Pig farmers have recorded a single in an attempt to raise awareness of the unsustainably low prices they claim to receive.

The single was recorded in London on Thursday and featured 20 pig farmers from around the country singing Stand By Your Ham, an adaptation of Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man.

The chorus runs: "Stand by your ham, sausages, pork and bacon. Help us to stay in business because our pigs are worth it."

The song and a video of the recording will be posted on the pigsareworthit.co.uk website, where visitors can sign a petition demanding fairer prices from supermarkets and caterers. As of last week 7,000 people had signed it.

The so-called Pig Aid initiative is part of wider plans to raise awareness of the plight of pig producers. Farmers are losing up to £26 on each animal, according to the British Pig Executive

The petition will be delivered to 10 Downing Street on 4 March to mark the culmination of a farmers' rally organised by the National Pig Association.

The demonstrators are calling for an extra 7p to 17p per pack of pork products carrying the Quality Standard Mark, and for those prices to be passed down the supply chain.

"The first phase of the BPEX campaign succeeded in persuading supermarkets to begin to raise prices on a range of pork and pork products," said BPEX chairman Stewart Houston.

"But very little of that has found its way down to the producer. The biggest challenge over the next three months will be to make sure those rises reach the producer."

Pig farmers were being forced to leave the industry as a result of the crisis, warned Houston, adding that if nothing was done soon it would be too late to recover.

"We could be in the situation where British consumers may not be able to buy Quality Standard pork for much longer," he said.

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