Is veal a four letter word?

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Posted at 12:58PM, 10 March 2008 by Dom Dwight - food writer

Dear Dairy
What do ice cream and veal have in common? No, it's not a joke. Think about it for a moment - can you think of anything further apart than a sweet bowl of vanilla ice cream and the meat of a young calf?

The answer is they're both results of the dairy industry. It might seem obvious to some, but it was only recently that I had my eyes opened to the subject of veal. I knew what it was of course, but my attitude to it was based on all the horror stories of crated calves raised in total darkness. To be honest, I thought my policy of not eating it at all was the best course of action to retain a clear conscience. I get the feeling I'm not alone.

It took a conversation with Robert Moore from Brymor Dairy in Wensleydale to set me straight - I'd never considered that veal actually presents a solution to a big problem. To continue producing milk, dairy cows need to calve. If their calves are female they can be raised to become milkers themselves. But when they're male there's a problem. Dairy breeds don't make good beef, so the choice is brutally simple: dispose of them immediately after birth, or sell them to be raised for veal on the continent, which means travelling hundreds of miles in crates and then living in awful conditions to make 'white veal'.

There's a third option though - rear it here, in decent conditions and sell it as British rose veal. That's what Brymor do, and they're well known to do a good job of it. The trouble is, for it to catch on, there needs to be a market, and that's where we come in.

It took a different conversation to see that, this time with Gip Dammone, one of a pair of brothers running the hugely popular Italian restaurant Salvo's in Headingley. Gip long ago took veal off the menu - he wasn't comfortable serving Dutch white veal. He tells me he'd love to serve British rose veal, but he's got two problems: getting hold of enough of it, and the price. His worry is that people wouldn't buy - they'd either steer clear because it's veal, or they'd baulk at the seemingly 'inflated' prices.

In the course of two conversations, I found myself doing a complete U-turn: is buying veal - British veal - actually more 'responsible' than avoiding it altogether? Doesn't everyone who consumes dairy products share a responsibility for what happens to the male calves?

What do you think? Is veal still a four letter word to you?

Comments

Anne

10 March 2008, 2:52PM
Anne

I rember eating veal as a child some years ago and it was pink. As an adult I do not eat it for the reasons quoted having read that the calves were starved of iron so the meat was white. Is my memory wrong and if not when did veal have to be white? I would eat it again if the calves were reared naturally.

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James

10 March 2008, 3:48PM
James

In the same way as chicken - if the veal calves are kept humanely, their growth isn't forced, they are free range, and organic the difference in the quality of life is amazing, and this is reflected in the meat. I would far rather go for the 'rose' veal that our local organic cheese farm sells than the rather bland white foreign veal anyway as a matter of taste. The choice is there for people to make, and as the supermarket sell out of free-range chicken shows if customers were to demand it, supply would be increased.

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domdwight

12 March 2008, 8:31PM
domdwight

I agree with James wholeheartedly. The difference with buying chicken of course, is that you could choose to buy no chicken at all - just to opt out altogether to guarantee a clearer conscience. It's different with veal though, because even if you 'opt out' you still can't extricate yourself from the calves' welfare if you continue to eat cheese or drink milk. What I'd like to know is, where did the motivation to deliberately make the meat so white come from?

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Marcus Lampard

14 March 2008, 7:23AM
Marcus Lampard

We have veal for sale and more on the way, and so far it is really difficult to find a market, anyone out there wanting veal please contact, me on iolo@onetel.com. All reared under very humane conditions on a farm in Wales. See www.mandinam.co.uk

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Marcus Lampard

14 March 2008, 7:25AM
Marcus Lampard

Veal or Rose veal is a delicious product. Thousands of calves which were shot at birth can now go into the food chain and provide many delicious meals for you.

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Rory Ladders

14 March 2008, 3:57PM
Rory Ladders

is veal the ones that turns into pate if you feed it too much corn?

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Sarah

14 March 2008, 7:41PM
Sarah

On consideration, yes, I think I would buy British rose veal - so long as it really is reared and killed as humanely as described above. However, should it really catch on and become a mass marketed food, how long before the greedy conglomerate factory "farmers" began stuffing the poor creatures into dark crates a la Europe? Promote veal by all means, but lets keep it under control as the market grows, and not be left at the stage we are at with poultry. And Rory, you are thinking of fois gras geese. Veal is the meat from very young calves.

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lindyloo

16 March 2008, 6:27PM
lindyloo

If we drink milk or consume anything made with it we shouldn't be against veal as long as it is reared and killed with care and consideration. I'd be all for seeing more of english reared veal in the market as along as animal welfare is assured.

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Kerry

16 March 2008, 6:56PM
Kerry

Rose veal is more humane than either live transportation or the shooting of bull calves at birth, both of which are more common right now. Too many consumers see issues in black and white - I have friends who balk at the 'v' word and close their minds to any further argument. It's the same old story and will be until more people start looking a little harder at the food industry (or until H F-W or J O make a prime-time telly program about it and it becomes the latest trendy food 'cause'). As for the high price of it, well, you get what you pay for and 'cheap' food is really the dearest of all.

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Beth

17 March 2008, 3:19PM
Beth

I don't understand why people get so hung-up on the conditions of veal when most people are happy to go into a supermarket and by a broiler. Or sometimes it is because the animal is so young yet people happily eat lamb. Personnally I like my meat free range. But most of the time when I have bought veal in the Uk it has been the rose veal so I don't see what all the fuss is about.

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Food Fiend

7 April 2008, 10:26PM
Food Fiend

Veal or no veal? It's a tricky question you're pending there Dom. I think if they're reared in decent conditions then British rose veal is a smart option. It seems like it's bridging the gap for the male calves between immediate slaughter after birth and the dreadful fate of being reared as white veal abroad. I've had first hand experience of said veal and learned the hard way. When on holiday in Tenerife as a student I got the worst food poisoning I've ever had from a veal escalope. I vowed never to eat it again, especially as I learned more about how this kind of veal is produced. However, if I saw British rose veal on the menu, and I knew that it was free range and reared well locally, I might just risk it again. http://pleasure-eater.blogspot.com

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NICOLA REECE

17 June 2009, 8:32PM
NICOLA REECE

After exhibiting for 5 days at the summer good food show talking about our Midshires Rose Veal I feel there is a definate swing towards eating British Rose Veal.I would say that just about everybody was prepared to taste and buy once they were educated about British Rose Veal. www.midshiresroseveal.co.uk

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Food_Eater

31 January 2010, 5:37PM
Food_Eater

I started eating Veal following Janet Street Porter on the F-Word, I recently went to the BBC Good Food show and met a farmer Duncan Lyon who has a dairy farm on a beautiful little island off the west coast of Scotland. He was the main speaker at the Slow Food organisation's tasting sessions. The opportunity to meet the producer and hear the care he takes and pride he has in rearing his animals well was wonderful. I've had plenty of escalopes but I have never really seen many other cuts available. I just ordered a selection box from http://www.scottish-roseveal.com and I am really looking forward to try some of the recipes on the BBC food site.

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