Tractor demo to ‘save Melton Mowbray pork pie’

The event has been organised by Save British Farming, a campaign group which claims the government is “selling British farmers down the river” by seeking to pass Bills which will ditch UK animal welfare and environmental standards for imported food - flooding the market with cheap, low-quality products and destroy Britain’s world-class farming industry.

As UK-EU negotiations falter, says Save British Farming, a no-deal Brexit is the most likely outcome that puts British farming at the mercy of the US farm lobby.

The tractors will muster outside the Melton Mowbray Cattle Market, in Calford Road, from 10.30am, then set off at about 11.15am on a circular route around the town – delivering a letter to the constituency office of Rutland and Melton MP Alicia Kearns.

A Save British Farming spokesman said the loss of legal protection when the transition ends in January means that its possible for rivals to start producing lookalikes to our iconic brands if we lose the legal protection from imitation offered by EU rules.

Melton Mowbray pork pies have protected geographical indication status, which acts like a trademark to stop manufacturers from outside a region copying a regional product. Stilton is covered by a protected designation of origin, which is linked to the region a product comes from. There are 73 such protected food names in the UK, including wines, beers, ciders and spirits as well as wool - other protected foodstuffs include Cornish pasties, Whitstable oyster, Scotch beef, Jersey royal potatoes and Anglesey sea salt.