Home
News
Jamie Oliver highlights plight of UK pig industry
Jamie Oliver will wage war on European pork in his latest
TV battle, entitled Jamie Saves Our Bacon to be screened on the UK television
channel, Channel 4.
In the 90-minute programme, Oliver, who previously
declared war on battery-fed chickens and the poor quality of school dinners,
attempts to get viewers to buy British pork.
"On its
knees"aid that the British pig industry is "on its knees" because
so much pork was imported from EU countries with lower welfare
standards.
He said: "We showed that if you give consumers the facts about
chicken welfare they will make up their own minds and the sales of higher
welfare chickens and eggs have gone through the roof as a result. Now I want to
see if we can do the same for pigs. Pork is our second favourite meat, but the
British pig industry is on its knees.
Level playing
field"Our farmers say that 70% of the pork we import is from
countries with lower welfare standards than ours and would have been illegal to
produce here. All our farmers want is a level playing field with Europe. ...The
support of the British public, as well as government and retailers, is critical
in deciding the future, possibly the very survival, of our pig
industry."
Channel 4 head of programming Julian Bellamy said: "The
starting point for Jamie is to tell the viewers exactly what happens from farm
to fork for a pig, from pig to sausage."
Click here for
the free Pig Progress newsletter
Editor PigProgress
To comment, login here
Or register to be able to comment.