05/04/2014

It really was a pleasure talking on a panel today with Hawksmoor executive chef, Richard Turner and farmer and owner of The Ginger Pig company, Tim Wilson, about the future of meat in the UK.

It was the latest gathering hosted by TOAST events in the Hawksmoor Guildhall, London and chaired by food writer and blogger, Niamh Shields.

Questions ranged from the sustainability of the meat we eat in the UK to what needs to change and what we’ll be eating in a century’s time.

Chef, Richard Turner described his job as to eat meat before suggested that we should eat less of it and value it more.

Farmer, Tim Wilson, told how his passion for animal welfare led him to build a business based on doing right by animals. As his biog puts it, “we simply raise the best animals in the happiest of circumstances, on the finest stretch of the Yorkshire Moors we could find”. After 20 years, his business has grown from three Tamworth pigs and a derelict farmhouse to 3,000 acres of pasture and moorland supplying their six shops in London.

Over brunch afterwards I learned about how Tim’s father showed him that an animal’s life matters to him or her as much as our lives matter to us; and was how Tim’s determination to rear them right came from.

As a panel, I felt we found consensus around sustainability being about producing food from the land; getting animals back on the farm, instead of in factories.

So, how would I sum up the event? Great food – ethically sourced, great company and rich conversation in a splendid venue; thanks for having me along.

My next outing to talk Farmageddon will be in Glasgow next week, at the Aye Write! Festival, with Jack Monroe and Julian Baggini, talking about The Politics of Food, starting 1.30pm

To get your copy of Farmageddon: the true cost of cheap meat, click here