George Eustice launches campaign for Coronation Fund to protect rare breeds

The coronation of King Charles III will be a hugely significant event as well as a ceremony most of us will not have seen in our lifetimes. It is an opportunity to bring the country together after some challenging years internationally and a chance, too, to celebrate and recognise some of the causes that have been dear to the heart of King Charles throughout his life.

One of those causes is the crucial role played by rare and native breeds of farm animal in keeping alive genetic diversity in agriculture and maintaining part of our national heritage. The King has been a lifelong champion of a broad range of environmental and rural issues, and he was a patron of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust for many years. I have argued that this lifelong commitment should be recognised through a new, “Coronation Fund” providing grant support to help native breeds develop their brand and their market and to support projects concerned with the preservation of the genetic resources held within these native breeds.

I should declare my interest.  My family have the largest and oldest herd of the British Lop Pig in the country.  We have also bred South Devon cattle for six generations and the family farm today is also home to a few Greyface Dartmoor sheep and Marsh Daisy chickens (among others).  Like all breeders of both rare breeds and pedigree native breeds, it is a labour of love for my family rather than a pursuit that brings great riches.  

My Great, Great, Great Grandfather was involved in the formation of the South Devon Herd Book Society which gave this breed formal recognition.  It has a long history in Devon and Cornwall and is renowned for the quality of its beef and as the “gentle giant”, being a large animal but with a very laid back and docile west country temperament.  In the post war period, prize winning breeding stock were exported throughout the Commonwealth and genetics from South Devons is the crucial ingredient behind modern commercial breeds in the US such as the Stabiliser.

The British Lop Pig was formally recognised in 1920 and, again, my family were there from the start.  It is native to Cornwall and my Great Grandfather had tremendous success showing the breed.  The family silver still consists of many cups and trophies that were won outright such was his persistent success on the show circuit. The family have maintained a herd of British Lops ever since and they can still be found at Trevaskis Farm today. In fact, the pig is so rare that about a third of the total national population are to be found at our farm. Just last year, my brother won the pig interbreed championship at the Royal Cornwall Show with one of his British Lops, keeping alive a tradition that has endured for generations.

Genetic diversity has always been the key that enables life on earth to adapt to new challenges. When any species in its natural environment faces a threat through disease pressure, the solution is always to be found through a gene that has been tucked away somewhere but which has particular traits that suddenly come into their own and spread. This, in turn, creates the resilience on which life depends. It is because of this quite fundamental rule of life that protecting and maintaining both biodiversity across species and genetic diversity within species is of such great importance to the planet and why we should strive to preserve the genetic diversity that is held within the many rare breeds and native breeds of farm animal. Once a particular gene or blood line becomes extinct, it is gone for good.  Commercial livestock breeders using cross-bred animals of no defined breed will frequently need to return to the pools of genetic resources maintained in our native breeds to find problems to solutions such as lameness, susceptibility to disease or to improve meat quality.  Those who keep our rare and native breeds alive and vibrant are therefore performing a vital service to the country and to other farmers and that is why the Agriculture Act 2020 explicitly recognised native breeds as a public good, entitled to the receipt of public money in just the same way that we pay for environmental goods.

The annual agriculture show season is already underway and the UKs pedigree, native livestock breeds will be the star of every one of those shows as usual, but we should acknowledge that they are all kept going by a few dedicated breeders. In this, the year of the King’s Coronation, there can be no better time to open a new scheme to deliver the objectives of the Agriculture Act and finally recognise the value of our native breeds.

George Eustice is the Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth. He was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 13 February 2020 to 6 September 2022. 

This article was originally written for The House magazine.

Image credit: Sadie Champion