Richard Baugh's family have been raising pigs for three generations at Woodside Farm in rural Nottinghamshire but Mr Baugh says he's been forced to change the name of his business after Tesco rebranded its own label pork products as "Woodside Farms".

Mr Baugh, who has already changed his business name to Bofs Hogs to separate association with his products, is now threatening legal action if the supermarket giant doesn't drop its new branding. He explained some of his concerns:

What bothers me the most is it's not necessarily British food they're putting it on - it's European pork which sometimes isn't under our strict regulations.

A spokesperson for Tesco said the supermarket was not willing to comment, but in the past, it has said the brands have been popular with customers.

Mr Baugh has been offered legal support by anti-food waste charity Feedback, who have urged Tesco, among other popular supermarkets, to stop using the so-called ‘fake farm’ branding which can be misleading to consumers.

In 2016, Tesco sparked controversy after launching seven new brands all with British-sounding, but fictitious, farm names. Woodside, Willow and Boswell Farms are used for the chain's own-brand pork, chicken and beef, while Redmere Farms is used for vegetables.

Rival firm Morrisons also took part in a similar practice, but said in August that it would discontinue such brands.

Mr Baugh admits Woodside is a common farm name in Britain, but says he's concerned by Tesco's attitude towards the farming community:

They've got so much selling power they don't have to worry about what farmers think.

At the end of the day, price of product will always win over welfare.

Farmers are all independent businesses, they don't all have the financial backing that Tesco has.

The biggest problem is standing together - we don't stand together very well, that's why - as a business - farmers are weak.

Source: BBC News

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