Newsletter: March 2024

One of the advantages of owning and working in an exclusive agricultural veterinary business is the variety of work in which one can become involved. I have also been fascinated by the way businesses in this sector can adapt to change and flex. 

I started as a farm vet much like the James Herriot visiting farmers between and within Dartmoor and Exmoor. I saw the onset of Assurance and the resistance that was initially faced by these farmers. I have worked in the food industry and slaughterhouses, faced BSE, Foot and Mouth and salmonella crises that we thought would destroy sectors. I am the founder of our Gamebird Veterinary business established in 1998 and worked exclusively in this sector since then until very recent times.

The Edwina Currie announcement in 1988 that most of the eggs produced in Britain were infected with Salmonella and which caused food poisoning in people had a devastating effect on egg sales as well as broiler meat production. What really interested me however was that the Industry collectively came together and created a scheme adopted by all which assured the public eggs were safe to eat.  A salmonella monitoring scheme, independent assurance, vaccination and improved biosecurity was set up and all eggs which were part of the scheme were stamped with the red lion stamp so that they were identifiable to the consumer as being part of this scheme and British.

Whilst many resisted and argued at the time, everybody pulled together and now we see the red lion as a sign of being British and safe to eat and has had the effect of limiting imports from abroad and helped sustain the sector. Egg farming has moved on again to become free range and more recently seen to be environmentally positive as well as a healthy and good value protein to consume.

When I reflect on our shooting sector and with this experience, I would also encourage us to come together, have a unified approach, embrace Independent Assurance, promote the consumption of a healthy free-range product into the marketplace and advertise the environmental positives that we create collectively.

It is with this vision that I joined the Eat Wild Board and understand the value Eat Wild brings to the sustainability of shooting. It requires unified support and sustainable funding from the shooting community in order to succeed but I strongly believe Eat Wild can help promote the positive benefits of eating game to the wider audience of what makes up our now increasingly diverse population in the UK.