成人快手

Secret farming

East England is an important area for pig production

These days, we're so removed from farming that many of us can only imagine a rural idyll, based on nostalgic memories of old fashioned farms.

The chances are that the only pictures you've seen of intensive animal farming were taken by animal rights activists sneaking in under the cover of darkness.

Animal farming has become a secret world - with many farmers reluctant to show there farms, and many shoppers preferring not to know where their meat comes from.

Take sausages and bacon for example. Pick up a pack, and its most unlikely there'll be a picture of an animal on it.

That's no accident. Retailers know exactly how to appeal to their customers.

The East of England is one of the main areas of pig production.

Inside Out investigates what's really going on down on the pig farm.

Intensive farming

Of the 4 million pigs in England, only 800,000 live outdoors - at least for part of their life.

Most British pigs in this country are actually reared completely indoors.

A pig's life - most British pigs are raised indoors

Richard Aves has a very efficient, well-run pig farm in Suffolk - rearing 200 pigs and 2000 piglets.

It's become very rare to film inside a farm like this, but Richard believes that the industry should be more open.

He's agreed to show Inside Out around.

Even so he doesn't want his farm identified because despite having a well run farm, he's concerned about visits from animal activists, and worries about spreading diseases such as foot and mouth.

Pigs from this type of farm cost more to produce than the very intensive farms common in mainland Europe.

Richard makes a profit of just 拢4 for each pig. To make it a viable business every stage of the pigs life is controlled.

This is about as good as it gets for indoor pigs, and the meat is sold in Harrods and Selfridges.

Assurance

Because most of us will never see a farm for ourselves, Assurance Schemes that give guarantees of welfare and production standards have become increasingly important.

The most common in this country is the Red Tractor Assurance scheme.

It's run by Assured Food Standards - a private company.

Farmers pay a fee to join it. The scheme claims to guarantee standards that are above the legal minimum.

Yet Inside Out discovered a Norfolk Farm that is a member of the scheme where around 100 pigs are being kept in pens that have no bedding and no dry area on which to sleep.

Reacting to pictures taken on the farm, Donald Broom, Professor of Animal Welfare at Cambridge University, says:

"These pictures are of a badly run farm where pigs are kept in bad conditions and not cleaned out often enough

"If there is a lot of manure on the floor - as there is here - that especially if it's wet, it's difficult to regulate their body temperature."

Livelihoods at stake

Red Tractor say they have been aware of problems on the farm for 12 months, but did not suspend the farm from the scheme.

The British Farm Standard seal on packaging

David Clarke, Chief Executive of the Scheme, told the programme that he does not believe the conditions are unacceptable:

"We actually decided that the conditions... never got to the situation where the actual welfare of the pigs was compromised to an unacceptable degree and furthermore, the preferred course of action was to work with the producer to rectify the situation and to put it right and to make improvements, not only in the welfare of the pigs but also in the housing conditions and the provision of lying areas."

He says that exclusion from the scheme is a last resort:

"If we destroy someone's livelihood by excluding them from our scheme and giving them nowhere to sell their products and destroy their business, we, as a scheme, could be subject to a legal challenge."

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