Game to Eat - Food journalists go deer stalking
We are deerstalking and pheasant shooting in Sussex - and it is all for a good cause. The Countryside Alliance's Game To Eat campaign is showing food journalists from The Sunday Times and LoveFood.com where game meat comes from. This item first appeared in Fieldsports Britain, episode 155. To watch the whole show go to
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We’re proud to promote enjoyment of fieldsports and the countryside. There are three guiding principles to everything we do on Fieldsports Channel:
▶ Hunt, shoot and fish responsibly
▶ Respect the quarry
▶ Ensure a humane, clean and quick kill
Take part in nature. Join the Fieldsports Nation
Risk warning: investments of this nature carry risks to your capital as well as potential rewards. Approved as a financial promotion by Envestors Limited. Which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No. 07236828.)
Why shoot deer?
There are more than two million red, roe, fallow, sika, muntjac and Chinese water deer in Britain’s countryside and semi-urban areas, the highest level for 1,000 years. Numbers have doubled since 1999, according to the Deer Initiative, the UK government’s deer agency.
Deer are an attractive and an important part of our wildlife. However, they have no natural predator in the UK so numbers must be sensibly and strategically managed to keep them in balance with their habitat and to prevent damage to crops, trees, woodland flora, gardens and other wildlife.
Deer cause £4.5 million-worth (Forestry Commission Scotland) of damage to plantations and other commercial woodlands in Scotland. Crop damage is estimated at £4.3m a year according to DEFRA, with the greatest damage on cereal crops in east and south-west England.
More than 8,000 hectares (Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology) of woodland with SSI status is currently in ‘unfavourable’ or ‘recovering’ condition due to deer impacts such as browsing and fraying. Deer can also influence the variety of wildlife in woodlands and other habitats by altering structural and plant species diversity. According to the University of East Anglia’s Dr Paul Dolman, that has resulted in a 50% decline in woodland bird numbers where deer are present, impacting particularly on nightingales, blackcaps, chiffchaffs and warblers.
Deer are susceptible to Bovine TB and may be responsible for the transmission of TB to cattle. They are also the likely driver behind the UK’s increasing tick population (Scharlemann et al 2008).
Happily, venison is a delicious meat. It is wild, natural and free range, and – almost fat-free – it is one of the healthiest meats available today. Results from research commissioned by the Game-to-Eat campaign (Leatherhead Food International Research 2006) suggest that there are real health benefits to eating game. Venison is high in protein, low in saturated fatty acids and contains higher levels of iron than any other red meat.
Why shoot game birds?
Game is wild, natural and free range, and it is one of the healthiest meats available today. It is low in cholesterol and high in protein. Results from research commissioned by the Game-to-Eat campaign (Leatherhead Food International Research 2006) suggest that there are real health benefits to eating game. Both pheasant and partridge contain high levels of iron, protein, vitamin B(6) and selenium, which helps to protect cells from damage caused by free radicals.
In addition to the nutritional benefits of game, game shooting is worth £2 billion annually to the rural economy and supports 74,000 jobs. There are 480,000 (UK government figures) active game shooters in the UK who enjoy bird shooting under the principles of the Code of Good Shooting Practice.
More than 2 million hectares are actively managed for shooting in the UK creating proven (PACEC, 2014) conservation benefits and preserving important habitats for a diverse range of flora and fauna, in particular farmland birds. UK shooting providers spend £5.4 million on cover crop seeds every year and maintain over 25,000ha of wild-bird cover.
Fieldsports Britain - Partridges in Paris and calling foxes in Scandinavia
We are going continental this week. We are on a shooting estate near Paris enjoying a day's driven partridges with the research & development team from Browning shotguns. We take a look at the latest foxcalling techniques to come from Sweden. Back at home in the UK, we are out with the Countryside Alliance, taking journalists deerstalking and pheasant shooting in Sussex. And it's the launch of our new series with bushcraft expert Jonny Crockett, who is showing his tip for getting drinkable water from a river. There's News Stump, there's Hunting YouTube, it's time to sit back, relax and watch some top telly.
Here are the links:
Driven partridge
▶ Join the Fieldsports Nation and fund our fight for fieldsports in the media - for full details for YouTube membership for the same via Patreon To become a more structural shareholder, visit
▶ Sign up for our weekly email newsletter
▶ Fieldsports Shop Go to
We’re proud to promote enjoyment of fieldsports and the countryside. There are three guiding principles to everything we do on Fieldsports Channel:
▶ Hunt, shoot and fish responsibly
▶ Respect the quarry
▶ Ensure a humane, clean and quick kill
Take part in nature. Join the Fieldsports Nation
Risk warning: investments of this nature carry risks to your capital as well as potential rewards. Approved as a financial promotion by Envestors Limited. Which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No. 07236828.)
Why shoot game birds?
Game is wild, natural and free range, and it is one of the healthiest meats available today. It is low in cholesterol and high in protein. Results from research commissioned by the Game-to-Eat campaign (Leatherhead Food International Research 2006) suggest that there are real health benefits to eating game. Both pheasant and partridge contain high levels of iron, protein, vitamin B(6) and selenium, which helps to protect cells from damage caused by free radicals.
In addition to the nutritional benefits of game, game shooting is worth £2 billion annually to the rural economy and supports 74,000 jobs. There are 480,000 (UK government figures) active game shooters in the UK who enjoy bird shooting under the principles of the Code of Good Shooting Practice.
More than 2 million hectares are actively managed for shooting in the UK creating proven (PACEC, 2014) conservation benefits and preserving important habitats for a diverse range of flora and fauna, in particular farmland birds. UK shooting providers spend £5.4 million on cover crop seeds every year and maintain over 25,000ha of wild-bird cover.
Deer in the snow, ep. 2
To survive heavy winter, deer are fed with corn. Vosges, France