 Over
80% of the British countryside is farmland worked
by farmers. |
|
| Contrary
to popular misconception NO British livestock
is fed or injected with hormones. |
|
| Today
it takes about 44 days for most Britons to earn
enough income to pay for their food supply for
the entire year. In 1950 it took twice as long. |
|
| All
UK cattle have passports to record all births,
deaths and movements. |
|
| Figures
released by the Food Standards Agency show levels
of salmonella in chicken have fallen to an all
time low. |
|
| Farming
allows the UK to be 66.5% self-sufficient in all
food and 79% in indigenous food. |
|
| Where
two people now produce food in the UK five were
needed in 1940. |
|
| Farmers
are part of our history and part of a culture.
In history Britain has always been a great agricultural
nation. Our statesmen such as Cromwell and Churchill
came from farms. Our monarchs have always prided
themselves on their royal farms such as Sandringham
and Windsor.Farming has also inspired our artists.
From Constable’s ‘Haywain’ to
Houseman’s ‘The Ploughman’ our
greatest painters, composers, novelists and poets
have drawn inspiration from our culture of agriculture |
|
| Britain
imports chickens and pigs from some countries
where 90% of the farms would not pass British
Assured Standards on animal welfare or food hygiene. |
|
| In
the early 1950s food and drink accounted for 40%
of the UK’s imports. Now the figure is 10%.
|
|
| Britain
has assurance schemes that set high
standards of practice at all stages of the production
process. Each farm is independently checked to
ensure it meets world beating standards on food
hygiene, animal welfare and the environment. |
|
| Good
food in today’s Britain is very affordable.
Consumers in the UK only spend 11.2% of income
on food. This figure is lower than most other
countries. |
|
| Recent
work published in the Lancet (Nov 2001) involving
a large sample of 3,504 children concluded that
farm children were found to have markedly better
immunity against the development of asthma, hay
fever and allergies. |
|
| Growth
in UK’s agricultural productivity has been
a real success story. Final output per unit of
all inputs has rocketed from an index of 75 in
1973 to 107 in 2001. |
|
| Beef
farmers have won back the confidence of shoppers.Beef
sales in the UK are now well above pre-BSE levels. |
|
| Each
year in the UK farmland equal to five times the
size of Cambridge (100,000 acres) disappears under
buildings, roads and leisure areas. |
|
| Beef
production in the UK is based on grazing grass.
In other countries beef animals are far more likely
to be reared in feed lots or indoor barns and
fed on concentrates. |
