Pig farmers welcomed Jamie Oliver’s support for their higher welfare standards in his Channel 4 programme “Jamie Saves Our Bacon”. Britain has higher minimum legal welfare standards than much of the rest of the EU, but European producers can still freely send imports to Britain – an estimated two thirds of imports are produced in a way that would be illegal in this country. In the programme Jamie, whose restaurant Fifteen is near Newquay highlighted the current plight of British pig farmers, many of whom face the prospect of going out of business as the industry has lost more than £150 million in the past year. The UK’s higher welfare standards come at a greater cost which has undermined its competitiveness resulting in an influx of cheaper imports that has seen the UK herd plummet by 50 per cent in the last 10 years.

Farmer Cameron Naughton says. “We are extremely grateful to Jamie Oliver for championing the issue of welfare and highlighting the difficulties we face due to our higher standards. We have no problem about competing with imports – as long as they are to the same standards as home-produced pork - all we are asking for is a level playing field.

Consumers wanting to support higher welfare production should look for the Quality Standard Mark when shopping for pork, bacon, ham or sausages.”

Jamie Oliver said: “Pork is our second favourite meat, but the pig industry is on its knees. Farmers say 70% of imported pork is from countries with lower welfare standards and would be illegal to produce in Britain.

“It’s been shown previously that if you give consumers the facts about animal welfare issues they will make up their own minds. All our farmers want is a level playing field with Europe. This programme is a unique opportunity, and the support of the public, as well as government and retailers, is critical in deciding the future - possibly the very survival - of the pig industry."

The main elements of welfare featured in the programme were sow stalls and castration. The UK outlawed the use of sow stalls as long ago as 1999, but the practice will continue in the majority of EU countries until 2013. Even after this so called ban, sow stalls will be allowed in Europe for the first four weeks of a sow’s pregnancy, meaning sows will still spend up to three months each year in these conditions.

Castration is not allowed under pig assurance schemes in the UK but is widely practised through the rest of Europe. Around one per cent of male pigs are castrated in this country compared with around 99 per cent in Europe.

On the programme Jamie Oliver also illustrated how confusing many labels on pork products can be for consumers, making it difficult to identify where exactly products come from. Less than half of consumers asked to identify the country of origin of a basket of pork products got the answer right.

Cameron says “Jamie highlighted just how confusing labelling can be. It was highly encouraging to see the government minister who appeared on the programme agreed labeling was confusing. We hope that the government and retailers will now take action to make labeling easier to understand.

“Another area featured in the programme was public sector procurement, highlighting the fact that many government departments and public sector bodies use imported bacon that would be illegal to produce in the UK. We are delighted a government minister pledged to look into the issue and do something about it on the programme and we look forward to working with them to achieve this.”

In the programme Jamie showed how consumers can help pig farmers and help themselves during the current downturn by using value for money cuts of pork. The chef cooked three delicious recipes using shoulder joint, shoulder steaks and belly, and called for the public to buy more of these cuts and for retailers to stock and promote them.

Cameron said: “If more of these cuts are sold retailers and processors will be able to pay pig farmers a little more money for every pig we produce, which would be a big help.”