BEEF OVER BEEB'S PIG

By CLIVE CRICKMER
Daily Mirror, 7 May 1979
It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig
BBC 2

A picture of a pig has got Britain's farmers snorting with fury.
   It appears on the cover of the Radio Times' current issue with the caption:
  "Health warning: Meat and poultry may seriously affect your health."
   The cover highlights tomorrow evening's BBC-2 programme "Brass Tacks" which takes a critical look at meat production.
   And it was slammed as alarmist yesterday by the Meat and Livestock Commission.
   Chairman Wally Johnstone has sent a protest letter expressing "anger and concern" to the BBC

Director General Ian Threthowan.
   And a Commission spokesman said: "We feel the magazine has pandered to the sensational."
   The Radio Times forecasts that the programme will examine "highly competitive and possibly dangerous farming methods" in Britain.
   This is expected to be a study of intensive "factory" farming and the chemicals used in animal feedstuffs.
   Another angry agricultural expert, Bill Weeks, commented:"What annoys me so much is that there is absolutely no danger."