Our Heritage Breeds: Britain must eat them to save them

This week (23 -30 April) marks Great British Beef Week 2022. We hear from Countryside Alliance Rural Award winner, John Pallagi, Founder of Farmison & Co. John discusses the important role we can all play in protecting our heritage breeds.

Last year I invited a reporter from the BBC's You & Yours programme to come and see the beautiful White Park herd we've established in Castle Bolton in the heart of Wensleydale.

She was delightful; eager to hear about the long-term investment we've made to support the farm where they're raised. She asked about the breed's fabled association with druids and celts, its association with our landscape stretching back over 2,000 years and White Park's perilous flirtation with extinction as numbers plunged to as low as 60 in 1973.

When we returned from the farm to our Ripon base, she asked me how she could explain something she thought her listeners would struggle to get their heads around - that saving rare heritage breeds needed Britain's shoppers to start buying them and eating them.

Those of us that are close to the countryside already understand why.

For us, it needs no explanation because it's simple - preserving our heritage breeds not only needs the investment of love and time, but it also requires the investment of hard cash.

And that investment can only come if ultimately, we create a market for cattle once they're ready to grace our tables.

But as the BBC reporter knew, we can't underestimate how hard that simple equation is for customers disconnected from our countryside, to understand.

When they browse the supermarket aisles, they're taught to focus on the product on the shelf, not its journey there.

They like the convenience that the supermarkets' focus on homogeneity and speed has brought.

They probably even think their supermarket steak tastes ok.

But what most don't know is there's meat that's even better now a click away.

And what they perhaps don't appreciate is the price of that supermarket convenience, is unwittingly putting many of our nation's heritage breeds at risk.

Does it matter? It will be no surprise to you that I believe it does. Let me spell out why.

Taste - The nuances in flavour between breeds need to be safeguarded and celebrated. The longer time heritage breeds require grazing means they acquire more flavour and more fat cover.

Quite simply, heritage breeds taste better. And as they're grass-fed, they offer plenty of Omega 3 and Vitamin B12 essential for healthy brain function.

Soil health – they're at the heart of the move to regenerative agriculture, putting goodness back into the soil and reducing the need for soya imports.

Heritage breeds have always been bred for extensive grazing on uplands – they're hardy and can survive tough winters outdoors with minimal intervention.

In Wharfedale, our Galloway herd is outside on grass all year round and Britain has plenty of this marginal land unsuited to crop growing.

Wider environmental benefits - heritage breeds support all sorts of wild species in extensive grazing systems. The manure and grazing encourage plant and insect life; the positive benefits of which cascade up the food chain. In Wensleydale ground nesting birds such as Redshanks and Curlews nest among our herds.

Heritage breeds have been kept alive by breed societies and by hobby farmers celebrating the traditions of the past.

But today, building new herds is made complicated by the need for capital and the need to link up these surviving fragments.

We're doing what we can at Farmsion because we know action speaks louder than words.

We've funded the foundation of two new herds of rare breed White Park and Gloucester cattle.

In partnership with some our best farmers, our White Park herd has grown from 30 to 67 animals. The size of our Gloucester cattle herd is approaching 30 and in time, will produce generously marbled deliciously buttery meat.

We've invested in these and other herds because I believe as we're rightly encouraged to eat less, but better meat, these breeds have a major part to play in our nation's food future.

But all of us involved in preserving our heritage breeds for future generations need to do a better job of telling ordinary consumers why we need to eat them to save them.

Thankfully as each month passes, more customers are increasingly asking the right questions about the provenance of their produce.

We can see the growth in demand for sustainably reared meat that's better, and customers' growing appetite for that.

Online specialists like us are on the rise and the market will expand significantly over the coming years.

Together, I know we can reset the relationship Britain has with food through a restoration of love for better meat. And perhaps through that inspiration, we can give those seduced by uniformity, real food for thought.

But we must be bold in spelling it out for customers.

At Farmison we know Britain's beef, lamb and pork farmers are producing the best meat in the world.

The rest of the world knows it too. They're envious of our heritage breeds and the flavour they bring.

Those of us who understand the countryside, must find new ways to tell customers that each breed provides unique character, texture and tasting notes, just like the world's finest wines.

We must try harder to explain that with more demand for heritage breeds, the more confident our farmers will be to rear them.

And however counter-intuitive it sounds, if we are to support our heritage breeds and the glorious tasting food they produce, customers have to understand they too have a major role to play as they eat them, to save them.

Visit the Farmison & Co website, for more information