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Green activist turns spotlight on pig farms
THE spotlight will fall on pig farmers once again next week, with the screening of a controversial documentary on intensive pork production.
Pig Business focuses on one of the world's largest pork processing companies, Smithfield Foods, but warns that the rest of the industry is moving in the same direction.
It does not include any film from Yorkshire, although this is one of the UK's centres of pig production.
It is mainly aimed at American-style farms, which are bigger and more intensive than most of ours. But it points out that the American methods are coming into Europe – particularly Poland.
The documentary is the result of more than four years of work by Tracy Worcester, who was model and actress Tracy Ward before she married Henry Somerset, Marquis of Worcester. She was Tessa Robinson in the 1980s detective series C.A.T.S. Eyes. Her sister is former Thorn Birds star Rachel Ward. She has been active in green politics since 1989.
The Marchioness concludes that buying British is the least that consumers can do to support pig farmers.
She said this week: "Whether in Britain or abroad, I've seen small family farms going bankrupt because of giant factory farms.
"The images of human cruelty inflicted on pigs shown in my film are horrendous but, actually, the impact of this industrial farming on our health, the quality of our food, the livelihoods and health of rural people and the environment is equally shocking."
The documentary was due to be broadcast on Channel 4 earlier this year but was held pending arguments with Smithfield lawyers and has been edited for its showing on More4 on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Smithfield said: "The film's producers and supporters have elected to portray this matter as a Goliath corporation trying to silence a little David.
"In truth, the battle has been simply fact versus fiction. Even now we believe that the film does not provide an accurate portrayal of our company and the industry."
Pig Business was finished before this year's outbreak of swine flu but it points out that industrial farming of pigs is likely to breed mutations of various viruses, by creating the conditions for diseases and then suppressing them with antibiotics.
Yorkshire farmer Stewart Houston, chairman of the National Pig Association and MBE for his services to the industry, will be walking new farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick through his introduction to the UK pig business over the coming week.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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