Farming The Future

...Farmison & Co received an almighty boost thanks to the horse meat scandal. If you recall, horse DNA was found in numerous products labelled otherwise on supermarket shelves, with story after story exposing incompetence and negligence. It reflected precisely what we, Farmison & Co, were saying at the time, that the meat supply chain was opaque and unfit for purpose, obscured by numerous steps from field to fork, with meat divvied up and packaged in vast anonymous factories. A race to the bottom in standards for pennies profit had led to a complete and utter abdication of responsibility, and, ultimately, horse meat entering the human food supply chain.

...undoubtedly inspired a great deal of scrutiny from retailers into their supply chains at the time, but I wonder what they have done to reassure their customers they can be trusted or indeed to reform their supply chain in the long term.

This year, we've rolled out new QR codes on our packaging, that can be scanned with your smartphone to reveal more information about your product. Simply put the camera to the code, and follow the link.

From there, you'll be able to see the farm through video, find information about the breed and food miles, and download recipes written by Jeff Baker specifically for that cut. In short, our customers will be able to have complete oversight of where their food has come from their phones.

It's easy to forget now quite how much the horse meat scandal rocked the country, never mind just the meat industry. It wasn't just a horse meat scandal either. Pork was found in products labelled beef, and all over Europe a spotlight was shone on vast, anonymous factories where meat is processed, previously hidden from the public eye.

Read our latest update from our founder John Pallagi, telling you why our new meat traceability scheme is so important.