Pig farmers to launch ‘Bite into British’ food campaign

Pig farmers are launching a new campaign to encourage more people to buy local and British food to support their beleaguered sector and others.

The pig industry is one of several farming sectors struggling with a labour shortage linked to Brexit and the pandemic.

An exodus of eastern European butchers has seen abattoirs operating as much as 20% below capacity.

As a result, thousands of pigs have been backing up on farms and many pig farmers have run out of space.

See also: Buy British food for Christmas, says Red Tractor campaign

The UK government has announced a package of measures to support the pig industry, including an extension of the temporary workers pilot scheme to allow up to 800 foreign butchers to travel and work in the UK until 31 December, for a period of up to six months.

It has also introduced a private storage aid scheme in England which will enable meat processors to store slaughtered pigs for three to six months, so that they can be preserved safely and processed at a later date. Similar schemes have been introduced in devolved regions.

However, the pig industry remains in crisis.

Starting this Wednesday (3 November), pig farmers will launch a new social media campaign, called “Bite into British” to encourage people to support UK farmers by buying more local and British food.

Kate Morgan, a pig farmer based in Driffield, East Yorkshire. is heading up the campaign.

She said: “British Agriculture is in a very dangerous place and we need to take action.

“Farming is in the media a lot at the moment, most of it is negative so let’s change it, let’s shout about climate friendly British produce, be it meat, fruit, grain, veg – this is about us all.

“We are environmentally sustainable – let’s buy British and cut our food miles down.”

How to take part

The campaign is a spin-off on the ice bucket challenge and the loo roll challenge.

People will be urged to record a video while biting into a British food product – for example, a sausage, cheese, apple or carrot – and then nominate three people to do the same.

They should then upload their videos on social media platforms, such as Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #BiteIntoBritish

“We need to get a lot of farmers all doing this on the same day – Wednesday 3 November – to get it trending,” added Ms Morgan.

“It would be great if people could nominate famous people outside of farming, too.”