November 27, 2019

UK farmers slam documentary for inaccurate view of local beef production

UK farmers said the documentary "Meat: A Threat To Our Planet" had failed to differentiate between US and UK beef production and "left people with the impression that all meat is produced in the same way."

Others said the programme outed why consumers should buy British, adding it was "the best advert" for sustainable British agriculture.

There was a three-minute video snippet posted on the BBC Twitter page about a US farmer rotating his cattle daily to encourage carbon sink, which appears to have been cut from the final edit.

National Farmers' Union president Minette Batters said she would "yet again" write to the BBC to complain.

"To make out that all the world’s farmers produce meat like the US was so very wrong," she said. "If this programme had one message, it is this: cheap food but at what price?"

The four UK farming presidents issued a joint statement which highlighted the need for any future trade deals to uphold British environmental and animal welfare standards.

"The documentary demonstrate[d] the concerns UK farming has about future trade and what we could expect to see on our supermarket shelves if the government were to allow food into the country which has been produced in ways that would be illegal here," it said.

Investigative journalist Joanna Blythman highlighted the air miles taken to produce the documentary.

She tweeted: "Texas, Brazil, South Africa. Liz Bonnin clocks up the air miles as she cherry picks [the] worst examples of meat production.

"Aided and abetted by the BBC using taxpayer money to hurt good UK regenerative farmers."

RUMA communications officer Amy Jackson said she was worried about the ‘grass fed good, everything else bad’ message emerging.

Jackson said: "People might be surprised to find that sustainable comes in many forms.

"High efficiency, feeding of waste foods, sustainable protein could be every bit as environmentally friendly."

Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW) executive manager Martin Morgan added: "It comes as no surprise that in the run up to the festive period we are treated to yet another programme from the BBC pillorying the farming industry, without doing their job properly and researching the true facts as to how livestock are farmed in the British Isles.

"Predictably, the programme failed to address the vast differences between the feedlots of the USA and the extensive grass-based production of beef and lamb on which the supreme quality of Scotch beef and lamb is founded."

-  Farmers Guardian