TV chef loses Tesco chicken vote
TV cook and Tesco shareholder Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall explains his campaign
Tesco shareholders have not backed proposals to improve welfare standards for chickens championed by TV cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
The chef wanted investors to adopt new standards for rearing birds, but the plan got 10% of votes at Tesco’s annual general meeting in Solihull.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall and other chefs have highlighted what they say are appalling conditions in some farms.
But Tesco maintains it sources chickens from farms with high standards.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall called the backing he garnered for his proposals a “significant showing” and denied that his efforts had been wasted.
For the plans to have been passed, Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall needed 75% of the shareholders’ votes.
High-profile campaign
Tesco, which accounts for more than a fifth of all intensively reared chickens sold, was criticised earlier this year when it cut the retail price of its standard whole chicken to £1.99.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall, star of food shows including Back to River Cottage, and a Tesco shareholder, has highlighted the plight of chickens in many intensive indoor battery farms.
He and other celebrity chefs argue that conditions in such farms are unacceptable and that supermarkets are partly to blame for this for selling chickens too cheaply.
He had urged shareholders to support his motion, which would require Tesco to adopt higher minimum standards for chickens it purchases.
Had the proposal been backed by shareholders, Tesco would have had to adopt the RSPCA’s freedom farm standards on how birds are fed, exercised and transported.
Farms approved by the RSPCA for meeting “higher welfare” standards are able to carry the freedom farm logo on their products.
Tesco says it has adopted such standards on a growing number of its farms, but that to do so universally straight away would force up the price of chickens and that this would be unpopular with families already facing higher shopping bills.
But Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall said this was simply not true and that by making such changes, Tesco could make its poultry business more profitable.
“We believe that if Tesco does not make these changes, it will begin to lose its share of the poultry market,” he said in comments released ahead of the meeting.
“You can’t budget your way out of an ethical issue. The gap between what Tesco says and what it does must be closed.”
‘High standards’
Tesco demands “high standards” of animal welfare from its suppliers, it says, with all farmers having to meet its code of practice on standards as well as general industry regulations.
“We employ a dedicated team of agricultural specialists to ensure that farmed animals are reared for Tesco in a humane and compassionate manner,” it says on its website.
“We ensure that our standards are met by using our internal team of agricultural experts and independent auditors, who carry out third-party inspections.”
Corporate governance firm PIRC, which backed Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall’s resolution, said it had not expected to win the vote but that it had raised awareness of the issue.
Higher standards would create a “more enriched environment” for chickens and would ultimately be healthier for customers, it added.
Hot topics
Tesco is facing a raft of other shareholder resolutions, most of which are likely to be defeated as powerful institutional investors line up behind up the firm’s management.
Tesco said it could not release details of the resolutions before the meeting started.
Other issues that are likely to be debated range from calls for union recognition at its new US stores to allegations of low pay for workers employed by global suppliers, particularly in India.
I just found this site which has a really handy list of links and ideas about ethical shopping – not just with regard to food, but everything from phones to beauty products.
Those of you living in the UK in particular will probably benefit from this.
This is a relatively easy dish that relies on your own tastebuds to discern what is and isn’t enough seasoning, but I’ll explain what I used to make it. As for quantities, use your own judgement dependent on how much you want to make.
Main ingredients:
- tinned chopped tomatoes (if you’re feeling fancy, by all means skin and chop your own);
- one courgette;
- one medium potato;
- one small to medium onion;
- one green or yellow pepper;
- mushrooms (obviously, dependent on size and how much you like mushrooms);
- aubergine;
- Quorn ‘chicken-style pieces’ IF YOU’RE INSANE;
- bird’s eye chillis;
- tomato puree;
- paprika;
- coarse black pepper;
- mixed dried herbs, or fresh herbs if you prefer (suggestions: oregano and basil);
- garlic salt, or plain garlic gloves and salt.
The process is fairly simple: chop the vegetables into small cubes (although not too small in the case of the aubergines and courgettes or they’ll go soggy) and fry the potato and onion in some olive oil until mostly soft. Add the Quicken if so inclined, and fry for a few minutes to soften, then add the rest of the vegetables and fry for a few minutes.
Add the chopped tomatoes and stir in. For the amount of vegetables I’ve listed, you would need around two normal tins. Add some tomato puree (one heaped teaspoon per tin) and mix. Add some water to thin the mixture as it cooks.
Add the seasonings and chilli according to taste and simmer until all the vegetables are cooked through and soft and the tomatoes have formed a thick sauce.
Serve hot with rice or refrigerate and eat cold with bread. Usually keeps for a couple of days.
And that really is all there is to it.
My first experience of Quorn was a dry, tasteless slab described as an ‘escalope’ and covered in breadcrumbs. It had the approximate consistency and texture of wet cardboard dried out and backed with sandpaper.
My second experience was with their ‘chicken style pieces’, which I intended to use for a stir-fry or as part of a particular dish I usually make with lime and honey and eat with rice. However, this particular batch was turned into a form of Mediterranean stew, with courgettes, mushrooms, peppers and in this instance, diced potato, with chilli and onion in a tomato sauce.
This is a meal I have always made in large quantities, with beef, and generally eaten cold with bread or hot with rice.
First lesson: potatoes take longer to cook than Quorn ‘Chicken’ (hence forth to be referred to as ‘Quicken’). This may actually explain why the Quicken ended up approximately the consistency of a ball of sodden toilet roll. And about as flavourful. Hot, prepared like this, quicken is almost unpalatable and actually made me gag slightly toward the end. Today, cold, it does have a slight bite to it, but remains pretty much disgusting.
Second lesson: do not – ever – get Quicken wet again. Even if it is in Italian-style tomato sauce. I’m half-expecting it to multiply and start running riot.
The dish itself, despite the Quicken, was surprisingly nice even being completely meat-free. Ever since I have cooked for myself, one of the privary flavours in my dishes as come from Knorr Chicken Stockcubes, which are obviously not vegetarian friendly. This time, the only flavours come from the vegetables themselves, two birds eye chillis, paprika, [quite a lot of] garlic salt, pepper and dried mixed herbs.
This isn’t something I really considered. When I’ve cooked for vegetarians in the past there have been alternative flavours, such as cheese. The good news, I guess, is that it seems that I don’t need to worry about the strong flavours I’m used to being completely absent.
In future, unless I can find a more pleasant meat substitute, I think I’ll just replace the Quicken with aubergine (that’s eggplant to the non-Europeans) and leave it at that. If you want to try it out, the details are here
Vegetarianism, then: something I never really thought I’d gravitate to. To any extent.
However, I’ve lately made the choice first to restrict the meat I eat to ethically farmed sources, and more recently, I’ve stopped buying meat products from the supermarket altogether. Don’t get me wrong, I love meat and seafood, I really do (especially the seafood) – there is absolutely no squick behind this decision. I’m doing this because of the way the animals are farmed and the greed of the meat industry itself; there is an on-going pressure to force down meat prices so they are virtually unsustainable for the farmers and inhumane for the animals. I’ve chosen not to personally buy into that and help promote farming on such an enormous scale, which is ultimately detrimental to the farmers producing the end product anyway. (A recent programme here in the UK revealed that the average chicken farmer selling mass-farmed roasting chickens which would be sold for around £2.50 in the supermarkets would only receive 3p per chicken.)
So, I’ve started trying out the vegetarian substitutes (Quorn escalopes are not my favourite 
) and figuring out for myself what exactly I’m going to exclude from my diet, devising my own set of rules for acceptability.
I have no problem with eating meat from small farms, where the animals are at least treated with a certain respect and the sale of the produce is generally fairer on the farmer (on-site farm shops=major bonus), but living in London, as I do, finding and affording such products seems to be relatively impossible. The fact that I’ll be moving to Hove in East Sussex, with my best friend Julie, will probably aid this to some extent as the south coast is lined by countryside and not surrounded by mile after mile of concrete.
I would love to have the same self-sufficiency and respect for food sources promoted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (one of our country’s main proponents of eating with conscience), but my chances of ever owning a small holding are slim, and frankly, I’m too lazy – so I’m going to have to do this as a lowly city dweller.
So my main rules will have to be:
- if it had a face, I’m not buying it from a supermarket (unless it’s a jammy biscuit);
- if it had a face, but I can be sure of the source and know that it was generally ethically farmed, I will consider buying from respectable local suppliers;
- if it contains egg (such as mayonnaise) it must be from free range (thank you Hellmanns);
- where dairy is concerned, soya products are always preferrable, however, vegetarian-approved cheese is also acceptable if necessary (I haven’t explored the cheese issue, as yet, but I already use soya milk rather than dairy and have done for some time).
As I already mentioned, shellfish – especially oysters and prawns – are my favourite foods. They’re a peculiarly ambiguous category, because they don’t have a face but they do seem to have greater cognitive activity than say, a potato. For this reason, I’m going to categorise them under meat; which means no ‘fresh’ packs from the supermarket. I generally only eat oysters at restaurants anyway (which creates my next issue) but prawns I will usually eat at least once a week; it’ll be a strange change to my diet to rule them out.
On the matter of restaurants, is it okay to eat meat or fish at restaurants, as I haven’t purchased the original product myself? I suppose it’s similar to the argument presented by my vegan friend, Edge; on the matter of vegans purchasing second-hand leather: it’s acceptable because the individual has not directly contributed to the original demand for the product.
I think this is one to test when I next eat out at a restaurant and see what I can find out from the staff and weigh it up in my conscience then…
The thing is, I am not calling myself a vegetarian – I want to make that clear, because I don’t want to steal the thunder of the people who do dedicate their lives to the lifestyle, as I have a lot of respect for them (unless they call themselves ‘pescatarians’ or ‘vegetarians who eat fish’ in which case they can fuck off and die) and I don’t want to be a hypocrite. Friends like Edge and Matte who are both vegan, H and Jay, who have each been vegetarian for, if I recall, over a decade, have been my main inspiration in this, and I appreciate their support.
Perhaps, instead, this deserves its own name? We’ll go with ethivore, for now.
So, this is kind of a big thing for me, so I’ve actually decided to blog the process and record my experiences of exploring vegetarian products, recipes and finding respectable sources. I’m not sure whether it will be of interest to anyone, but it makes sense to separate it from my regular journals.
The ultimate concern here, is to not actively contribute to the meat industry – human beings are designed to consume meat, that’s how we’ve evolved, but we did not evolve because of factory farming.
