A glance at last night’s listings for More 4 signals Jon Stewart might have feared that the incisive thought and corporate lashes his Daily Show provides would quickly fade, for being closely followed by a documentary unglamorously entitled ‘Pig Business.’
Fans of the US satirist would have been glad, then, because the partly independently funded programme, on a channel whose strap-line is “Really Quite Clever,” bravely lifted the lid on the secret world of corporate pig farming.
And before readers switch off thinking ‘what’s that got to do with me’, or ‘why would I watch the pig film Babe fused with the Enron scandal,’ the maker of Pig Business would have you consider some figures.
Some 80 per cent of bacon eaten in Britain is from pork imported from abroad, where animal welfare standards are invariably lower, meaning that the pigs are often raised in conditions which would be illegal in the UK.
In other words the vast majority of bacon, as well as other meats according to the documentary, that ends up in your local supermarket is reared in conditions well below UK standards.
Addressing the viewers of her exposé, which aired at 10pm last night, the Marchioness of Worcester also said that they themselves are paying for factory farms to put small farmers out of business.
Evidencing her claim, she pointed out that the taxpayer-funded European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has lent a cool $100m (£60m) to one US-based pig meat processing giant
Tracy Worcester, as she prefers to be known, added that factory farming spells the end for natural, humane and healthy traditional farming, and increases the health risks to pigs, the planet and people.
She trotted out a host of scientists, academics, animal welfare experts, former factory farm workers and people living near the factories in support of her arguments, which, she claimed, came close to never being broadcast.
“Smithfield, the world's biggest pig meat processor, does not want the truth to get out,” she told FreelanceUK in a statement, pointing to the recipient of the multimillion dollar loan.
“They have already managed to stop the film being broadcast once, by threatening a ruinously expensive legal action. Despite having reams of evidence produced over eight months for Channel 4 in-house lawyers, I had to change the film because of threatening letters from Smithfield lawyers to sue Channel 4 on every accusation.”
Two senior executives at Smithfield Foods appear in the documentary. The company insisted that the pork it sold in the UK was from farms that “meet and in many cases exceed EU legislation on animal welfare standards and environmental responsibility.”
Seeming unconvinced and wanting to see for herself, the Marchioness is filmed jumping over fences to peer through an open air vent in the shell of a factory farm in Poland, before the jitters get the better of her.
Investigative reporters will no doubt praise her intrepidness, particularly as she has little experience of film-making and because she explored her subject for four years, a part reflection of the challenging course of legal obstacles that she had to overcome.
Her advice to consumers who wish to support small, independent farmers using compassionate production methods is to buy British, and to buy from farmers’ markets and high street butchers.
Editorial image courtesy of Fleur Design
Jul 1, 2009
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