Pentland pig farm and restaurant takes part in Farms Not Factory campaign

The Free Company situated in the Pentland Hills has taken part in the ‘Farm Not Factories’ campaign run by the organisation of the same name.
The Free Company pigs living their best life.The Free Company pigs living their best life.
The Free Company pigs living their best life.

The farm and restaurant run by fourth generation farmer Angus Buchanan Smith was involved in a promotional video for the cause, highlighting the benefits of buying high welfare meat and to discuss how they’ve adapted to life under Covid-19.The idea behind the featured video was to use the farm’s approach to encourage ethical living conditions for livestock.

The film is available to view on farmsnotfactories.org as well as well as on their social media channels.

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Everything that is served in the restaurant is grown on the farm, where they keep 40-60 free range Berkshire pigs and some Mangalitsa that are cross bred which are grass fed and kept outside as much as possible.

The Free CompanyThe Free Company
The Free Company

The farm also has its own in house butchery which is 100 percent plastic free with all meat packaged in a vacuum pouch. Their meat is also completely nitrate and nitrite free and they now deliver to customers UK wide.

But at the beginning of the pandemic Angus was concerned as to what he would do with the pigs as their restaurant was forced to close.

So they started the Pig Club which is a subscription service providing monthly delivery supplies of pork and over the course of 12 months all the cuts that make up a pig are delivered.

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Angus said: “The Pig Club has been a lifesaver during lockdown. We’re going to keep these projects going into next spring when hopefully the restaurant reopens. It's given us a lifeline. An for us this is a really key way for people to eat meat sustainably.”

Campaigning against factory pig farms for over 15 years, Farms Not Factories uses video for public screenings and social media to expose the damage caused by factory farming to pigs.Their spokesperson said: “Our Farms Not Factories campaign lobbies governments and citizens to re-localise the food economy and we largely focus on pig farming. Factory pig farming in terms of animal cruelty, food safety, antibiotic over-use, the emergence of pandemic viruses and pollution from excess quantities of pig waste, are a global disaster.”

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