insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 10 - December 2015 | Page 76

FOOD+DRINK

THE MAC’S FARM, DITCHLING

ETHICAL FOOD
CHOICES
B Y P O L LY H U M P H R I S

Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat, and probably so will we be, if only for a
couple of days spent with our families indulging in food, glorious food; and maybe…just
one more…mince pie.

Perhaps it’s a sign of the times; perhaps it’s because we’re all just so
busy these days and need as much energy as we can get; either way,
now more than ever we’re thinking a little deeper about what we eat and
where it comes from. Provenance is key; we’re weighing up the impact
of our food choices, not only in terms of the health benefits for us, but in
terms of the environment, on struggling food producers all over the world,
and on the welfare of the farm animals that give us our daily bread too.

One such farm is ‘The Macs’, a third-generation farm nestled in the
glorious South Downs village of Ditchling. It’s home to Susie and Danny
Mac, their four children and more than 20,000 organic free-range egglaying hens.
Every day Susie and her brothers, who run neighbouring farms as part of
their family business, Grassington Rangers, supply supermarkets, local
people and businesses with more than 70,000 organic eggs, and Susie
puts their success down to making sure their hens are looked after the
right way.

Which is where RSPCA Assured, the RSPCA’s ethical food label, steps
in. Dedicated to farm animal welfare, RSPCA Assured is a simple and
effective way to help you choose products that have been cared for to
strict RSPCA welfare standards. If there’s an RSPCA Assured label on the
packaging of your eggs, meat, or fish, you know the farm – and everyone
involved in the lives of the animals that live on it – have been approved by
the assessors.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have listened to decades of amazing
advice about farming and we encourage people to come and buy our
organic eggs and see the farm all year round; in summer when it’s green
and beautiful and in winter when it’s wet and looks ugly because we are

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