British pork Caroline Stacey British pig farmers are not bringing home the bacon. Our beloved, home-bred bangers, bacon butties, traditional hams and good old roast pork with crackling could become endangered delicacies.

In this article

Rising costs Safeguarding supplies

Pig welfare Outdoor chances

Paying the price Creative cuts

Farmers have been losing as much as £26 per pig

Rocketing wheat prices are behind the problem. Pig feed consists mostly of wheat and, because wheat prices have doubled in the past year, it's costing farmers twice as much to feed their pigs - yet they can't sell the meat for enough to get their money back. Farmers have been losing as much as £26 per pig.

For more than a decade British pig farmers have been competing with cheaper imports produced to lower welfare standards and the national herd has halved in the past 12 years. But recently the numbers have been shrinking faster than a rasher of watery imported bacon.

While supermarkets have been charging more for British pork, bacon and ham, the farmers haven't earned more

Even Britain's best-known pig farmer, Jimmy Doherty, had to send 50 of his 95 sows for slaughter this spring because he couldn't afford to feed them. The cost of feed started to bite in summer 2007. As they renewed feed contracts, farmers were presented with prices rises that had built up over previous months, plus future increases. While supermarkets have been charging more for British pork, bacon and ham, the farmers haven't earned more.

It costs farmers £1.45 to produce a kilo of pork, according to BPEX (the British Pig Executive), which represents the farmers, abattoirs, ham and sausage makers and processors that make up the pork industry. At the beginning of 2008 supermarkets sold pork for £1.05 a kilo, and by May - eight months after farmers had started bearing the increased cost of feed - it had still only gone up to £1.20 a kilo.

In a YouGov survey 78 per cent of the public said they were prepared to pay more for pork to help farmers. Pig farmers have been campaigning for a better price. Barney Kay of the National Pig Association, the organisation behind the campaign, says: "we must safeguard our domestic supply or there will be a shortage of British pork."

"Some money has been passed back to farmers but nowhere near enough," concurs Tina Mulholland of BPEX. Eventually pig producers will be paid what they need to cover their production costs, but for many it may be too late.

Home-reared pork is important because the UK's welfare standards are generally higher than those in continental Europe. On the Continent, castration is frequently carried out without anaesthetic and sow stalls (cramped birthing pens), which are banned in Britain, won't be outlawed on the Continent until 2013.

Representatives of the British pig industry claim that up to 70 per cent of imported pork is produced to welfare standards below the UK's legal minimum.

Most British pork has a Quality Standard Mark to show it meets approved minimum industry standards. The RSPCA's Freedom Food-approved pork comes from pigs reared to higher welfare standards although they may have lived entirely indoors - as do 70 per cent of British pigs.

Shoppers and supermarkets have been moving towards better-quality British pork. This higher welfare, free-range and outdoor-reared pork is what Compassion in World Farming believes we should concentrate on. Others in the industry fear it's this top-class meat that might become the most scarce, as production costs make pig farming unviable.

Between 30-40 per cent of pigs in the UK are now outdoor-reared and buying outdoor-reared pork pretty much guarantees that it's British. But it's not always clear how much time the pigs have spent outside because there are no EU pork labelling rules and supermarkets can set their own standards.

An 'outdoor-bred' label could still mean the pigs spend most of their lives confined to a well-populated shed, after the sows give birth outside. Even 'outdoor-reared', which means spending the first three months - half its life - outside with its mother before moving to an open-sided shed, shouldn't be confused with free-range. This elite five per cent are born and spend their whole lives outside with their mothers, provided with shelters to protect them from the elements.

Buying British, though it may mean paying a little more, will help keep our tradition of pig farming alive and encourage higher welfare standards. After all, the price of imported pork will have to go up to cover Continental pig farmers' feed costs too. "Let's pay a fair price for a fair product and make sure that our pig industry is one we can be proud of with better welfare systems and a fair deal for farmers," says Phil Brooke, welfare development manager for Compassion in World Farming.

Choosing less-expensive cuts, rather than prime cuts such as chops and loin, will enable you to buy better quality meat without spending more. Asian and Continental European cooks know how to use every part of a pig, as the basis of a distinctive, flavourful dish. A butcher will sell thrifty cuts and a good one should be able to give guidance on how to cook more 'creative' cuts.

If you want to make sure all the money you spend on meat goes straight to the farmer, buy direct by mail order or from a farm shop or farmers' market. There you'll be able to buy rare breed pork which is far tastier than lean, intensively reared meat.

June 2008