Here’s Why a Former Beatle and 007 are Turning Their Noses Up at Industrial Pork Production

Sixty-five celebrities from the worlds of music, acting, food, and fashion are involved in the movement aimed at exposing the problems of industrial-scale pork production in the United Kingdom. Many, along with plenty of non-famous folks, are posting selfies on social media with the hashtag #turnyournoseup. The campaign launched yesterday in conjunction with the release of a position paper from the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy that calls for a reduction in the overuse of antibiotics in human medicine and animal agriculture.

“The celebrities we asked were enthusiastic about the campaign and wanted to do whatever they could to support it,” says Tracy Worcester, Farms Not Factories’ founder and director, who is an environmental activist and former actress.

Actor Dominic West with a porcine friend. Clive Arrowsmith / Farms Not Factories

The actor Jeremy Irons and a piggy pal. Clive Arrowsmith / Farms Not Factories

So far the public response has been positive, Worcester tells Modern Farmer in an email, since “people are increasingly concerned about factory farming and are glad to know that by their shopping choices they can help close factory pig farms while supporting high-welfare farms, where animals are kept humanely and, as a result, are healthy and rarely, if ever, require antibiotics.”

The rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been blamed, in part, on the drugs’ overuse in industrial-scale animal agriculture. In some parts of the world, including the United States, antibiotics are often used a growth promoter, a preventive, and a treatment. The European Union has banned the use of antibacterials for growth promotion. According to Worcester, though, there is still the overuse of antibiotics in Britain’s industrial-scale pig farming “to compensate for overcrowding and poor welfare.”

Antibiotics aside, the campaign’s also concerned about the inhumane treatment of pigs at massive indoor pork operations – which account for about 60 percent of UK production – such as a lack of straw, which pigs use for rooting, and tail-docking, the laws against which are “widely ignored,” Worcester says. Additionally, the UK imports more than 50 percent of its pork, mostly from other EU countries where sow stalls – small metal cages that restrict the animals’ movements – are still allowed.

Swooping in to defend themselves, Britain’s National Pig Association (NPA) and AHDB Pork says that the, “UK has some of the most stringent animal health and welfare legislation in the world and UK farmers regularly work above and beyond the necessary standards,” according to a statement on the Farmers Guardian website. The NPA also points to its recently launched antibiotic stewardship program to show just how seriously the industry takes the situation.

Unlike organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which is anti-animal agriculture and promotes a vegan diet, Farms Not Factories is focused on supporting smaller pork producers with high stewardship standards.

“We work to preserve and support the heritage of high welfare pig husbandry in the UK on farms where the animals are healthy, content, and able to express natural behaviors such as rooting, nesting, wallowing, walking, and playing,” says Worcester.

Whether the famous faces, such as actor Jeremy Irons and Dominic West, taking part in the campaign will have an impact on the pork industry remains to be seen, but the reason organizations flock to celebrities is because it tends to work.