[carole]

Hi

Have been told that Jamie is now making a new documentary about pigs, does anyone know when this will be shown please.

I understand too  that some of the programme will include the uses of farrowing creates within Europe.

Any info anyone?

Cheers
Carole

[wildwoods]

Think it's being shown on 28th January, not sure what channel.

[Paul Sill]

Channel 4 its part of there food season thing.

[sabrina]

Watched Jamie last night and thought he made a good job on getting over his message on supporting British Pork. As one man said why in this country do we have all these rules on what drugs and feed our pigs get when the meat can come into the country and be sold from places that do not have the same rules. As far as i am concerned every animal has the right to be looked after well, be able to live as near to nature as possible even if they have short lives and are going into the food chain.

[Rosemary]

It's true, though. Why does the Government impose standards on our producers (and I agree with high welfare standards) but then permit the import of low welfare food? The answer - the EU. Nuff said.

[Rosemary]

The funniest bit was the semen collection and artificial insemination. If Jamie was acting, he deserves an Oscar. His face was an utter picture of horror.

[Hilarysmum]

I could not believe that the BPA actively encourage and support the export of British Pigs for breeding purposes to Taiwan and Phillipines.  The same !""""! awful conditions apply, and the meat is re-imported back into UK.  Much cheaper than UK produced, Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. 

[HappyHippy]

Hi,

I watched Jamie's 'Save our Bacon' programme with great intrest, all good factual stuff & excellent for educating the general public as to what goes on.

But, the one thing that REALLY hasn't stopped playing on my mind is this -
The UK government imposed legislation to do away with the closed crate system because of animal welfare - ok, great, I agree with that obviously. But in doing so it put many UK farmers out of business. And from what I understand (maybe I got the wrong end of the stick) now imports 99% (again, I might be mistaken) of it's bacon from cheap EU producers who STILL USE the closed crate system.

So what I'm thinking is WHY !!!
Is it that they have a 'our country is on the moral high ground' in terms of production - but we'll buy the stuff from abroad because it's cheaper. Doh ! Is it just me or would they be better placed SUPPORTING our farmers and decreasing the imports ?

I'd love to know everyone's thoughts on this

Karen 

[Hilarysmum]

My views on sow crates etc. are too strong to be discussed on here. I applaud the UK for introducing better welfare, although in my opinion still a long way to go.  Its only the consumer who will change things radically - by buying high welfare products.   

Then again, they need proper labelling to find the genuine British product.  I heard yesterday that a driver for Bernard Matthews taking turkey parts to Roumania comes back full of M&S sandwiches.  Can anyone else confirm this?

[sausagesandcash]

The vast majority of people tend not see much further than their pocket, unfortunately. I was talking with a local butcher and asked him how much he bought in his finished pigs for; now unless he was telling porkies (lol) he really is buying in rubbish. Wouldn't it be great if the big supermarket chains went free range. I suppose with them it all tends to be based on profit margins. I remember reading an old saying once that went something like : It's only when man has cut down the last tree, fished the last fish, and poisoned the last river, that he will realise that he can't eat money. Still as and from next year i'm going to have far greater control over what my family eats by slaughtering our own pigs and lambs and growing the vast majority of our own veg. With the way the worldwide recession is going (and I think it's going to get an awful lot worse), if more people were to do the same, then as demand went down then the quantity of imports would forcibly follow. A few more Jamie olivers would do us all good. Long live the revolution!! 

[doganjo]

Jamie's just lovely!!!  So natural. Not so sure about H F-W though!  I may be wrong but I just feel there's a hidden agenda there somewhere.

[VSS]

Hi,

I watched Jamie's 'Save our Bacon' programme with great intrest, all good factual stuff & excellent for educating the general public as to what goes on.

But, the one thing that REALLY hasn't stopped playing on my mind is this -
The UK government imposed legislation to do away with the closed crate system because of animal welfare - ok, great, I agree with that obviously. But in doing so it put many UK farmers out of business. And from what I understand (maybe I got the wrong end of the stick) now imports 99% (again, I might be mistaken) of it's bacon from cheap EU producers who STILL USE the closed crate system.

So what I'm thinking is WHY !!!
Is it that they have a 'our country is on the moral high ground' in terms of production - but we'll buy the stuff from abroad because it's cheaper. Doh ! Is it just me or would they be better placed SUPPORTING our farmers and decreasing the imports ?

I'd love to know everyone's thoughts on this

Karen 

Free Trade

[Hilarysmum]

Its so easy to divorce the reality of cheap meat from the sanitised pack in the supermarket.  I truly believe that all children should be educated in where food comes from.  Boxes of eggs, packs of bacon, bags of apples all showing fairy down farm pictures of happy animals and smiling flowers.  The truth is so far from this.

I wonder if all the growth promoters, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides etc. etc. were shown to parents to allow them to visualise what they are putting into their children how they would react?

[gavo]

Channel4 ran a documentary on all this a couple of months back called "Our Daily Bread".

[Hilarysmum]

Would have loved to have seen that.   We dont have television.