WEST Devon farmers took part in a massive marketing boost for British agriculture on Tuesday.
They visited supermarkets in the region to promote a new quality mark which will appear on fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry on sale throughout the country.
The aim of the red and blue British Farm Standard logo is to help farmers compete more effectively with imported foods which may have been produced to cheaper and lower standards.
Currently, the UK imports more than £2.6 billion worth of produce which could be reared or grown on British farms.
Leyland Branfield, of Moorlands Farm at Princetown, said: 'It's a new mark that we've brought out to illustrate that food has been produced under various strict standards.
'The mark is like a little tractor — people will be able to pick up and quickly identify something which has been produced to approved standards of welfare and hygiene.'
NFU members demonstrated the mark to shoppers at Waitrose in Okehampton and also the Co-op in Chagford, while other West Devon members travelled to Sainsbury's at Marsh Mills in Plymouth to take part in the promotion.
Shirley Preston, the NFU south west regional chairman, said: 'It will help British farmers fight back.
'We are now raising the stakes for foreign producers and if they want to sell food to British consumers, who expect food that comes up to the mark in all the ways the little tractor will guarantee, they will have to meet the same high standards that we do.'