The demand for organic produce and meat produced without the routine use of pesticides and antibiotics has grown substantially since the BSE disaster of 1996 and coincides with public concern over soon-to-arrive genetically modified foods.
Some organically-raised meat can be nearly twice as expensive as conventional products but organic campaigners hope the gap will narrow as more farmers enter the market. They are trying to convince producers it is worth changing to organic methods - a transfer process that takes up to five years for beef farmers.
From January 2000, a quarter of the bacon sold in the UK will come from foreign pigs that have not been fed antibiotics to make them grow faster. The Danish bacon industry, which sells about 250m pounds a year worth of rashers in the UK, abandoned the use of drugs several years ago in response to domestic consumer demand.