challenge at home and couldn’t tell which was coke
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In the 1920s, Pepsi’s owner reformulated it to taste like Coke.
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and in the 80’s they reformulated Coke to taste more like Pepsi. (well, actually, to taste more like Diet Coke, which tasted more like Pepsi).
That… did not work out well for them.
I don’t eat a lot of red meat . Sometimes it’s just different . Same cut of beef from the same local butcher. Though I do live in cattle country. Huge acerage with roaming cattle . Some just taste better than other . Same ranch same farmer . It’s always a gamble .
I’m guity…A pepsi vs coke expert too. I need to change my diet.
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Was that the “new” coke? If so, I remember it being a total failure (which is why they dropped it).