IT was set up to help city consumers reconnect with the food they eat by offering seasonal produce from local growers, with a market garden and vegetable delivery bag scheme.

IT was set up to help city consumers reconnect with the food they eat by offering seasonal produce from local growers, with a market garden and vegetable delivery bag scheme.

But the latest venture by Glasgow Locavore, a not-for-profit food company, has proved slightly more controversial after it put on sale pork from two pigs which it had kept in a public park.

The two 60g Gloucester Old Spot pigs were raised from six-week-old piglets on a piece of overgrown land at the edge of Queen??s Park Bowling Club??s disused tennis courts and were fed on organic waste from the company's shop and gardens.

This week, they went for slaughter an the abattoir in Wishaw before being butchered by McDougall??s in Cardonald, who will also cure bacon and make sausages.

Today the first-ever batch of Queen??s Park Pork goes on sale at £10 a kilo in the form of bacon, sausages, chops, belly, ham, cheeks, trotters, ears, snouts and even bones. The combined 80g yield was almost sold out before it even hit the counter, the lot having been pre-ordered by 100 Locavore customers.

Reuben Chesters, founder of Glasgow Locavore, said he was delighted by the result, from which he will make the grand total of around £350 after fees, some of which he will donate to the SSPCA as a thank you for its support.

But the project has not been as straightforward as it sounds. Locals became so fond of the pigs - who were purposely never named - that they mounted an online campaign to save them.

The Pigs in the Rex website garnered 1,500 followers, outraged that the eight-month-olds were to be ??stunned, hung upside down and drained of blood through the throat??. It urged people to appeal to Mr Chesters to ??have mercy on the park pigs?? and not to send them to the slaughterhouse.

Over 570 people signed a petition to save the pigs and a protest at the site was organised on Twitter and Facebook. Locavorewatch.com has been set up with a map pinpointing the site, and posted the comment: ??Queens Park pigs met their unnatural death today??.

One member of the vegan community who wishes to remain anonymous even offered to pay for a pig sanctuary on the East Coast of Scotland so the animals could live happily and die naturally in old age. ??I feel Locavore is showing contempt for these two individual pigs,?? he told The Herald, ??because they??re just being used to make a point.??

Others also made their views known on social media websites.

Louise Simpson, on Locavore??s Facebook, said: ??At a local level, there are various ways to teach others and it surely doesn??t have to involve the demise animals who have become socialised with humans.??

Fellow protester David Scott added: ??We do not need to eat meat. Killing two extra pigs will have zero impact on the behaviour of multiples or suppliers. Killing for profit is killing for profit.??

A comment on the Change.org site posted: ??Sadly, the owner of Locavore chose killing over compassion and the two park pigs were led out of their home at The Croft and into a trailer to begin their journey to the abattoir [and] the butchers.

"These pigs are two out of billions of animals killed for their flesh. You can say no to the cruelty and killing of the meat industry by choosing a vegan diet."

Another posted: ??Humanity is measured by its compassion to those who are vulnerable .. RIP little porcines, this is a sad day for those who cared.??

But Laura Kneale, visiting the pigs with her baby daughter, said: ??My main concern is for the animal??s welfare, and if I knew an animal was treated fairly then I??d be less uncomfortable eating it. What they??re doing has been really important - it has brought up issues of animal welfare.??Over 570 people signed a petition to save the pigs and a protest at the site was organised on the twitter and Facebook account @pigsintherex.

A commenter on Locavorewatch.com posted: "Tonight I think of those 2 community members that are no longer with us. The story both started and ended with them at first glance, but scratch the surface and it goes far far deeper. ??Mon the pigs.??

Mr Chesters said: "People have different points of view, particularly vegans, who think it is wrong to hurt the animals and want the pigs to stay, but they are being reared to be eaten.

"We had a big clean up before the pigs went in, but they dug up old milk bottles which we cleared up as soon as we saw them. We have had the Scottish SPCA and Glasgow Trading Standards visit and they gave us the thumbs up.

??The idea was to get the pigs in and make it clear to folk that they??re for food, that they??ll be fed waste from our shop, have lots of space and attention and fertilise the ground.

??But I think some people would sometimes rather not see the best and not hear about the worst.??

He added: ??One lady said she??d stopped eating pork altogether because she was appalled our pigs were being killed. Some of the comments we receive were really quite vicious.?? supplied as six-week-old piglets by Allan Steel of Lochbyre, the rare breed smallholding at Newton Mearns, south of Glasgow.

say a step of

The concept of nose-to-tail eating has been fashionable in foodie circles since 2004, when the London chef Fergus Henderson first advocated cooking every part of a pig to reduce waste. Now, ten years on, the concept has taken a giant leap forward with the launch today of Queen??s Park Pork, from pigs raised in a Glasgow public park - even if it has put some snouts out of joint.

Queen??s Park Pork is the brainchild of Reuben Chesters, founder of Glasgow Locavore, a not-for-profit local food production hub whose mission is to promote help city consumers reconnect with the food they eat.

He set up the community interest company on the city??s south side three years ago and has opened a shop selling fresh seasonal produce from local growers, and launched a weekly veg delivery bag scheme to 150 households in and around Glasgow. This has proved so popular he has now founded a 2.5 acre market garden in Neilston to supply customers with the freshest, most seasonal locally grown produce possible.

Keen to address the issues surrounding mass-produced meat, earlier this year he founded Urban Croft, a piece of overgrown land at the edge of Queen??s Park Bowling Club??s disused tennis courts where he raised two 60g Gloucester Old Spot pigs supplied as six-week-old piglets by Allan Steel of Lochbyre, the rare breed smallholding at Newton Mearns, south of Glasgow.

Despite the negative reaction, Mr Chesters said the project has been more successful than he could ever have imagined.

The 28-year-old said: ??We??ve always sold meat in the shop and often people didn??t know or care where it came from.

??There are thousands of pigs slaughtered all across Scotland every day that have never seen daylight, are fed a soya bean mix which causes deforestation - just to make cheap sausages in supermarkets.

??People aren??t giving those big companies a hard time. It??s absolutely fine that they give us a hard time. I just hope it helps people think about it.??