A FARM shop is hoping to grow meat as a collective by setting up a pig club for its members.

Tim Freathy, of Depden Farm Shop, near Bury St Edmunds, said the discovery of horsemeat in processed foods had highlighted that the food chain for even relatively simple products that can easily be made or grown close to home is “vast and complicated”.

“The answer is to keep the delivery chain as short as possible. Eat what is in season, eat locally grown and processed food and buy from your local butcher, or farm shop,” he said.

“At Depden we have decided to put this into action and are going to offer a pig club for our members.

“If there is enough interest, we should be able to start our first collectively-owned pigs in a month or so.

“We think this could be a model for animal rearing in the future.”