Necessarily, UK pig farmers continue to prioritise business survivability as their key short-term objective. Right now they do not enjoy the ecstasy of choice. Others, with different skill sets and a regular income, bear the responsibility of initiating productive deep thinking about the long-term viability of the UK pig industry.
It will have to operate within an increasingly sensitive global marketplace and pig entrepreneurs will need to accept that they are but one link in the international pork chain which is about to face major changes. Our country is formally committed to more Responsible Production And Consumption within the UN's Agenda For Sustainable Development. The new thinking has emerged in a world populated by consumers who on a daily basis are being reminded that their personal buying choices have consequences for society and the environment.

Producers must be awake to meet the new dawn
Pig keepers will have to adapt their farms and management practices such that once their current painful needs have been met, they can be proactive at the dawn of a new sense of direction. Can they take the risk of ignoring consumers who have good reason to meet their own changing specific needs? Doubtless, the next generation of consumers will have a different mindset than their parents. 'Green washing' is but an unwelcome passing phase in an unstoppable process. But in some industries, the champions of real sustainability are already enjoying cost savings, reduced commercial risks, enhanced supply chain security, access to new markets, as well as customer loyalty and brand value enhancement. An important aspect of sustainability is circularity i.e. the creation of a product with its own end of life taken into account. This largely applies to feed inputs and waste output within pig production, in that animal feed raw materials and waste output will increasingly be used for the good of society.

Feed compounders get the message
The European Feed Compounders Manufacturers Federation (FEFAC) has already got the message. Its new publication is entitled 'Circular Feed - Optimised Nutrient Recovery Through Animal Nutrition'. It provides current day examples of upcycling nutrients through farm animals and converting secondary raw materials to highly bioavailable nutrients for human consumption i.e. it is helping to minimise competition between the animal feed market and feed for direct human consumption. This initiative was, no doubt, inspired by the European Commission's Farm to Fork Strategy which has a strong commitment to its Sustainable Food Systems (FSFS) project.
There is a different emphasis on how various governments have responded to the UN directive about sustainability. The UK's Sustainable Farming Incentive seems to have a commendable commitment to increased biodiversity and soil amelioration but little recognition of how the pig industry has for years been ahead of the game. Swill-feeding, now long banned and for good reason, had the right sense of direction ahead of its time. Meanwhile, for decades the link between UK pig production and arable farming has embraced sustainability and DEFRA doesn't seem to have noticed. The Danes export 90% of their pig meat production and amazingly the Dutch are the second largest exporter of food in the world. Significantly, both countries see sustainability as a new opportunity to gain more global market share and have new initiatives aimed at meeting this objective.

Government puts biodiversity above food
It seems that the UK government rates biodiversity as more important than feeding its 64 million people. It could well be that its lack of interest in the sustainability of pork production will result in the next generation of enlightened UK pork consumers buying their pork products from overseas producers with enhanced sustainability credentials supported and flagged-up by their government. The profit motivated supermarket forward planners could well already be looking beyond our shores to source more sustainable pig meat. Over a quarter of a century ago, the meat processor, Farmers' Pork had the foresight to develop a contract dedicated to high welfare pig production. Freedom Food joined the club soon after and eventually morphed into RSPCA Approved. Such initiatives are driven by pioneers with foresight and an appetite for risk taking. There is now a high demand for pork from high welfare production systems. Many European pig producers and processors were slow off the mark, that’s why we now have growing export markets in Europe for pig products raised on pig friendly production systems. The nature of politics and commerce is such that often governments have to catch-up with the bold pioneers.

Ideas we need to 'kick about'
Maybe now is the time for some radical joined up thinking. Am I just pipe-dreaming or could there be scope for creating a new pig marketing contract embracing real sustainability? Surely, it's worth kicking about the crazy idea of linking up arable farmers who produce more suitable products for feeding to pigs from enriched biodiverse soils. The result might be a greater share of our home market and a unique opportunity for supermarkets to reward its suppliers for a product that will be demanded by what is now an embryonic customer base. Dream on!