After watching Mrs Thatcher sell off Sealink to the American Chum of hers Mr James Sherwood ( See Jim she sold me out too ) who grabbed the land screwed up the ferries and flogged the remains off to Stena , I worked twenty plus years in the food industry . I tell you most people do not have a clue what goes into their food . Bovine Growth Hormone approved in many countries is linked to higher rates of breast and Prostate cancers . Estrogen is found in Brazilian and Thai chicken , doesn't apply to me you think , where does the very cheap chicken in the take away come from . The animal welfare standards are appalling compared to ours the NFU has previously complained that the differences in standards are unfair to UK farmers, for example claiming that half of the pork market went overseas when sow pens and tethering were banned.
However the scale of the problem has been revealed by a Guardian analysis of the most recent full-trade figures available, for 2007. It found that:
• More than half of bacon sold in the UK comes from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Italy, where farmers can keep sows in smaller pens and for longer periods.
• 43% of other pork products come from Denmark, Germany the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, where the same poorer conditions on pig farms are allowed.
• One quarter of poultry sold in the UK comes from seven European countries and Brazil, which allow higher stocking of chickens and do not force farmers to use more comfortable dry bedding.
• 3% of beef is imported from Brazil, where practices including hot branding, castration and dehorning of cattle can be carried out without anaesthetic. Products from those major importers accounted for about one quarter of all meat sold, by weight, in the UK that year. Total imports of pork, poultry, beef and veal made up one third of all meat sales, and it is likely that some of the remaining imports came from smaller trading countries also with lower standards.
