Further to my last commentary on rearing pigs, BigBarn is supporting a brilliant documentary made by Tracy Worcester about the Pig Business. Click here to see a trailer.

The film shows how a US corporation, Smithfield, are producing and selling inferior meat, putting small farms out of business, seriously damaging the environment and causing untold suffering to workers, communities and to pigs.

Channel 4 is broadcasting the film on More4 as part of its acclaimed True Stories Documentary strand and we would like to encourage as many people as possible to watch it.

It is being shown on 31st of March at 10pm on More4 – watch it with a friend and ask 5 other friends to commit to watching it with a friend and so on… This broadcast will raise awareness of the true cost of cheap meat.

This film shows where the food industry has gone over the last 30 years and is an indication of how, if left unchecked, things could get even worse. How many more food scares will it take to change the food industry? The Foot and Mouth food scare saw the destruction of 10 million animals, I am convinced that the next scare will be even more catastrophic with a new anti biotic resistant bacteria. Do your bit by buying direct from local producers and telling your friends to take care reading the label if they buy packed meat.

Following Jamie and Hugh’s programmes on the Chicken Industry pigs are now getting the much needed focus. I have always wondered about free range against barn reared and the right balance between animal welfare and reasonably priced food. So to find out I bought two Saddleback piglets, named them Bubble and Squeak and enclosed them at the end of the garden with an electric fence.

Before I had pigs, as far as meat production was concerned, I like most people semi trusted the ’system’ and in a way would rather not know the full story. I have heard that pork in this country is produced to the highest welfare standards in Europe and as a 5th generation farmer, can’t believe that a fellow farmer would keep an animal in a ‘tortured’ way.

What I have discovered from Bubble and Squeak is that pigs seem to experience happiness and should be allowed to. I know this after locking mine in a stable for 2 days following their escape through my electric fence when the sweet aroma of the neighbours windfall apples wafted across their snouts. Despite the stable being, in pig terms, the 4 star hotel of pig units, their release prompted the most amazing display of 4 legged skipping I have ever seen.

So how should pigs be reared and how much will it cost us? Theoretically not very much, my pigs cleared all the windfalls, ate the nettles and any vegetable waste from the kitchen. If every community fed some pigs all the household and pub waste, not much extra feed would be required. Locals could even swap waste for sausages!

Until someone has set up such a scheme in your community you will have to watch Jamie’s programme and sign up for the Pig Business, an amazing film about an extremely dodgy US company called Smithfield producing cheap pork in Poland to flood our market with tortured, antibiotic stuffed pork. For more see http://www.pigbusiness.co.uk.

The real question in these credit crunch times is; how much do I have to pay for happy free range pork? On average another £1.50 per kilo or 30p per chop. To find your local free range pork type your postcode here and go and ask or see how happy the pigs are, or to buy online, click here.

And please leave your thoughts; Would you like to have a community farm and feed the pigs your kitchen scraps? Is it important to try and give our meat animals a happy life if we are going to kill them in their prime. Should pigs be outside or inside? Does rare breed meat taste better? Please comment by clicking here.