Topic: Petition on behalf of British pig farmers

[Melbourne12]

Well, it's actually wider than that, but that's how I heard about it.  It's to do with "Country of Origin Labelling" or COOL.  Because of the rather arcane rules about food processing, you can label meat or meat products rather misleadingly.  "British" bacon can be made with imported pork that's simply been cured in the UK, or even merely sliced and packed here.  Similarly a British pork pie can be made in Britain with entirely foreign ingredients.  Even fresh meat doesn't have to come from a beast that's been born and fully reared in the UK to have red tractor marks and the like emblazoned on it.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36537

It's a great pity that the author didn't think to have the petition proofread before posting it.  Maybe a quality certification for good English would be in order.  But her heart is in the right place, and it is a bit of a scandal that we can buy eastern European pork and Thai chicken under the misapprehension that it's been raised to good welfare standards in Britain.

[Digeroo]

With the current high prices of feed stuffs, many British livestock farmers will be struggling.  I know one farmer who says he is not going to replace his pigs when they stop producing, saying it is costing him as much to feed the pigs as he can get for them, so getting nothing back for his time and efforts. 

[Unwashed]

I feel that the petition is ill-conceived and ill-informed.  A voluntary code for country of origin was introduced in 2010 (not 2012 as stated in the petition).  As a voluntary code the petition gives the impression that compliance is voluntary, but that's not so; suppliers who sign up to the code are obliged to comply with its requirements, and all of the major suppliers have signed up - see who has here.

What's particularly unhelpful is the petition's conflation of country of origin labelling with pig welfare standards:

It also means British pig farmers that adhere to higher standards of animal welfare at extra cost, are not receiving the proper recognition for their products

This is just nonsense.  Knowing the country that the pig was reared in tells you nothing about the welfare standards under which the animals was raised.  Minimum welfare standards for pigs are harmonized across the EU (where almost all of the pork is imported from) so the insinuation that foreign standards are lower than in Bighty is just xenophobic.  More importantly, if UK producers are rearing pigs to an objectively higher standard of welfare then they will already be labelling their products to reflect that - and the only objective certificated standard that guarantees half-decent welfare standards for pigs is Organic, and that's an international standard.

Pitching this petiition in terms of animal welface is disingenuous: Knowing the country of origin doesn't have anything to do with welfare standards, and making the association serves to weaken the value of the Organic standard and the excellent work of the certificating bodies such as the Soil Association.

[Melbourne12]

I feel that the petition is ill-conceived and ill-informed.  A voluntary code for country of origin was introduced in 2010 (not 2012 as stated in the petition).  As a voluntary code the petition gives the impression that compliance is voluntary, but that's not so; suppliers who sign up to the code are obliged to comply with its requirements, and all of the major suppliers have signed up - see who has here.

What's particularly unhelpful is the petition's conflation of country of origin labelling with pig welfare standards:

It also means British pig farmers that adhere to higher standards of animal welfare at extra cost, are not receiving the proper recognition for their products

This is just nonsense.  Knowing the country that the pig was reared in tells you nothing about the welfare standards under which the animals was raised.  Minimum welfare standards for pigs are harmonized across the EU (where almost all of the pork is imported from) so the insinuation that foreign standards are lower than in Bighty is just xenophobic.  More importantly, if UK producers are rearing pigs to an objectively higher standard of welfare then they will already be labelling their products to reflect that - and the only objective certificated standard that guarantees half-decent welfare standards for pigs is Organic, and that's an international standard.

Pitching this petiition in terms of animal welface is disingenuous: Knowing the country of origin doesn't have anything to do with welfare standards, and making the association serves to weaken the value of the Organic standard and the excellent work of the certificating bodies such as the Soil Association.

I think you're being a bit harsh.  I can find nothing in the petition or any of the material that I've seen that suggests that Lucinda Matkin fears or hates foreigners.  The fact that there are minimum EU standards for animal welfare doesn't mean either (a) that British standards aren't higher or (b) that the minimum standards are adhered to.  We know for example that many French chicken farms STILL haven't been upgraded to the new minimum battery standards.

I certainly want to buy British bacon rather than Danish.  I want to buy British butter rather than French.  I want to buy British cheddar rather than Canadian.  That's not because I harbour some bizarre bigotry against the Danes, the French and the Canadians.  It's because I want to support the British farming industry, and because I admire its leadership (by and large) in supporting improvements to animal welfare.

[Paulines7]

I support Melbourne12 and have signed the petition. 

I too would like the country of where the animal has been reared, to be much clearer on the labelling.  The reason I want to know is that many of the pigs I see in the UK are out and about in the fields.  From what I have seen on TV, many of the pigs from Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany are raised in such small pens that they have not got the room to lay down. Whether they conform to EEC rules I don't know. I must admit that I am dubious that this type of farming conforms to regulations.  Since seeing the programme and the conditions in which these poor pigs are raised, I have only bought pork products that are clearly marked from the UK. 

[pumkinlover]

I've signed. We only use farm shops now, luckily plenty near us.

[Melbourne12]

I know that I'm harping on about this, but I've just seen an article on Smallholder magazine's website that estimates that 40 thousand pigs an hour (sic) slaughtered in Europe will fail to meet the new MINIMUM welfare standards as of today.

http://www.smallholder.co.uk/news/10133575.Europe___s_pig_keepers_flout_Brussels_stalls_ban/?ref=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter