Rarely does Rye News have the opportunity to highlight issues being faced by the agricultural and farming industries, but a recent announcement by Tottingworth Farms Ltd has sent shockwaves across the farming industry. It's a subject many may not want to read about but it's a serious issue and Rye News feels the problem should be publicised as it effects not only the farming and agricultural community but will have a knock-on effect for many related businesses in the south east.
I have included extracts from a recent article in South East Farmer which details the issues facing the farming community throughout the south east and the potential animal welfare issues which may result from the following announcement.
After 60 years, supplying over 900 customers, as of January 26 next year, the abattoir at Tottingworth Farm, Heathfield, which handles over 5,000 livestock units a year, will close.
This regrettable decision will affect farmers, land owners, butchers, wholesalers, hauliers and you, the consumer. Over-regulation, inexperienced vets who struggle with the language, difficulties recruiting staff and high operating costs are forcing the closure of the abattoir at Tottingworth Farm. Sarah Wareham, director of Tottingworth Farms Ltd said: "It was a very hard decision to take, and we know how hard it will have hit our customers, at the end of the day, though, it was all about staffing, costs and regulations."
Sarah said onerous regulations, continual and, in her view, sometimes unnecessary testing and the paperwork involved, had all become too much. She added that "inexperienced" vets from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) had added to the problem and much of the time could not communicate because they didn’t speak English.
"The process could be made much easier," she stressed, suggesting as an example that it really wasn’t necessary for every single animal to be given an ante-mortem inspection.
"There are just so many issues, and it always comes back on the owner of the business. No-one else ever takes responsibility," Sarah said. "It’s such an awful lot of hassle and it’s not as though we make much money out of it."
Staffing was another headache, with few locally trained slaughtermen available and potential recruits from the north of the country unable to afford to move to the south east. "On top of all that, we needed to invest about £200,000 into upgrading some of our facilities, and we had to face facts and realise that such a large investment was unlikely to generate much of a return in the current climate," she added.
So what next?
Following the announcement, top-level support has been drafted in as campaigners fight for the future of local abattoirs across the south east. Those supporters include The Lord Lucas, Ralph Palmer, who contacted campaign organiser Guy MacNaughton after a butcher friend in Eastbourne told him of his concerns about the threat to locally sourced meat.
Local Abattoirs R Key
"While it’s helpful to have such a high profile supporter as Lord Lucas, we are determined to engage everybody who values being able to enjoy locally slaughtered, environmentally sustainable meat and who wants to support the farmers who produce it," said Guy, who set up Local Abattoirs R Key (LARK) within days of the Tottingworth decision being announced.
Guy, who describes himself as a consultant and part-time farmer, has spearheaded a remarkable campaign that delivered an impressive file of evidence ahead of a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) on November 30. He explained that he had already been concerned about the plight of local abattoirs and the time it was taking the government and the FSA to shake up the regulations when the Tottingworth decision made the situation far worse.
In his submission to APGAW he points out that a long list of industry reports and working groups dating back to 1999 and culminating in the Small Abattoirs Task and Finish Group, which was set up in 2021 "to understand the issues and propose solutions" had not delivered the necessary outcomes.
His submission continues: "In spite of the intellectual firepower, small abattoirs continue to be forced out of business. Why?" He added that alarm bells had been ringing ever since in 2021 the FSA "gave itself the luxury of five years in which to perform a review of regulations".
The farmers' responses
For farmers like Nigel Akehurst, who writes monthly for South East Farmer, news of the closure came as a major blow. "We have been using Tottingworth since we started selling meat direct to the public in 2016. They slaughtered my first bullock and I have been using them ever since. This is devastating news for local farmers, as well as potentially restricting choice for people who want to be able to buy locally sourced, high-quality meat. Tottingworth was an important local abattoir for small family farms and for butchers."
Nigel’s closest alternative is Downland Produce in Henfield, which looks set to move from operating three days a week to four from next year, but it means a round trip of 80 miles instead of around 18. "That means extra diesel and much more time, along with extra stress on the animals, but it's my only option," he said.
For LARK, helping local farmers deal with the immediate issue by replacing lost abattoir capacity is one part of a three-pronged campaign which includes supporting APGAW’s drive to see a change in the way regulations apply to small abattoirs and looking at mid-term options for supporting abattoir capacity by upgrading existing facilities and bringing new, high-welfare abattoirs on line.
LARK has been collecting the responses of local farmers to the issue, with comments including: "We will no longer be able to supply local meat to local people. The ethos / selling point is stripped away from us. Significant, devastating, trying not to think of the impact on cost and our 'low food miles' message is out of the window." Another comment from J Heath & Son butchers in Eastbourne summed up the views of many. "We specialise in local farm-to-shop produce, buying lambs from Martin Hole, beef from David Fenner and pigs from Richard Bates. With Tottingworth closing, this makes our business model of buying local direct from the farm hard to sustain."
NFU rises to the challenge
The NFU has also taken up the case on behalf of farmers, describing the closure of Tottingworth Farm's abattoir as "a major blow to livestock producers in the east of our region and a loss to the south east region as a whole, which has few remaining abattoirs." It added: "Tottingworth has long provided a valuable service to farmers, many of whom meet strong demand for locally-reared meat from discerning customers."
The NFU said the lack of local slaughter facilities "can prevent farmers from adding value through direct selling to the consumer, to customers within the butchery trade and hospitality, and other small-scale marketing initiatives such as farm shops or boxed meat businesses." The NFU also pointed out that the government had "singularly failed to act on the recommendations of a report by the All Party Group for Animal Welfare, The Future For Small Abattoirs in the UK (2020)."
Call to action – LARK needs your help
"Having delivered LARK’s submission to APGAW, including a case study document highlighting the impact of the closure on more than 50 farmers, the group is consulting its farmer, smallholder and grazier members to decide how it can help address immediate capacity and other logistical issues," writes Guy MacNaughton.
"Farmers who are facing these and other related challenges are encouraged to get in touch. Unless LARK knows what you need, there is no way of delivering it.
"Farmers need to make their voices heard by writing to their MP, county councillors and the Rt Hon Mark Spencer, minister of state for Food, Farming and Fisheries, to explain how, in these changing times, they had been relying on local infrastructure to enable them to grow their more profitable direct sales."
Text Guy on 07476 312243 to add your voice to the campaign.
