Regular readers know I’m a supporter of sustainable farming and cure/smoke my own meat. I buy from three local businesses that act as intermediaries between the farmer and consumer. This way I get the variety of meat I want from reliable sources. Yes, there’s a price premium but that’s more than compensated for by quality and the knowledge that I’m doing my bit to maintain the herds/flocks of rare breeds, often husbanded by small producers.
Farmison’s is one such producer. Most recently, they sent this missive in which they said:
Already, thousands of healthy pigs have been culled because of bottlenecks in the pork supply chain caused by labour shortages. We need to stop this.
We've teamed up with free-range pig farmer Anna to help tackle this supply chain crisis facing British pig farmers. Anna was initially unaffected by the crisis but her decision to help neighbouring farms and take their surplus pigs to avoid culling means she is now faced with over-capacity and surplus pork. Her farming system is RSPCA freedom food accredited, with animal welfare at the heart of Anna's farming operation.
The exact number of pigs culled in the U.K. so far is unclear but 30,000 is the widely circulated number. Working on Farmison’s half pig box price of £180, that means lost income (subject to any compensation) upwards of £10.8 million. That’s a small sum in the scale of things but the crisis has led to some permanent pig farm closures. The last number I saw was 40. Again, a relatively small number.
That’s not the point. These numbers are only going in one direction. Up. And who knows where that ends?
Some will argue that in the current ‘climate’ where plant based over meat production is heavily promoted, that the loss of some meat production isn’t be a bad thing.
I’d argue that the loss of bad farming practice is a good thing. But the loss of heritage or rare breeds is a disaster equal to the extinction of any species, plant or animal. And as is evident from above, supply chain issues don’t discriminate between producers.
I sense that as consumers, we’ve become desensitised to what constitutes good food. I put the responsibility for that firmly on the doorsteps of the mega supermarket chains where almost the first thing you see on entering a store are factory produced, heavily processed ready meals or foodstuffs.
Despite the impact of the pandemic, the U.K. has not yet woken (sic) up to the value of cooking home meals on a regular basis. I get it. Our time is crunched in every way, especially for those working from home with young families.
But then I’m mindful of the fact that a freshly made dinner can serve more than a single sitting without becoming dull. A carefully roast joint for example can be a traditional pork dinner, pulled pork and more. The same goes for beef. Chicken can be used in a myriad of ways. I’m betting that the time and motion wonks would be hard pressed to make that equation stack up poorly against the microwave/oven ready (sic) alternatives.
The difficulty comes in making the economics of buying the way I do something that’s readily digestible (sic) for the majority of people.
The question must be - are we prepared to pay for sustaining breeds that improve the land while also educating ourselves about more balanced and healthy diets? I hope so.
In the meantime, I welcome the kind of innovation that Farmison and its suppliers are bringing to the pork supply chain problem. It’s a simple and, in some ways, obvious solution. Those are often the best. In this case, it’s also affordable at an average of £1.63 per serving.