My father gave me a pig for my eighth birthday. He didn’t believe in pocket money; the idea was that the pig would be the first of many and an introduction to farming and business. My pig faithfully produced thirteen healthy piglets twice a year but I didn’t share my father’s passion for pig-keeping (for forty years, as so many farmers moved towards factory farming, his enthusiasm was trying to develop an ethically acceptable way of keeping them), so I moved onto sheep, then milking cows before finding my vocation with vegetables.
That cabbage epiphany came nearly twenty five years ago and to this day, though not a vegetarian, my enthusiasm remains for vegetables: in the field, in the kitchen and on the plate. Meanwhile my brother Ben used those pigs to teach himself charcuterie and set up a farm shop in our garage, which thirty years later has developed into three shops and the meat boxes that we offer alongside the vegetables. Our siblings Oliver and Louise developed the cows and the dairy and raise some of the bull calves for beef. Our soils at Wash Farm in Devon are not inherently very fertile and we would really struggle to grow veg without the manure from the cows. On top of that, at least a third of the farm is too steep, or the soil too thin, to be suitable for anything other than grazing livestock.
We have many vegetarian customers and get the occasional letter questioning our position on meat, so the point of these ramblings is to give an agricultural and historical perspective to Riverford and meat. As a nation we undoubtedly eat more meat than is good for our health or the environment. Indeed, if we are to have any chance of feeding our burgeoning population whilst retaining any balance and beauty on our planet we must radically reduce our collective appetite for meat, dairy and poultry. So our position is to encourage the meat eaters among us to eat less and better. This means feeding sheep and cows their natural diet (ie. grass and clover, not grain), hanging meat properly and always using the whole carcass to best effect. Think thrifty pies, hashes and making stock with every last scrap. If we are going to eat meat, we should be smarter about it.
Guy Watson
7 responses so far ↓
Sarah // February 10, 2010 at 11:14 pm |
Hear hear! I don’t eat meat myself, but I applaud meat-eaters who are sensible about it.
Vivien Cruickshank // February 12, 2010 at 10:57 am |
I’m sure that the livestock at Riverford is as well looked after as any and much better than most, but my problem is the inevitable abbatoir. Many years ago I kept a few pigs and took them to the abbatoir at Caernafon. The experience was not to be repeated. I don’t eat much meat and was a vegetarian for years, (although this is hypocritical, as eating dairy produce is the same thing) but I do hanker after some meat now and then and buy some game. I have been known to pick a pheasant off the road if it is in good order.
Dave Stewart // February 14, 2010 at 9:50 am |
I agree that are use of meat needs to change. Mainly we need to show people what can be done with some of the more unpopular cheaper cuts. I am a big fan of liver and onions, and slow cooking a casserole whilst at work. I would also like to see more use in this country of animals that are a pest, rabbits, deer, pheasants, although obviously this cannot be organic. Now if only my house deeds allowed keeping chickens, I would be adding a run to my garden.
moy paterson // March 15, 2010 at 1:38 am |
A few lateral thoughts in reaction to the blog’s Question of Meat…
There ARE those of us – many millions of us – who indeed engage with eating meat most frugally and economically. Which is all that a state pension allows.
I was therefore wryly amused at the dichotomy between your advocating the use of thrifty cuts (those of us who lived as children of the war years are already quite versed in this), and the Riverford £25 minimum order for meat (a quarter of a pensioner’s entire week’s income). I am an ardent, if occasional, Riverford customer who has only bought meat once or twice from you, for the fact that such produce can be frozen and stored is somewhat irrelevant if one cannot manage the considerable outlay in the first place. (All finance is relative.)
With a race between the drug companies and the food companies to poison the planet and those of us on it, I have had a long-term hope that your ‘minimum order’ charge for ethically-raised meat might reduce. Although I am sure you have sound economics behind your decisions, I feel a lower charge might be balanced a tad by a possible resultant increase in your customer base. I for one wd like to be a far more regular customer. I, too, wd like to eat less and better!
And as a customer who was caught in a previous “organic” home-delivery fraud several years ago, and who now tracks the still-prevailing deceits within the “organic” food supply, I am aware that it is to Riverford’s credit that you are so highly regarded.
Karen Thomson // March 17, 2010 at 4:09 pm |
Just responding to Moy’s post – I wondered whether riverford might encourage customers to “buddy” up. I occasionally order meat boxes and would be happy to let a pensioner know in advance that I am putting in a meat order if by having two customers in a postcode area you could deliver to both with one small order for the pensioner but over the minimum for the other, if you had at least one order? What’s the challenge – is it the number of orders in an area or the packaging?
riverford // March 23, 2010 at 4:36 pm |
Thanks for your comments. The cost of chilled packaging is the challenge for us when trying to get the minimum order down. We’re not able to split the packaging as the boxes are often left on customers’ doorsteps.
Anthea // April 5, 2010 at 9:58 am |
I have also looked at your selection of organic meat and wished that I could put in the occasional order. We have enjoyed a large box of vegetables every week for several years now and have introduced Riverford veg to friends. We are on a low income and do not have a freezer or space for a freezer so a bulk order is out of the question.