Let us praise pigs. And not just any old pig, but the Gloucester Old Spot pig in particular. The breed has just been awarded protected status, specifically Traditional Speciality Guarantee designation, by the mandarins of the EU. Pork from this splendid beast joins West Country farmhouse cheddar cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies and Cornish sardines (aka pilchards, for a pilchard is nothing more than a grown up sardine) in the roll call of honour of British foods.

When all around is change and decay, of rather change at the speed of light, there is something immensely comforting about the shape and size and purpose of the pig. The Gloucester Old Spot is the antithesis of the principles of modern industrial farming. The British Pig Association website describes it as "a large meaty animal with a broad and deep body and large hams". Such poetry. That's why it was once the bacon pig of choice. The GOS tends to carry a greater depth of fat than your modern industrial meat machines, and where there is fat, there is flavour to savour.

Of course, such fat is an anathema in terms of the contemporary diet. Although the Italians, whose diet we are supposed to emulate in the interests of living for ever, like to cure the back fat and sell it in smart delis as lardo, to be sliced as thin as lace and loaded onto slices of warm toast. In southern Italy and Sicily (and Spain, I believe), they render down pork fat for use as shortening (strutto or sugno) in making those divine pastries that become so addictive. Mind you, the Gloucester Old Spot has been a bit of a food fashion item all over the country for some time. There's hardly a gastropub worthy of the name or restaurant that doesn't list some portion of GOS, as aficionados affectionately know it, on their menus, usually in the cheaper forms such as sausages and/or belly. The patrons at St John just love their GOS, The Harwood Arms in Fulham, too, trumpets its GOS credentials, as does Sally Clark from time to time.

Only the Tamworth can really challenge the supremacy of the Gloucester Old Spot as the delight of gourmets. The Tamworth, incidentally, the pig of the russet hair and narrow frame, was the only breed of British pig that wasn't cross-bred with plumper continental breeds (especially the Black Pig of Naples) and Chinese pigs in the 18th and 19th centuries. That's why it looks closer to the wild boar than other porky personalities. But the GOS shouldn't just be treasured for its admirable eating qualities. A GOS sow is the most devoted or mothers. It's a hardy, cheery, even-tempered, thrifty animal, and therefore suited to outdoor rearing. It was once known as the 'orchard pig', although I prefer the description 'the pig with the built in apple sauce', because it grazed on the windfall apples in the orchards that once grew in abundance along the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire. Indeed, another legend has it that the distinctive round black marks are bruises caused by apples falling from the trees under which the pigs used to rootle. The only drawback to the contemporary love affair with the Gloucester Old Spot is that it distracts our attention from other fabulous native breeds of pig such as the Large Black, Middle White, Berkshire and Welsh pigs, which are all listed as vulnerable or at risk on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust website. My own favourite and producer of the finest piece of pork that I've ever eaten, the British Lop (aka the cottage pig because it was the amiable porker that every smallholder once kept at the bottom of the garden to hoover up the household scraps), is actually classified as endangered, which means there are less than 200 of them left.

It's high time to get the British Lop cared for by the warm bosom of protected name status. What foods or breeds would you get listed?