4,500 pigs to be killed and thrown away amid PM ‘bacon sandwich’ joke

Around 4,500 pigs will be slaughtered and thrown away because of persistent labour shortages in the pig farming industry.

The news come after, earlier this month, industry leaders warned that up to 120,000 pigs may be disposed of if there will continue to be a lack of workers to process meat.

Prime minister Boris Johnson came under fire last week after suggesting the pigs would have become “bacon sandwiches” anyway.

UK farmers losing money

Meanwhile, UK farmers are facing mass culls due to farms filling up with pigs whose meat should already be in the food supply chains, and are losing money as a result of government inaction to allow EU workers to work in the UK.

Temporary visas have been approved to fill labour shortages in the lorry driving and poultry sectors with workers from abroad in the short-term.

But the situation for pig farmers remains “very challenging”.

Minette Batters, National Farmer’s Union president, told the Daily Mail: “This is not shroud waving. This is a very, very challenging situation for pig farmers.

‘We are potentially looking at the end of the size of the pig farming structure we have in this country unless we sort it.”

Trade deals

Earlier this year, farmers across the country hit out at the government’s post-Brexit trade deals discussions.

Liz Webster, who lives on a farm in Wiltshire with her husband, said most Brits don’t want to lower food standards, but that the government is keeping everyone “in the dark” whilst signing trade deals.

Webster, who set up the Save British Farming campaign group last year, told TLE: “Between nine in ten people are adamant they don’t want to lower standards.

“With the risk we have seen from coronavirus, it’s even more important to prevent more disease.”

Webster says the government wants to deliver a “green Britain” whilst importing “nasty food” from countries far away from Britain – which “defames the farming industry and British farmers’ values” according to her.

‘We will have to eat bad food’

She said: “They are trying to blindfold the British public by using this environmentalism and then they are importing food which has been produced under very low standards and is not environmentally friendly.

“There will be some good farming but it will only be the rich who will be able to afford it. We will have to eat bad food.

“I don’t think they kept their promises before Brexit, they promised things to all men. It’s a huge betrayal.”

Steve Elnor, who farms beef, cattle and sheep in Lincolnshire said the government has to deliver lower standards trade deals out of “political necessity”.

He told TLE: “They say they will not compromise on standards but I think they will wiggle that a bit, they will say people will get cheaper food, but you are not going to do that without lowering food standards.

“They have got something to change the hat with post-Brexit. This is not a trade deal born out of trade, this is born out of political necessity, they have got to say ‘hey, look what we have achieved’.”

Andra Maciuca

Andra is a multilingual, award-winning NQJ senior journalist and the UK’s first Romanian representing co-nationals in Britain and reporting on EU citizens for national news. She is interested in UK, EU and Eastern European affairs, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU, environmental reporting, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility. She has contributed articles to VICE, Ethical Consumer and The New European and likes writing poetry, singing, songwriting and playing instruments. She studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield and has a Masters in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester. Follow her on: