As the Easter break approaches this weekend, the National Sheep Association (NSA) is encouraging shoppers to choose delicious UK produced lamb for their Easter Sunday celebrations.

As the much enjoyed, traditional choice of many families across the UK, a roast leg of lamb is the perfect meal to enjoy at this time of year as new season lamb is starting to become available on butchers’ counters and supermarket shelves. Though NSA is encouraging shoppers to be alert on their Easter shopping trip to ensure they purchase British lamb, produced sustainably with the highest welfare standards.

NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker explains: “The supermarket shelves will be full of promotions luring shoppers in to fill their shopping trollies with delicious produce to celebrate with friends and families over the bank holiday weekend, including lamb. We hope consumers choose to enjoy British lamb, or even hogget - sheep meat from animals approximately one year of age that have taken a little longer to reach the supply chain because of their breed or farming system.

“UK welfare standards are amongst the highest in the world and our production methods help to maintain the UK’s much loved farmed environment, shaping our meadows, hills and uplands.”

Consumers are increasingly considering the environmental impact of their shopping choices, with much debate on the role of livestock production in climate change. Despite discussions suggesting that red meat is a contributor to climate change, recent research has shown evidence that traditional pasture based grazing systems, such as those adopted by many UK sheep farmers, can be part of a wider solution to this issue. Free range sheepmeat is therefore a great choice year-round, especially at times of celebration, such as Easter.

Mr Stocker continues: “The UK sheep industry operates extensively on open pasture, much of which is unsuitable for other land use. Grass-fed lamb has a far lower environmental impact compared to processed foods and crucially grassland (pasture) also acts as a vital carbon sink. Grazing sheep produced in mixed farming systems, help naturally rejuvenate soil for arable crops, helping farmers to find balance between biodiversity and productivity.

“A roast leg or shoulder of lamb is a perfect celebratory meal. Consumers choosing to enjoy lamb this Easter will not be disappointed. It is a meat that is full of flavour, produced naturally by the nation’s hard-working farmers.”

NSA hopes consumers add UK produced lamb to their Easter activities this year. All at NSA wish everyone a very Happy Easter.