Two articles in yesterday's Guardian caught my eye. The first article (http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2258386,00.html) was about the Save Our Bacon campaign. Rocketing pig feed prices mean farmers are losing up to £26 on every pig produced. The industry is losing £6 every second = £3.6m a week!
Gordon Ramsay, Tom Aikens and Rick Stein are backing a drive to persuade consumers to buy British sausages, bacon and ham rather than cheaper European imports now flooding the supermarket shelves. Waitrose is using a sausage-free toad in the hole - "toad on the dole" - to highlight the losses
The problem is that in the past year the price of wheat (the main ingredient of pig feed) has more than doubled to over £160/tonne. This is due to due to poor harvests in many parts of the world and growing demand, including some wheat being used for bio-fuels. Due to price pressure from supermarkets, farmers are now being paid around £1.10 per kg for a pig that now costs them £1.44 per kg to produce. UK pig farmers on top of this have some of the highest welfare standards in the world (which unfortunately increases the costs of production). A survey by the National Pig Association showed that 95% of farmers are considering stopping production if prices do not improve. 70% of pigmeat imported into the UK would be illegal for British farmers to produce!
The second story was "ASDA warns food suppliers it will clamp down on price rises" http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/21/asda.fooddrinks. Apparently ASDA plans to get tough with suppliers to ensure prices are kept as low as possible, despite the threat of rising global food prices!
What can you do? Support the small producers featured in this blog and there's an epetition here.
To find out more about the food we eat and supermarkets, buy and read a copy of Not on the label, what really goes into the food on your plate by Felicity Lawrence and Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets by Joanna Blythman.
Gordon Ramsay, Tom Aikens and Rick Stein are backing a drive to persuade consumers to buy British sausages, bacon and ham rather than cheaper European imports now flooding the supermarket shelves. Waitrose is using a sausage-free toad in the hole - "toad on the dole" - to highlight the losses
The problem is that in the past year the price of wheat (the main ingredient of pig feed) has more than doubled to over £160/tonne. This is due to due to poor harvests in many parts of the world and growing demand, including some wheat being used for bio-fuels. Due to price pressure from supermarkets, farmers are now being paid around £1.10 per kg for a pig that now costs them £1.44 per kg to produce. UK pig farmers on top of this have some of the highest welfare standards in the world (which unfortunately increases the costs of production). A survey by the National Pig Association showed that 95% of farmers are considering stopping production if prices do not improve. 70% of pigmeat imported into the UK would be illegal for British farmers to produce!
The second story was "ASDA warns food suppliers it will clamp down on price rises" http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/21/asda.fooddrinks. Apparently ASDA plans to get tough with suppliers to ensure prices are kept as low as possible, despite the threat of rising global food prices!
What can you do? Support the small producers featured in this blog and there's an epetition here.
To find out more about the food we eat and supermarkets, buy and read a copy of Not on the label, what really goes into the food on your plate by Felicity Lawrence and Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets by Joanna Blythman.
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