I'm lucky - I don't have to ask my butcher, Richard Golsby from Eynsham, if the pork he sells is locally produced. Like all his customers, I know it is, which is probably why he maintains a good trade in pork products. However, he admits that pork is a winter seller, and not as popular as beef or lamb during the warmer months.

Every now and again Richard manages to get hold of some Gloucester Old Spots, one of the oldest pedigree breeds in the world and popular with some farmers because they are placid, easy to manage and ideally suited to outdoor living all year round. The public love them, too, because they taste so good.

Old Spots come in at a slightly higher price, but the cost difference is negligible, because even these fine beasts are not able to command the price they really deserve. Yes - our pig industry is in crisis. Accelerating feed costs are forcing pig farmers all over the country out of business. Yet if British consumers were prepared to seek out British pork when shopping, the pig industry could be saved from melt-down.

Winnie, an Oxfordshire pig from Vitality Farm, Wallingford, joined campaigning farmers on their trip to Downing Street earlier this month to present a 10,000-signature petition organised by the National Pig Association, calling for help for the industry. Winnie headed a similar trip in 2000, when pig farmers first attempted to draw attention to their plight. Her owner, Marianne Hill, whose farm lost all its hay, forage crops and vegetables during the 2007 floods, said Winnie was a very sociable pig and loved all the attention.

Like so many farmers, Marianne and her partner, Tony Smith, have spent the past eight months struggling against great odds to get the farm up and running again. They both felt it was extremely important for farmers to campaign again.

"When the pig farmers got together in 2000, there were 8,000 breeding sows in the UK; now there are half that number. If we can't convince the public to pay a little extra for British pork, there won't be any pig farmers left in the UK soon."

Nick Dalton, of the Wallingford-based co-operative TV Camback, which markets more than ten per cent of the national pig kill, helped organise the event. He says it was a great success.

"At first we thought just 50 farmers would attend. But 50 turned into 200 and by the time the petition was handed in, there were more than 500 farmers. The total was almost 1,000, if we count all the allied industries that were there to support the farmers too."

He said: "Although we are in desperate straits at the moment, it was good to meet up with so many young people. I just hope that there's an industry there for them because, despite their enthusiasm, they can't live on fresh air."

TV Camback was established more than 30 years ago and besides marketing pigs to all leading processors in the country, it also helps farmers make the most out of their stock.

Nick explained the price of grain is but one of many problems and, until things change, it costs the British farmer far more to rear their pigs than it does farmers on the Continent.

"Take Denmark, for example," he said. "We have high welfare standards that dictate how many pigs can go into a pen, and we no longer restrict the sow's movements at certain times in the breeding cycle. This means that pig farmers in Denmark, who are not governed by these rules, can raise 25 pigs from one sow in a year, whereas we rear about 21. By being able to place more pigs in a pen, they can house ten pigs to our eight, which means they are not spending so much on housing their pigs either. All this makes for a far cheaper product."

Naturally, the increasing cost of grain is influencing prices too. Half the cost of rearing a pig goes in feed, and as wheat prices continue to rocket, so does the cost of feeding the pigs. As a result, pig farming - which gets no subsides - is under threat. Farmers on the Continent can offset some of this increase, as they are still adding blood and bone meal to the pigs diet.

So, owing to price pressure from virtually all quarters, the farmers are having to accept a lower price for their pigs. What other industry would sell goods at a price which is lower than the cost of production? As consumers, we all accept that luxury items such as cars, electrical goods, fuel, clothing and so many other things continue to rise in price. We pay the asked price, or go without. So why don't we accept that quality food, such as British pork, will continue to increase in price too?

How do consumers tell that it's British pork they are buying, I asked Nick. He agreed with me that unless you buy from a local butcher, it's sometimes difficult to tell, as some continental pork products are processed and packaged over here. He said that some labelling is very dubious and certainly needs tightening up.

"What we tell people is to go for the Quality Standard mark which comes with the Union Jack. We are also saying: 'Buy local; go to your local butcher if you can.'"

Jane Bowler, of Dews Meadow Farm Shop, East Hanney, has been producing additive-free pork with her husband Andrew for more than 20 years, and can be found at most Oxfordshire farmers' markets selling their pork. She said that, sadly, some people just had to buy by price.

She checked the price of sausages in her local cash and carry last week and was amazed to find that packs of sausages containing just 50 per cent meat could be bought for just 68 pence and would probably retail at under a pound. This was a price she simply couldn't match. As Jane went on to say, her product was pure British pork reared humanely and processed to the very highest standards, but unfortunately, people feeding a large family were forced to buy according to price.