What’s the beef with eating meat? Online butcher calls for a curb on consumption

Following a recent investigation uncovering the extent of industrial-scale beef farming in the UK, Devon-based Pipers Farm is encouraging consumers to stop fuelling the growth of this ‘Victorian workhouse style of beef farming’ by reducing their meat consumption and opting for beef that is reared in harmony with nature.

Troubled by the continued global rise of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), a system designed to fatten up cattle more quickly for the mass production of affordable meat, Pipers Farm wants consumers to better understand their role in improving the environment and the nation’s health, so they can reassess their options when it comes to buying beef.

Turning their backs on industrialised farming methods nearly three decades ago, Peter and Henri Greig, who founded Pipers Farm in 1989, work with other family-run farms to slowly rear their native Red Ruby cattle, producing affordable and nutritious meat in a sustainable way. Having built up a natural immunity from their mothers’ milk, free from antibiotics, the Red Ruby cattle then play a vital role in the cyclical maintenance of the land, grazing the pasture while nurturing the soil and providing food and habitats for insects in the process. This traditional method of farming has minimal impact on the environment and the cattle’s natural lifestyle results in award-winning and nutritious beef. 

Peter Greig (above), founder of Pipers Farm, explains: “Our global meat consumption is on a seriously unhealthy trajectory, and so it’s little wonder that intensive farming is growing in the cattle industry. These unnatural and unhealthy food production systems see cattle, which are ruminant animals, kept inside small pens and pumped full of antibiotics. They’re then fattened up on cereal and grains, which their digestive system can’t take, resulting in diabetic-like symptoms. This is all carried out in the name of producing a juicy steak at the right price, but at a huge cost to our health, the environment and local farming communities. We are proud to wave the flag for family farms who are working in harmony with nature and are calling for more consumers to resist the rise of industrial farming methods by feeding their families nutritious food grown as nature intended.”

Pipers Farm will be taking these messages to Abergavenny Food Festival, which runs from Thursday 13 to Saturday 15 September, and Dartmouth Food Festival, taking place between Friday 19 and Sunday 21 October.

For more information about Pipers Farm, please visit www.pipersfarm.com.