Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
No comfy blankets for our pigs 
PETER FROST spots some porcine problems in our food supply chain

I DROVE up to Suffolk few weeks ago. I love that most easterly county for all sorts of reasons but when I get there my usual first delight is the sight of fields full of free-range pigs.

Pigs are gentle creatures with surprising intelligence. Studies have found they’re cleverer than dogs and even children as old as three years. 

In each fenced-off field division is a small corrugated hut — they call them arcs — a water trough, another for food and a large sow mother pig surrounded by her family of piglets. In a sunny summer they can get sunburnt.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Meat [Pic: Cindie Hansen / Creative Commons]
Science & Society / 29 July 2026
29 July 2026

Innovation in biotechnology is changing how we conceive of meat, say ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT of SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

Savoy Italian cabbage. Photo: Goldlocki/CC
Gardening / 2 January 2026
2 January 2026

MAT COWARD takes a look at some of the options for keen gardeners as we enter 2026

(L to R) Flowering parsnip in its second year; Oven baked parsnip with honey and mustard / Pics (L to R): Pic: Skogkatten/CC Takeaway/CC
Gardening / 6 December 2025
6 December 2025

Commiserations if you failed this year, MAT COWARD offers six points which, if followed religiously, will ensure you succeed next year