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This film is part of Free

Nation's Food - Meat

Where's the beef? The exotic origins of the British Sunday roast are explored in this short film about meat

1917 8 mins Silent

Overview

Beginning in a cattle ranch in Argentina and an Antipodean mutton farm, this information film follows the journey of imported meat from pasture to cold storage. To save the audience's stomachs, the camera doesn't venture inside the abattoir. Instead, animals are herded and disinfected, before carcasses are unloaded on a Thames-side dock and packed into barges. With wartime food shortages pinching, every piece of the animal was precious - which explains the cannon, ready to fire on light-fingered "sea pirates".