Farmers are hoping to gain internet fame with an anthem highlighting the pig industry’s cash crisis (Valerie Elliott writes). Thirty men and women will record Stand by Your Ham, based on the Tammy Wynette classic Stand by Your Man, in a London studio. By the weekend their song will be posted on www.pigsareworthit.com, their campaign website.

Pig farmers are losing £26 on every animal they sell to provide British pork, bacon and ham in supermarkets. The song’s lyrics aim to enlist consumers to buy British pig meat and to lobby retailers for fairer prices.

Scores of the country’s 1,500 pig farmers insist that they have no choice but to quit unless the £1.10 per kilogram they receive for pork is raised to £1.30 by Easter. The song is also intended to build up momentum for a rally outside Downing Street on March 4.

Stand by Your Ham

Right now it’s hard to make a living
Rearing all your pigs for pork and ham.
The supermarkets make money
But we don’t make any money
And that’s quite hard to understand
But if they gave us a little more money
Gave us farmers a fairer share.
Coz we take good care of our pigs
We’re so proud of them
To us they’re more than pork and ham.

(Chorus)
Stand by your ham.
Sausages, pork and bacon
Help us to stay in business
Because our pigs are worth it.
Stand by your ham.
Sausages, pork and bacon
Keep givin’ all the help you can
Stand by your ham.

— Lyrics by Barney Kaye, National Pig Association

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