Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's resolution to the shareholders of Tesco Plc, calling on the behemothic supermarket chain to raise its welfare standards for chickens, was beaten by the not inconsiderable margin of 4 billion shares to 438.9 million shares - even Gordon Brown would find it difficult to say "we will of course listen to the people," having taken such a sound thrashing.
I'm not with those who have claimed that the whole resolution business was a personal publicity stunt - why does Hugh need the personal publicity? I also disagree with the argument that rather than pressurise a High Street institution Hugh should be putting his efforts and money into providing high quality cheap food for the poor.
Now the last part is interesting in the light of David Cameron's plans for social reform which will be taking more resources away from the public sector and asking the private sector to look after the consequences. I think this is an extreme version of the political world I thought we'd left behind twenty odd years ago - the old Labour v Conservative argument that one taxes you higher to provide for the whole of society whilst the other taxes you less so that individuals can pick up the slack of Government. That was one of the cornerstones of Thatcherite social policies and is obviously one that Mr Cameron hopes to return to, it will be interesting to see how far he pursues that line of thinking, I already believe that his idea of opting out of the Social Charter will mean he won't survive one term as P.M - but that's another argument for 2010 and after.
Back to Hugh. There is always a slight uneasiness when it comes to compassion in farming, we are after all talking about animals that are being reared exclusively for their meat and there must be some sort of ethical confusion between the two. I do think however that animals deserve the right to live in non-barbaric (is that good English?) circumstances during their lives however short.
Tesco's board had recommended voting against the resolution, arguing Whittingstall's proposal would increase the price of intensively reared chickens. This despite a last minute plea from Hugh, and covered by this mornings Today programme, that the increase quoted by Tesco of £1 per chicken was out of line with that of Somerfield who sell chickens raised in a more humane manner for just 10p more than the Tesco bird. Somebody must be lying and if I had to choose between the company that has coloured coded all its chilled food products because it employs so many staff who can't speak English to work the night shift filling shelves or the amiable smallholder who believes that local produce means grown or reared locally to the point of sale and not local to the warehouse it has just arrived in from Chile, well I know which one I believe.
5 comments:
Ironically the 4 billion shares is probably 7 people and the 400 million shares is 10573 people!
I agree too and it wouldn't cost Tesco anything, they would pressure the supplier to earn less and even lose money as some now do and disguise the rest of the cost to the consumer.
The ironic thing here Span is that farmers who produce organic or friendly reared birds are selling every animal or vegetable they can grow. I've got a compassionate/free range farmer in Hampshire as a client and last Christmas he sold 4,000 free range turkeys - from one farm! The public appetite (no pun) for these birds is there but Tesco is some giant deaf corporation - as you say controlled by a few interested parties who don't want to see their dividend go down.
Well, they do sell low priced chickens and I know I have to watch the pennies but equally they can sell more animal friendly reared chickens if they wish and not add too much to the cost of the chicken.
Tomorrow I am cooking a medium chicken that should give us two decent meals for two people and maybe even some leftovers for sandwiches and it's come in at £3.59(that's coming in at around 80p a portion per person)How much cheaper can you do that for?
The chicken is said to come from a farm allowing the chicken freedom to roam, live longer and fed on a better quality diet.
I think the price is right Gildy, I think Tesco will start to change things gradually whatever they may say publicly.
They'll try and recapture some of the shoppers from Aldi and such outlets and as you say I think they'll also change policy but in their own time and will not want to be seen as bowing to public pressure.
Post a Comment