Marco Pierre White on farming 2

[Camberwell86]

Like a boss.

[lesamourai777]

Well said!



[1madaboutguitar]

Like Marco, disagree with this. The benefit of organic is not one confined to snobbery. Since the heavy use of pesticides and herbicides in the 1970' cancer has skyrocketed. Go figure Marco. Im sorry chefs need to study nutrition more all they think about is taste. They need to see the bigger picture. If everyone understood the value of organic properly we would have the correct supply/demand. But people are waking up and hopefully non organic should be phased out. Its poison, simple as that.

[alanhoilun]

@1madaboutguitar you idiot

[1madaboutguitar]

@alanhoilun Care to explain? Or are you just another youtube bigot with a big mouth?

[alanhoilun]

@alanhoilun contrary, agricultural development executive. i must admit my wording was heavy in reflection, apologies.

[SomethingAwesome19XX]

There is something intimidating about him. He exudes something that can silence even some of the most confident men around him.

[SuperOlds88]

funny how some people place the blame on things like bacon and eggs and saturated fats only, sure they need to be eaten in moderation, but hydrogenated fats, corn syrup and sugars are way way way worse, and more affordable, which is the problem.

[honeybear64]

@SuperOlds88 I don't know about "way" worse, but transfats, refined carbs, etc. are certainly at LEAST as bad as sat fat. The reason I concentrated on sat fat was because the video was specifically talking about keeping chicken and eggs as cheap as possible no matter what the means, and I argue that if we were subsidizing fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains instead of corn and soy that go into everything from feedlot feed to HFCS, so that people had to pay the REAL price of (cont'd)

[honeybear64]

(cont'd) meat from animals raised in a healthy, natural, and humane manner, as well as the real price of ingredients that go into junk food, while simultaneously not having to spend an arm and a leg in the produce aisle for the equivalent number of calories, that would almost certainly alter people's diets in a healthier direction. Without the current system of subsidies, a cheeseburger at McDonald's would cost way MORE, not less, than a head of broccoli at the farmer's market. (cont'd)

[honeybear64]

(cont'd) While I'm a strict vegetarian myself, I don't argue that that's a choice anyone else has to make. Meat and other animal products can certainly be included as part of a healthy - and humane - diet, but certainly NOT in the forms, OR in the proportions, in which they are so often included in the contemporary Western diet. From a purely nutritional standpoint, the problem is not with the meat, etc., itself, but with focus and proportion. In our Western culture, we are raised (cont'd)

[honeybear64]

(cont'd) to think of meat as the "main point" of a meal, with plant-based foods almost always classified as mere "side items". For example, dinner might be chicken, green beans, potatoes, a small salad, and a dinner roll. But ask wife or hubby what's for dinner, the answer will be - "chicken", as if the rest of it were somehow some sort of afterthought. This Western plate concept lends itself to the dangerous tendency to think of plant-based nutrition as an optional add-on, rather than (contd)

[honeybear64]

(contd) an essential core component of the daily diet. In terms of calorie budgeting, our over-consumption of meat, eggs, cheese, etc., is directly responsible for our paltry consumption of plants. After all, you're only going to eat just so many calories in a day, and when fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes are given inadequate attention in the daily calorie budget, our focus on meat as the "main thing" tends to crowd them out of the diet. (contd)

[honeybear64]

The commonly accepted practice in our culture is to make sure that you finish all of your meat, and eat whatever vegetables, grains, etc., that you still have room for. Want evidence? Just look at the tables in a restaurant as patrons leave, and you'll see a lot of half-eaten potatoes, half-eaten salad, half-eaten green beans, half-eaten fruit, etc., but you're not going to see a whole lot of half-eaten chicken, beef, or pork. With this focus on meat as the "main point" of a meal, (contd)

[honeybear64]

(contd) is it any wonder that so many people struggle to get in even the paltry 5-9 daily servings of fruits and vegetables and 6-11 servings of whole grains recommended even by the meat/egg/dairy industry-obsessed USDA via their woefully inadequate "Food Pyramid"? The problem is that there are many essential nutrients found in plants that are not found in meat or other animal products, while - with the exception of vitamin B12 (which is easily supplemented) - there is not one single (contd)

[honeybear64]

(contd) nutrient found in animal products that is not also found in a well-balanced, varied plant-based diet. Given this fact, our Western notions of what constitutes a "main dish" and what constitutes a "side item" are completely upside down. As even the inveterate vegetarian-hating Anthony Bourdain said on the Rachel Maddow show, we'd be a lot healthier if we treated meat more along the lines of the traditional Asian diet, where it's more of a flavoring agent than the main point of the meal

[honeybear64]

Other steps that need to be taken are, of course, reducing or eliminating consumption of super-refined, nutrient-depleted carbohydrates such as white bread, white rice, table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and so on, with a corresponding increase in consumption of complex, fiber-rich, whole grains.

On the animal welfare front, of course, a turn to humanely produced meat, eggs, and dairy products would be expensive, but as we've already discussed, a reduction in the consumption (contd)

[honeybear64]

of those items wouldn't be such a bad thing in the first place.

[honeybear64]

Eating a healthy diet isn't rocket science, it's simple - eat foods in as close to their natural state as possible, avoid overly processed and refined foods, and be sure to get in at least the basic minimum amount of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthy plant-based foods, and eat meat, eggs, and dairy products - if at all - as you have room for them, rather than the other way around. And remember that vitamin pills are a supplement to, not a substitute for, good nutrition.

[piffpete420]

Its sad to see that someone as close to food as Pierre White fails to see organic is just normal natural food nothing special. People have to pay so much because large food corporations have in just the last 15 years developed genetically modified produce which alters the plant itself in drastic ways, allowing for faster production and unhindered approval of totally manipulated food through the FDA and WTO.

[honeybear64]

I disagree with Marco's priorities. He complains that if battery cages were outlawed, the price of chicken would go through the roof - and he's probably right about that. But minimum standards of animal welfare should be a non-negotiable moral baseline. If chicken becomes more expensive as a result, then so be it. If the price doubles, then eat it half as often.

[honeybear64]

Besides, it wouldn't exactly hurt people's health to be eating less meat, eggs, and dairy products, and more fruits, vegetables, and grains, in the first place. I'm not saying anyone has to go vegetarian, but if Brits and Americans altered the proportions of animal products to plants products on their plates, our countries wouldn't be spending half our healthcare budgets on diet-related diseases.

[honeybear64]

Marco is very old school in the sense that gourmet chefs traditionally have placed the pleasures of the palate over just about everything else, including animal welfare. Julia Child had to be taken to a factory veal farm to see it in person before she understood what the fuss was all about. Many chefs today seem a little more enlightened, even vegetarian-haters Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Bourdain.

[honeybear64]

On the Larry King Show, Jonathan Safran Foer got Bourdain to admit that the factory farming method of raising and slaughtering animals is "criminal", and Ramsay, after being shown a film about factory pig farming, admitted that it was "enough to turn anyone fucking vegetarian", and said that while he's always knocked vegetarians, he now understands "why so many people make the change, instantly".

[honeybear64]

Marco says chicken and eggs have to be kept cheap, however the method, because you've got people making 15-20 grand a year with families to raise, and the government shouldn't be bullying people. But he's being shortsighted. These same people's paychecks are routinely plundered by the government in the form of taxes to support a healthcare system largely devoted to treating diseases that stem directly from the overconsumption of saturated fat and cholesterol.

[honeybear64]

If you want to pay your own bills when you have to get your chest cracked open for heart surgery and be put on cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of your life from stuffing your face with eggs and bacon grease, fine. But when my tax dollars have to fund Medicare or National Health to pay your bills for you, then it's no longer just a "personal choice" and the people, through their government, have a vested interested in seeing you eat healthier.

[honeybear64]

So here's where animal welfare, personal health, and taxpayer interests dovetail beautifully. Mandate that animals raised for food receive at least some basic measure of humane treatment, including imported meat (for example, 70% of pork imported from the EU does not meet UK welfare standards). This will decrease supply and raise prices, which will encourage ppl to eat less animal products. Personal health will improve, and the healthcare tax burden will decrease.

[honeybear64]

Marco worries that chicken will become a luxury meat. Guess what? 100 years ago meat itself was a luxury, eaten in smaller quantities and less often than today. In the last 50 years, meat consumption has increased enormously, with a corresponding epidemic in diet-related diseases. The only reason chicken is so affordable these days is down to intensive and inhumane production methods that would disgust any morally sane individual were he/she to witness it first hand.

[honeybear64]

Take one look at the mountains of blubber waddling down the aisles of British and American supermarkets and ask yourself if keeping the prices of saturated fat- and cholesterol-laden, calorie-dense foods artificially low should really be our biggest priority. People should seriously reacquaint themselves with the produce aisle. It's not about going vegetarian necessarily, it's about eating animal products in reasonable, prudent proportions relative to plants.

[honeybear64]

The people who suffer most from obesity and obesity-related diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease are those on the lower end of the income scale. So policies which keep the unhealthiest calories artificially cheap, and the healthiest calories artificially expensive, almost amounts to government-sanctioned genocide of the poor. From a gourmet's perspective, Marco's concerns are spot on; from the perspective of public health they're seriously misplaced.

[carbonarapadrino]

@honeybear64 well argued points.

they really haven't a leg to stand on, and poor old marco, bless him, he's out of his depth doing anything but cooking,fishing, or shooting things.

oh and getting drunk and womanising.

[Velasca]

I doubt Marco would run scared from the old serious farmers

[jsmmusic]

Organic food makes me laugh - once u had fish monger,butcher,grocer etc most of wich was suplyd from the area. Then along came the tesco with their amazing ready meals n food that lasts2weeks in the fridge! N wit all this wonderful food came a price tag - THEN - 1day some1 said, u no all this stuff were pumping in2the food, really not good, its making people ill, so they "invented" something called ORGANIC FOOD n for that they added another price increase. BACK TO SQUARE ONE!

[stevensartifacts]

don't know about you but i don't like the idea of eating pesticides. most pesticides, if not all, are poisonous in some way.

[karabinas]

Why hasn't he been in any Bond films? He could play an old assassin, Bond's mentor...hell anything....

[TheDave000]

I can totally see that!

[skybie123]

i luv him :)

[buenos485]

It's about time someone understands the way it

really is!

The almighty Government dictates so much bullshit, it's pathetic!

Marco should speak out a little louder,although

it won't help.

Our Gov. is constantly putting pesticides,steroids,hormones and the like in

our foods for a cheaper price and no one ever asks WHY??

Think about it people!!

That's why there's been so much cancer in the last 80 years.

[HarrodsShopper]

I totally agree, Jamie Oliver and Hugh should listen to him - not everyone can afford organic.

[bloodheart06]

He's GOD

i love him

[dubzy81]

he's like a world-weary assassin

[75goodies]

I fancy an organic Marco

[MotherNatureKnowsBes]

GO ON Marco!!

you tell em boy.

I always say - "Mother Nature Knows Best"

Perhaps it should be, "Marco Knows Best"

[X2Are]

Marco is teh Man!