Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.1.3. Correspondence, Letters to newspapers

1961 Elizabeth Bobbett: Letter to the Irish Independent, 02.12.1961

Pigs and Bacon

I congratulate the NFA in their efforts to improve the pigs and bacon position and for putting the first point in their programme: a more standard form of curing bacon should be introduced.

As a consumer I would say “a better form of curing should be introduced” as at present most of the bacon we get is not half cured. If you bring some home on a Friday you cannot eat it on Monday as in many cases it is gone sour. You get it served out of a fridge hard as a rock and by the time you get home it is soft. If we had bacon which would keep like it did in years gone by, many more people would eat it.

While progeny testing may be very necessary, I think if we were told something of the results of the use of the many new drugs which are to hurry up and get fat quick results, we might find that they have a detrimental effect on the food value and flavour of our bacon.

The pig was always looked on as the small farmers’ bank, and he produced them without regard to the latest types of pig houses. It would be interesting to know how much money was paid out in grants for construction of pig houses in the past ten years, and how many pigs were kept each year by those taking advantage of the grants and how many pigs have they kept in 1960 or 1961.

I think the greatest blow to our economy was the reduction of the food subsidies and reduction of the subsidy on bran and pollard which raised costs of feeding stuffs and cost of living on everybody.

We hear so much about feeding the starving world, while it really is the finding of a means to dispose of the bountiful produce of the land at economic prices, which should be tackled. What is physically possible should be made financially possible.