The way forward for shooting

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner writes:

On Monday evening the shooting world gathered to launch the British Game Alliance, a new body which will act as the official marketing board for the UK game industry and run a 'British Game' assurance scheme to ensure our game meets the highest standards. The growth of shooting is a good thing for the countryside, as it brings more money for conservation and more investment into rural communities, but it also invites greater scrutiny and means there is more game meat to be sold. The BGA aims to tackle both these issues.

The BGA is the result of a collaboration between game shoots and the sporting agents who sell shooting, and is a response to industry-wide concerns about the future of the game meat market. Unlike other meats like lamb, beef and pork, game has never had a marketing board dedicated to bringing game to market and stimulating consumer demand. The BGA will perform this function for game meat.

When we polled the public last month we found that 85% of people had never bought game from a supermarket or butcher. Of those only 14% claimed an ethical objection to game shooting. This leaves an enormous potential market for game meat which is why we are so enthusiastic about the launch of the BGA. We need a professional, industry-driven marketing board to help people realise that game is for everyone, to get game on the shelves at a reasonable price and to show people how to cook it. Initiatives like our own Game to Eat have achieved so much already, but imagine what we can achieve if we can motivate those that have never bought game.

On the afternoon of the launch, the BGA team visited Number 10 to meet with Lord Randall, the Prime Minister's environment advisor. He made it clear he is very keen to see progress in the area of self-regulation and standards. The engagement of Number 10 points to the BGA's second, and some might argue more significant, role. The BGA will be bringing enforceable self-regulation to game shooting. The BGA has been launched as a levy-funded operation, with a view to marketing the game produced by member shoots. These member shoots will be subject to random and regular inspection from the same body that audits the famous Red Tractor scheme, and will be subject to a rigorous complaints and disciplinary procedure.

Game finally has its own equivalent of farming's Red Tractor, which is especially important at a time in which the political climate around game shooting is becoming increasingly hostile. It is now vital that every shoot, big or small, signs up to the scheme which will ensure that we can continue to promote and protect shooting in parliament, in the media and on the ground.