Review of The PigIdea

The day was filled with lunch time workers quizzically asking questions such as “what the hell we were doing in the middle of Trafalgar square giving away food?”. Fair question I reckon, but there was on the whole, a massively positive response to the Big idea that is the PigIdea. The winter sun mostly shone through too, and as a good Cumbrian, have to say it’s good to see the sun now and then, especially the winter sun.

As a Hambassador for The PigIdea and with a name like Farmer Sharp, I was contacted by BPEX’s PR company Wild card, who asked if we could meet at the Trafalgar square pig feast. 

Our conversation was a frank and open exchange on all the possible ramifications for the pig industry as a whole but maybe I’m guessing, with a focus on the bigger end of that industry. The conversation covered their worries that this Idea could be a threat in view of the alleged Heddon- on- the- Wall swill derived foot and mouth disaster. As a person who saw my cousin get all their livestock culled this is the last thing I would want to risk happening again. 

We all have a duty to look at the fact that approximately 15 million tons of food waste every year (a conservative estimate) is currently being thrown away, and even if we only got a few percent of this food waste into feeding pigs it will be a massive start. Not to rush at it like a bull at a gate but careful thoughtful resolution of the problems is required to make it as risk free as it can be.

There is also the farming conversation of yield and food conversion rates etc. I personally am not an advocate for feeding pigs on swill alone, but for feeding them a balanced diet with a percentage of swill which can mean that a good and not massively fat carcass will be produced. The nutritional  knowledge is already there to sort this issue out, and maybe with swill feeding there might also come an improvement of the pig producers margins, as they are generally slim at the moment. 

The other great asset to swill feeding is that quite often swill fed pigs reared in the right way can be massively better eating and that is a win win situation - in japan, swill fed pigs achieve quite a premium because of the better eating qualities such as fat marbling and more depth of flavour.

Head and feet etc.

As a child, I remember well making potted meat with my Nana, using a pigs head, four pig’s feet and a couple of pound of shin, in total yielding about 4-5lb of high quality cooked meat.

This, in some of the better restaurants, is sometimes served as a terrine and with that label comes a measure of respectability (it’s all in the marketing, although there is also a move within the Artisan food sector toward using the less popular cuts like pig heads and feet, or lamb heads and feet). 

The first barrier to this demand (small though it may be) is cost, as most slaughter houses don’t have the infrastructure or the skilled staff to process these products in order to comply with existing regulation. 

The next issue after cost, is getting the product to market, as only a handful of consumers per retail outlet (be that butchers shop, farm shop or farmer’s market) will buy them.

After the supply and demand situation is resolved, what’s left is the age old problem of education, as the people who know what to do with these products, number not very many in my opinion.

These products take a little more preparation than there is in putting a pan of mince on or frying a steak, but the flavour and value of these under vastly used resources is immense and well worth the effort.

Because the head and feet are called by-products it makes them sound like MRM (mechanically recovered meat) which they most definitely are not. In fact, in the culinary culture of our continental cousins, these parts of the carcass are a much sought after delicacy and consequently, demand a value way above that which currently exists in the U.K. market.

If head and feet get the culinary recognition in this country they deserve, they will come to be appreciated for the marvellous food that they are and we'll have a couple less products to throw in the bin..... In itself fantastic, don't you think?

Radio Sharpie - Flavour profile of meat

Radio Sharpie - The supply chain

Luing Cattle

Luing is a small island off the west coast of Scotland and the farmers there have a breed of cattle second to none. 

The Luing cattle are a small, just above belt buckle, high breed of cattle, and, a cross between the iconic Highland cattle and the beef short horn. Both these breeds of cattle individually produce magnificent beef but the crossbreed is better adapted to the windswept Isle of Luing. 

One of the advantages amongst many is its carcass size - if ewe like your sirloin steak rare (as ewe should) a thick Luing steak won't break the bank. In comparison, to get a thick rare steak out of commercial cattle like British blue it would have to be at least 450g (about a pound in weight). Do the math.

Watch out for Luing in proper shops will keep ewe informed.

Antibiotics resistance

There is an ongoing argument about the state of antibiotic resistant bacteria and as ever the overall picture is a complicated one. 

The worst kept secret in agriculture pharmaceuticals is that prophylactic antibiotics are widely used as a growth promoter and disease inhibitor mostly in pig and poultry production.

Consequently those antibiotics are passed on through the meat to us... not news to us insiders but it in my opinion this fact should be on banner disaster news headlines across the world! 

Can ewe imagine a scenario with your doctor saying “I am sorry that chest infection has no cure”? I can.

Even in the face of little hope, one major start would be to remove antibiotics from agriculture - a difficult thing to achieve, but not an impossible one. To start the change of antibiotic resistance, pork and poultry production would have to be more extensive. We would get lots of advantages from this, like better animal welfare and better quality of meat but it would cost more, so we’d eat less.... Eat less Eat better seems a win win to me.

Perfect examples of high quality Herdwick meat

The pictures below are of Herdwick lamb (first pic) and Herdwick mutton (second pic).

You can see from the fat on the mutton that its got a nice creamy colour, and that the very deep colour of the muscle is almost 'beefy' both in the mutton and even in the very young lamb. 

There is a purpleness to it that isn't normally present in spring lamb (this lamb came very early in the season too, even for a Herdwick). The best bit is when you eat it, it'll have a robust flavour which also isn't normally present in spring lamb!

Kids eat meat based pasta.

It has been reported that kids think among other peculiar things that pasta is made from meat, and tomatoes are grown underground like potatoes. 

This sounds unbelievable but in fact, this demonstrates how far we have become disconnected from the farmer and his products. 

It's admittedly a big job to start the reversal after decades of disassociating food and food products from the farm, and to begin countering the food industries relentless homogenisation and sterilisation of food. As we try to regain the respect and veneration for food and its producers, where do we start?

Back to the KIDS! I'm guessing it will take us one or two generations to gain momentum.......

I said to a music journalist when he said we'll never change it - "well its a bucket of water if we all put one or two drops in eventually it gets filled". 

A consolation with all this work we need to do in changing our food culture, is that it's great fun enthusing young people about food. Try it. ;-)