Home
News
update:Jul 1, 2008
Tesco rejects chef's chicken welfare resolution
Tesco shareholders have voted against a resolution
from UK chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall calling the retail giant to improve its
chicken-rearing standards.
Fearnley-Whittingstall recently proposed a resolution at
Tesco's annual general meeting requesting the supermarket upgrade its minimum
conditions to the RSPCA's "Freedom Food" marque.
To be passed, the resolution needed the approval of at least 75% of
shareholders - it won just under 10%.
The Press Association reports that Fearnley-Whittingstall said Tesco was
failing to meet its own stated welfare standards for chickens, and had also left
campaigners with a bill for £87,000 for distributing their special resolution.
"This is now a special resolution that requires 75% of the vote to succeed and
that doesn't seem very democratic to me," stated that chef.
Tesco has a greater duty of care to Britain's chickens than any other
retailer simply because of its scale, Fearnley-Whittingstall said. They have to
stop claiming that as an organisation they uphold the Five Freedoms (recommended
by the Farm Animal Welfare Council) because patently they don't."
Tesco has stated that its standard chickens already meet the Farm Animal
Welfare Council's
Five Freedoms for livestock. It has rejected the cook's claims
that by selling factory farm chickens, it is breaching its own welfare policies.
Related link:
Editor WorldPoultry
To comment, login here
Or register to be able to comment.