Two decades ago the East Riding of Yorkshire was home to 30 per cent of the UK's pig population. Pig farming was thriving. Massive industry events took place annually at Bishop Burton College and Driffield Showground, packed with hundreds of trade stands.

More pigs than people was the common boast of those involved in the livestock world, particularly in the area from Driffield to Holderness.

Twenty years on and Blue Ear disease, European legislation, a further wasting disease in piglets and supermarket bosses have seen the UK pig industry the most decimated of any agricultural sector. In East Yorkshire there are now
most definitely more people than pigs. It is an industry which has lost its skills base too. But when the going gets tough, the ladies get going!

In 1991 Ladies in Pigs – known as LIPS – was formed with the aim of being a social network for ladies on pig farms, or attached to the industry in any way. It soon developed into a platform for promoting pork, bacon and ham, as the ladies saw just how much they could offer as a combined force.

One of those who joined was Sue Woodall, who lives in North Cave. The organisation flourished amidst a battalion of red-stripey pinnies and straw boaters at country shows but, as the industry contracted, the membership dwindled and even Sue came away from the organisation too.

But now she's back. And she is more determined than ever to get the various messages across about British pork.

"Pig farmers, even with a slight increase in price over the past couple of months, are still not breaking even.

"LIPS is now sponsored by the pig industry. We promote healthy eating within schools, we publish our own recipes, we actively watch over what the supermarkets are doing with pork products on their shelves and we also now pay a wage to those ladies who come along and demonstrate the cooking of pork, bacon and sausages on our show stand."

Sue and the demonstration team ran one of the most popular stands at the recent Countryside Live event at the Great Yorkshire Showground. "We were busy throughout both days. Education is one of the major parts of what LIPS has become, both amongst children and adults. People always want to know how to cook pork properly."

Much of Sue's life has been involved with the pig world. "My parents were wholesale pork butchers in Hull and they bought from markets throughout the Yorkshire region. Dad used to cut pigs up and sell them to the butchers. My grandparents had pig farms in Holderness, and my husband Phil worked for a pig marketing company. I have no family left in the industry today.

"A lot of people go into the supermarket and purchase their product solely on price. The supermarkets are putting the squeeze on suppliers. The price has come back a little bit because of the pressure the British pig industry has put on. Unfortunately just because something has a Union Jack on it does not mean it is produced here. It can mean that it has been brought in from another country and then cut up in England."

Next year Sue takes over
at the helm over LIPS nationally, and she is in no mood to let slip the momentum she feels is
now with the revitalised organisation.

"We are always on the lookout for new members and those who would like to demonstrate. Whoever would like to work for LIPS isn't asked to do a lot of weeks in the year. All we ask is that they attend a Health & Hygiene course, which is funded by LIPS, come to some meetings and learn to cook the recipes.

"We put together seven recipes a year and this year's included ham casserole with cheesy dumplings, and sausage chowder – a soup. The children went mad for it.

"We make the recipes easy, one-pot types which have proved really popular with 6th formers who are likely to be university students the following year.

"Some children in primary schools we have visited didn't even realise that pork and ham comes from a pig. That's how big a job it is!"