WEST Devon farmers have welcomed an announcement that the Ministry of Defence is to increase its purchase of British meat.
The announcement follows a recent meeting with military chiefs at Okehampton Camp when local farmers tried to persuade them to buy British instead of importing cheap foreign meat.
Farmers believe the MoD should be supporting the beleaguered British farming industry instead of attempting to shave pence off its budget.
John Dawe, chairman of Dartmoor Hill Livestock Forum, owns land used by the military for training.
He welcomed the news that the MoD is to increase tonnage of British lamb and beef.
'We are very pleased — it just shows a bit of pressure does work,' said Mr Dawe
'Two years ago we had an agreement with the military that they'd do their best to source their food from the UK — they did it using intervention beef, which was very cheap.
'That's now run out and they are back on the world markets, trawling for supplies.
'They have to work with us and things like this don't make for a good working relationship.'
Mr Dawe said it was 'total stupidity' to bring meat in from countries where quality control was much less stringent than in the UK.
'Lambs actually graze inside the camp but instead of eating them they drag them in from the other side of the world.
'There are beautiful cows right on the camp doorstep which the Government in its wisdom is going to destroy because of the remote possibility of BSE — I don't know of any cases on Dartmoor,' he said.
And Mr Dawe has also written to Lt Col Tony Clark, Commandant Training Area, to tell him of a spate of foot and mouth disease outbreaks in South America.
'It's absolutely contagious,' he said.
Mr Dawe said foot and mouth could be spread through the air or in animal parts — all animals involved in an outbreak have to be destroyed.
He said tens of thousands of cattle were destroyed around 30 years ago in the last bad outbreak of the disease.
Mr Dawe said Europe is now 'more or less' clear but South America has been suffering 'all over the place'.
'There is a possibility they could bring contaminated meat onto the moors,' he said.
James McInnes, chairman of Okehampton and Hatherleigh NFU, also attended the meeting.
He said: 'It was very productive — we gave them lots of good reasons why they should buy British beef.
'It does seem ridiculous that tax payers are supporting British farmers but the army doesn't think of buying our meat — and the sort of money they were talking about saving was only about £1.5 million — that's nothing in the defence budget.'
Lt Col Clark said: 'I understand fully the pressures and how upset they were.
'As a result of the meeting we were able to represent local farmers' strong feelings to senior members of the MoD — I wrote immediately to the man responsible for the procurement of food.'
An MoD spokesman said the Ministry 'actively encourages' buying British meat 'wherever possible'.
He said the department had a duty to get value for money as its income came from tax payers.
As far as the import of contaminated meat was concerned, he said: 'With any meat we purchase, clearly Health and Safety import regulations apply.'