With a slice of Gower salt marsh lamb, let the biteback begin!
It’s our duty to tuck in to the first foodstuff granted protected status since Brexit, says
It is succulent and comes pre-loaded with (sorry, is fed on) samphire, sorrel and sea lavender – and yesterday it joined the rarefied group of UK food and drink products to be given protected status. Thus, the producers of Gower salt marsh lamb – born, reared and slaughtered on that 19-mile peninsula of South Wales that thrusts its way into the Bristol Channel – were, for once, contented farmers.
“We’ve perfected our way of rearing lamb over the years,” says Will Pritchard, whose third-generation farming family rear some one thousand of the 3,500 lambs to be found on Gower’s salt marshes. And now, he adds, “the reputation of our regional product is protected. It helps us promote traditional agricultural practices and eliminate non-genuine products.”
The reason that Pritchard’s happy bleating made the headlines was that his breed – and method of production – makes his lamb the first product in the UK to be granted Geographical Indication (GI) status since the scheme was created in January this year.
The GI label was created post-brexit, to replicate the original Protection of Designation of Origin (PDO) status that the EU confers. (Confusingly, the Government’s website announced that Gower lamb has been given PDO status, but as a source on the All-party Parliamentary Group on Geographically Protected Food and Drink tells me, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs often “leaves much to be desired in terms of clarity”.)
The rejoicing in Wales is being heard with envy across the UK by other food producers craving a protected-status label of their own, the equivalent of a Michelin star of the farming world. They wish to join the hallowed ranks of the likes of Jersey Royal potatoes, Stilton cheese and Cornish clotted cream, all of which have the EU’S PDO status, which specifically champions the fact that the locality imparts a unique flavour.
As Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton and chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Geographically Protected Food and Drinks, put it: “I can’t wait to tuck into some delicious Welsh lamb.” It was an example, she said, of how “the UK is home to some of the world’s highest
‘Look carefully and you will find local delicacies in every corner of the country’
quality food and drink”. And herein lies the point.
Post-brexit, Britain needs to shout loudly about its home-grown food. Especially if the Government is set on allowing cheaper produce from the likes of the United States into this country. Small producers, especially, are worried about being beaten on price by foreign competition, so if they can slap on a nice “our food is nicer than yours” label, they might be in with a fighting chance.
For those like Will Pritchard who can get their hands on this label of regional excellence, it is ammunition in what has been a long-running battle.
Eating locally and seasonally is a clichéd mantra for British foodies, but it’s a practice that has been under assault since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Roughly between 1760 and 1840, Britain saw the gradual diminution of its traditional agrarian society. Previously, most people’s lives were intertwined with agriculture and its perpetual cycle of ploughing, sowing and harvesting. They also lived at the mercy of the weather and their landlords or employer; getting food was a constant concern.
Their food was cooked, grown and harvested locally – often at home. It was rarely purchased, but frequently traded. If not consumed immediately, it was salted, pickled and dried.
The Industrial Revolution saw off this domestic economy as people found work – and, in due course, entertainment – further from home. The home itself went from being a site of production to one of consumption and us Brits, eternally fond of new technology, came to love things like food in tin cans, with all their fabulous convenience, which felt rather more
exciting than a trip to the local market.
With the Victorian era came a broader disapproval of pleasure, including the joy of eating; this was followed by two world wars and rationing. You can see why local food culture, come the 1950s, was struggling. But recent decades have seen a resurgence of interest. The romance of food has returned and more recently has become a middleclass obsession.
Now, we face the sweet storm of Brexit and Covid. Brexit has forced us to look inward, Covid has stopped us leaving the country. So there is no better time to consider, to champion and to eat our local produce.
Look carefully and you will find delicacies in every corner of this country, many of them proudly on display at regional food festivals, some of which are now bravely re-emerging, post-plague. You’ll see them at delis, butchers, bakers, seafood stalls, farm shops and in travelling vans. Really, the duty is yours to eschew, even just now and then, your regular supermarket haul of booty and pay homage instead to the local farmers’ market.
Some of them may come from producers jostling for protected status. The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) has launched a survey to seek views on the new GI scheme, and there are a number of applications under consideration for the badge of honour, including Dundee cake, Sussex wine and pannage ham from the New Forest.
However, it seems that unless food producers go through the EU paperwork, the new GI status protects their product in England, Scotland and Wales only. Although I understand that while no agreement was reached on this in the Brexit talks, products already granted PDO status retain their original protection in the remaining 27 states of the EU, for the time being at least. If the UK’S powers-that-be are sensible, they’ll dish out a significant load of protected-status awards so that we Brits can have some tangible evidence to support us when we yell that we have not only the best-tasting food, but also world-class welfare, especially when it comes to the likes of beef and pork. And having the finest grass in the world, which breeds the best bugs, means we clearly have the best lamb.
With a little help from climate change, we are also now producing some of the best sparkling wines and few countries can compete with us now on the playing field of cheese. Awards for both back up these irrefutable claims.
Since it’s unlikely my dream of a ban on in-supermarket butchers’ counters will ever come true, I’d like to see actual butchers get protected status: I’d nominate Thornes in the Somerset town of Wiveliscombe, where one can even buy chicken carcasses for broth. In fact, Somerset itself should get PDO status, and anyone travelling through the county should be forced to experience the joy of drinking some local cider or brandy.
Or how about a PDO for Morecambe Bay shrimps? I would also champion the makers of Northamptonshire cheese, especially Hamm Tun, who create the iconic and beautifully plain Cobblers Nibble.
The awarding of special food status should be a national challenge, with the sparkle of prime-time Saturday night TV. Britain’s Got Taste! Championing local produce isn’t a burden. All you need to do is eat. And by consuming and celebrating our national grub, we can beat our European so-called rivals without even having to acknowledge them.