FARMER FOCUS: Shoppers back to normal habits

The main subject of choice in our industry continues to be the horsemeat scandal, and sadly, as suspected, it seems that as a nation we have a severe case of Alzheimers when it comes to relating what we put in our mouths to how that food has got there.

I’d say that for a week butchers’ shops enjoyed heightened sales, in particular of foods such as sausages and burgers, as people boycotted these ranges from supermarkets to ensure food was sourced from local, British farmers. And as a result our sales were up. But a few weeks on, we are back to normal with a bang. Or could this just be a result of the latest tosh in the media about processed meat reducing our lifespan?

Part of our whole branding since day one has been about educating the customer on how our animals are reared, and creating a fully traceable, consistent product they can trust. But since day one, I have also come across certain consumers telling me that I’m “cruel” for showing on DVD my animals roaming in fields alongside my meat as I cook up recipes. These are the same consumers that don’t think about where their food comes from. They have carrier bags full of “extra-value” meat that you’d need a magnifying glass to read which country the animal has actually been reared in. These same consumers were in uproar about finding out that the four beefburgers they bought from Tesco for 99p actually contained horse. Yes, in uproar a couple of weeks ago, but they are now back to their usual shopping habits blissfully unaware of where and how their food has been produced and with no regard for animal welfare. These consumers, incidentally, in general would deem themselves to be “animal lovers” and this is why they do not wish to think about it. So who’s to blame and what do we do about it? I fear if I answer that one I may be sacked before I’ve barely started this FW column!

Anna Longthorp runs Anna’s Happy Trotters, a pork wholesale business in Howden, East Yorkshire, supplying butchers, restaurants and farm shops with free-range pork from her family’s 2,100 breeding sows

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