Pork, chicken, lamb, beef, eggs, dairy – it all came from a farmer getting up early and working on your behalf – as these Farmdrop producers did. Here are some other farmers that I have met during research for my book The Ethical Carnivore. I will try and update it as I go along…

Belle, Roly and Freddie Puzey on Saddlescombe Farm in West Sussex. The National Trust farm was a wonderful place for me to visit since this is a really good example of where farming has shaped the landscape. The Sussex Downs have been grazed by livestock for 3,000 years and today the flower-rich chalk meadows are kept healthy for butterflies and bees by managed grazing. Roly and his wife Camilla are continuing in this tradition keeping 350 breeding ewes. I can’t help thinking what would happened to landscape like this if we didn’t eat meat? Camilla and Roly sell lamb, beef and pork boxes and invite the public onto their farm to see for themselves how well the animals are kept by being “a shepherd for a day”.

Susie Mac keeps 3,000 free range organic laying hens in West Sussex. The Mac’s Farm have had visits from Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty. Organic laying hens have to have windows in the shed and access to outdoor space. The ‘girls’ as Susie calls them will lay for 18 months before being sent for meat or re-homed with families.

Jade Barlett and Oli Parsons are a young couple raising beef and sheep around Totnes in Devon. They are the some of the few people I know who can claim to have converted someone from being a vegetarian – as ethical Totnes types feel comfortable eating meat raised on their doorstep under such good welfare conditions. Jolly Farm not only sells to butchers but invites the community to help look after the animals. It is this kind of Community Supported Agriculture that is allowing families to get involved with raising animals, as well as giving farmers a local market.

One of the few chicken farms to have a website, Robert Lanning is proud of Devonshire Poultry Ltd. Although barn reared, his birds are RSPCA assured. This means stocking density is low, the chickens have an ‘enriched’ environment where they can scratch about, they are a breed that lives without health problems and are kept alive for 49 days. This may not sound like a long time, but its more than some broiler chickens who reach the required weight at just 30 days.

Ross Mackenzie raises pigs on Gorgie City Farm in Edinburgh. As well as welcoming 100,000 visitors every year, helping young people with learning difficulties and educating 1,000 school children, the city farm is also raising meat for local consumption.

The pigs have a good life and when they are eight months old they are sold to local restaurants or made into sausages to be sold at the farm cafe. 

Fed up of dealing with wholesale prices pushed down by the  supermarkets, Martyn and Lorraine Glover decided to produce and sell their own organic milk. To make it a little bit different and because, well, it tastes better Ashclyst Farm Dairy milk is also non-homogenised. This means that yes, the cream settles on the top, but also the fat in the milk has not been broken down into smaller globules and according to many it tastes better. The farm is rented from The National Trust Killerton Estate.

Lutfi and Ruby Raman own Willowbrook Farm in Oxfordshire where they raise halal meat. I found them profoundly gentle and philosophical people and feel I have made a start in trying to understand the complex issues around producing truly halal meat.

Anna Blomfield is a third generation farmer raising cattle for beef on Deersbrook Farm in Essex. Although much of the surrounding area is arable, Anna and her family enjoy working with livestock, raising native Sussex breed as well as more commercial crosses. The farms supplies Waitrose and sell beef locally. On Open Farm Sunday I found Anna busy showing around families and hosting a barbecue on the farm. The children seemed to really enjoy meeting the cattle, hens and pigs.

Open Farm Sunday is a great idea, giving people the opportunity I have had over the last few months to meet farmers and see how food is produced. Perhaps then they will be able to make more informed choices about where their meat and animal products come from.