I applaud the Meat and Livestock Commission for introducing the British Meat Quality Standard Mark, but I must criticise them on their advertisements for pork. The advert shows a large white pig with seven suckling piglets in tow, with the headline "After she's fed them, she could be fed to them". Underneath the headline it explains in small print that the practise of feeding meat and bone meal to pigs happens in other parts of the world but not in Britain. But who reads the small print ­ not many, that's for sure. To me, the message headline would put off many people from eating pork. This form of negative advertising doesn't work. Looking at the ad, one must also wonder whether anyone at the MLC knows anything about pigs. The pigs and piglets shown in the ad are a rare breed ­ the Middle White, of which I am their society's patron ­ and not an intensively bred hybrid which would have been more appropriate. The pigs displayed are owned by one of the most welfare-aware pig breeders, who also bred the Middle Whites I have on my smallholding. Maybe it was just bad research by the ad agency, but the ad should have been passed by the MLC. While the principle of the campaign is worthwhile, a little more thought is required. To get the public to eat more pork, let alone British pork, quality has to improve. The British hybrid pig may be well looked after, but it isn't good. More selective breeding is required. Our present hybrid shows inbred stress, making the carcass release a lot of liquid, not good pork. What the MLC should be doing is campaigning for pig farmers to use a rare breed pig such as a Middle White, Berkshire or Saddleback, to cross with a hybrid, much in the same way as has been done to beef with the Aberdeen Angus. That's what makes sense. {{NEWS }}

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