Hi all. Been lurking around here, posting very rarely. I am coming to Belize with my partner in February. We are very excited. I have what some may consider rather odd eating preferences and would like some advice. I only eat hunted, fished or humanely reared and slaughtered meat. I have deeply personal beliefs about the sort of life the animals I have eaten have lived. I have nothing against eating animals and nothing against hunting and fishing. I do have a problem with eating animals who are prevented from living naturally for my benefit. I also believe strongly in supporting good local farmers. Anyone got any idea where chickens are sourced in most of the local eateries. Are they from local farms where they have lived a chickens life? Or are they imported from cheap factory farms? Also, other than fish, what sort of wild game is available commonly? How much of it is palatable to the un initiated? Any other information on livestock and its rearing in Belize would be gratefully appreciated.

I must stress that I am not a bore on this subject. I just thought I would ask and had not seen anything about it on the board before.

Hello there. Everything I have eated in Belize has been palatable. I have THE MOST uncooperative stomach I know. I did brush my teeth with the bottled water because of my stomach but others don't do that and have no problem at all. You might be better off catching your own fish/lobster etc and eating that. Most of the restaurants will cook them for you however you want it done. I know Belize raises cattle in the South I think but I do not know if you will be able to find out anything about the way it is raised or similar information about chicken. Seafood is your best bet for your particular beliefs but many of the restaurants have vegie entrees. One such restaurant is Fidos which is right in town. Just arrived back from Belize yesterday and I found Fidos vegie dishes to be very good.

i was once the sole world wide suplier of free range lark's tongue. the problem is they are so hard to catch that i couldn't come close to filling all my international orders, so........ i had to bite the animal welfare bullet and raise them in captivity for processing. i did arrange for classical music to be played as their heads were twisted off. unfortunately, through inbreeding, their beaks became deformed which caused them to bite off their tongues, which eventually put me out of business.

This thread has potential for mischief...

Whatever do you mean, ronmyway? Let's hunt down the mischief and kill it in its tracks.

Is that free-range mischief?

"their beaks became deformed which caused them to bite off their tongues"

You should have used that trait to your advantage. Imagine all the benefits of larks with self harvesting tongues. Such as not having to hire that expensive Chinese crew of professional lark tongue cutters during harvest season.

maybe you could cross-breed them with starfish, so after they bit their tongue off it would groa back.....

Belize now has a fairly large Amish settlement (or were they Menmonites?, I forget). They raise a large percentage of the chickens consumed in all of Belize. I recall when on the boat trip on the river to Lamanai we passed several Amish farms and our guide discussed their introducing alot of the farming and livestock to the country. We passed several Amish fisherman in boats on the trip. (yes, they must have been Amish as they used fishing poles with no reels). So, There is a good chance that the chickens on AC have been raised in a wholesome way. Of course, your best bet on any tropical island will be fresh seafood.

anyone ask the chickens if THEY thought it was wholesome?