Pork could soon be off the menu if we don't save our pig farms

By Robert Hardman for the Daily Mail
Updated: 00:52 BST, 24 May 2008

A ひどく 妊娠している （種を）蒔く heaves herself to her delicate little feet and staggers from one pool of mud to another, where she flops 負かす／撃墜する again with a contented grunt.

She and a few others have the run of a field the size of a football pitch, but, in the midday heat, they show no inclination to move much beyond the 冷静な／正味の of this quagmire.
最終的に, of course, she and all the piglets she produces will 結局最後にはーなる on someone's plate. But, by pig 基準s, her life will be a pretty cushy one between now and the call of the abattoir.

Best of British: Once 供給（する） has run out, pork will be bought overseas where inferior 福利事業 基準s 適用する

If you 結局最後にはーなる with this creature in your pan, then fry away with an 平易な 良心 for she will have had a far better innings than most.

But for how much longer? Because the British pig 産業? -? just like the Gadarene swine in the Bible? -? is about to 落ちる off a cliff.

すぐに, the 広大な／多数の／重要な British banger could pretty much disappear from our 国家の diet, to become little more than an expensive 高級な in chichi delicatessens and farm shops.

Of course, there will still be sausages in our supermarkets. But once we have run out of British pigs, we will buy more pork from overseas where inferior 福利事業 基準s 適用する. At 現在の, most foreign animals are raised in 条件s which would be 違法な here.

So, the result will be bad for our economy, but even worse for pigkind.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is a 危機 more serious than foot-and-mouth 病気. Pig 農業者s bounced 支援する from foot-and-mouth because there was still a living to be made in 後部ing pigs. No longer.

Today, there may not be 炎ing pyres on our news 公式発表s every night. But there will be no return from the 災害 which is slowly 広げるing across our countryside. So who will save British bacon's bacon?

Simon Price, 42, says: 'It's a 事柄 of weeks or maybe months before we go under,' as he takes me 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the small Devon farm where he and his staff of three produce 15,000 解放する／自由な-範囲 pigs each year.

Simon 追加するs: 'People say 農業者s are always complaining, but I don't want to come across as 哀れな. I am usually a cheerful chap. I try to be 楽観的な. But there are times when I 嘘（をつく） awake at 2am and I can't see a way out of this mess. I'm losing between £10 and £20 on every pig, and you can't carry on like that for long.'

The problem is simple. A year ago, it cost Simon and hundreds like him &続けざまに猛撃する;1.06 to produce a キロ of pork, and the market would 支払う／賃金 him £1.10 for it. That 4p 利ざや was enough.

One year later, the 急に上がるing 法案s for animal 料金d and energy mean the cost of producing the same pork is £1.42 per キロ. But the market price for that pork has only gone up to £1.22.

Not that you'll have noticed this in the supermarkets. Last summer, the 普通の／平均（する） 小売 price of pork in the major chains was £4.86 per キロ.

Today, it is £5.90 per キロ? -? more than £1 extra. The 小売 産業 spin is that these price rises are all 負かす／撃墜する to 全世界の 軍隊s.

So how come we are all 支払う／賃金ing Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons an extra 続けざまに猛撃する for our pork when they are only 支払う／賃金ing an extra 12p to the poor old 農業者? Something is 本気で wrong.

'We know pig 農業者s? -? like most 商売／仕事s? -? are 直面するing 堅い times,' says Tesco in a 用意が出来ている 声明.

'We have 増加するd 小売 prices several times in 最近の months to 反映する the higher cost of 生産／産物. It's important to remember that 消費者s are also having to 強化する their belts. We are 事実上の／代理 公正に／かなり by 確実にするing that 増加するd costs are met while our 利ざやs have remained flat.'

If that 利益（をあげる） 利ざや has remained 'flat', then how come the 蓄える／店s have raised their pork price by over 20 per cent when they are only 支払う／賃金ing 10 per cent more to the 農業者?

Indeed, is it not time to 減ずる that 利益（をあげる） 利ざや if these supermarkets are going to have any British pork to flog this time next year?

An honourable exception is Waitrose, which has introduced a new 計画／陰謀 to 支払う／賃金 its pork 供給者s a price which covers the cost of 生産／産物. But the 'big four' chains have not.

Before anyone 告発する／非難するs pig 農業者s of moaning all the way to the bank, it is 価値（がある） 公式文書，認めるing that they are not 存在 subsidised by the taxpayer. Unlike 農業者s with cattle or sheep, or the 'barley barons' of the arable 部門, the pig 生産者s receive no handouts from the EU. They must fend for themselves against the market.

Much as the 都市の エリート like to portray our 農業者s as landed twits, Simon Price is neither. He did not grow up on a farm, but fell in love with the idea, 熟考する／考慮するd 農業 and ran other people's farms.

During the foot-and-mouth 災害 of 2001, he had to watch as thousands of healthy pigs in his care were culled 夜通し. But he and his wife, Jenny, (a 農業者's daughter) stuck with the 産業 and, four years ago, they took the 急落（する），激減（する）. They borrowed all that they could and bought a pig 商売／仕事 近づく Sidmouth.

It is an idyllic 位置／汚点／見つけ出す with the south Devon coast twinkling in the distance. Their three young children love the area. But they don't own their 90 acres? -? they rent it from a 地元の landowner.

And it is all on the brink of 崩壊（する）, along with the 職業s of the three staff who help them run what is one of the tidiest farms I have ever seen.

The pigs have 抱擁する 気圧の谷s of 料金d, 戦車／タンクs of fresh water and plenty of space to run, grunt and root around for whatever it is that pigs are always looking for. 'We love what we do and all we are asking for is a few pence on the price to see us through this 危機,' says Simon.

Jenny, who does most of the paperwork, says that the ever-増加するing 官僚主義 is not helping. 'We need to be in 利益（をあげる） by the end of the summer or we're probably over,' she says, putting a 決定するd smile on it all.

What about selling 直接／まっすぐに through 農業者s' markets and the internet? Isn't that all the 激怒（する）?

The couple 根気よく explain that this might work for small, niche 生産者s, but not a farm which produces 15,000 pigs a year.

They go through their 総計費s, all of which have ロケット／急騰するd. Animal 料金d accounts for nearly 60 per cent of their 法案s. Pigs eat a combination of wheat and soya, both of which have nearly 二塁打d in price this year (everything from more 需要・要求する for wheat in Asia, where eating habits are 速く changing, to the 崩壊（する） of the Australian 収穫 and the growth of biofuel 刈るs have played their parts).

Other costs? -? from straw to 燃料? -? have seen 類似の rises. And yet the price which Simon gets for his pork has gone up by just ten per cent.

In 状況／情勢s like this, fingers are often pointed at a particular villain. But it is no use 非難するing the European Union for this one. The Brussels bureaucrat has little to do with this mess. Nor is it Gordon Brown's fault, although a 部分 of the 非難する can be せいにするd to his 前任者, Tony Blair.

In 1999, having trousered large 寄付s from the animal 福利事業 ロビー, his 政府 introduced a 禁止（する） on keeping 妊娠している （種を）蒔くs tethered or in 立ち往生させるs. Henceforth, they would roam 解放する／自由な. The animal 権利s 旅団 宣言するd a 勝利,
but the 法律 of unintended consequences soon kicked in.

除去するing the 立ち往生させるs put up costs and many British pig 農業者s could no longer compete with their European 競争相手s? -? who, to this day, still use 立ち往生させるs. In a 事柄 of months, Britain's （種を）蒔く 全住民 fell by nearly half from 800,000 to 440,000. An entire 産業 had been chopped in half. But who cared? It wasn't an 産業 of any 利益／興味 to Mr Blair and his 都市の cohorts.

一方／合間, the 残り／休憩（する） of us carried on eating just as much bacon and pork as we had before.

So, while British 農業者s went 破産した／（警察が）手入れする, Danish 農業者s got richer as we 輸入するd more pork and ate more pigs from 立ち往生させるs in Denmark instead of from 立ち往生させるs in Britain. Fluffy bunny politics never やめる work out the way they are meant to, do they?

Nine years on, the British pig 産業 直面するs 廃虚. 農業者s like Simon Price say that all they need is a little breathing space to see them through a few bad months.

If this year's wheat 収穫 証明するs to be as good as it looks, then wheat prices will 落ちる and things will 改善する. The 農業者s say that the banks and the 料金d 供給者s have been doing all they can to help.

There is another 改良 on the horizon, too. European 農業者s are still keeping their costs 負かす／撃墜する by cramming their pigs into tiny spaces and then flogging the carcasses to Britain.

'Now, 70 per cent of the pork coming into Britain has been produced in ways which would be 違法な in Britain,' says Mick Sloyan, 長，指導者 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある of the British Pig (n)役員／(a)執行力のある.

'But in 2012, new EU 法律制定 will 禁止（する） those methods. We will be on a more level playing field.'

So what needs to happen? 'I would say to the big retailers that they have got to get off their backsides,' says Peter Kendall, the 大統領，／社長 of the 国家の 農業者s' Union (he is an arable 農業者, by the way, not a pig man).

He 追加するs: 'If they want the British pig 産業 to 生き残る, they must take more of a long-称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 見解（をとる） and do more to help the 生産者s or they will rue the day.'

'The pig 産業 could become a thing of the past within a year,' 追加するs Barney Kay, 経営者／支配人 of the 国家の Pig 協会, the porkers' 圧力団体. 'Market 軍隊s will 結局 押し進める prices up to a reasonable level, but by then many people will have gone out of 商売／仕事.'

Some pig 農業者s believe that desperate times call for desperate 対策. An opaque 抗議する organisation calling itself the Pig 産業 Suppor t Group is planning a summer of 封鎖s at 小売 倉庫・駅s all over Britain, 加える a 'high-profile event' 伴う／関わるing 'one 井戸／弁護士席-known retailer'.

A 広報担当者 for the group 辞退するs to discuss what this might entail, but I understand it may not smell very nice.

For us 消費者s, there is something we can do. Wherever we buy our pork or bacon, we should make sure it has the Union 旗 '質 基準' 示す on it. Any other 製品 is likely to have come from a 哀れな pig in a foreign 立ち往生させる. And if we live 近づく a 支店 of Waitrose, we should buy our pork there.

But what needs to happen is for the big retailers to play fair. Instead of pretending to care, they need to 株 a bit more of those 増加するd prices with the 農業者. Just do the maths. The supermarkets are 非難する us £1 more for our pork and only 支払う／賃金ing an extra 12p to the 農業者.

If they say that is the best they can do, then, やめる 簡単に, they are telling porkies.