Tesco PLC News: Tesco Responds to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chicken Welfare Shareholder Resolution; Shareholders to Vote at Upcoming AGM

Tesco responded today to British chicken welfare advocate and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's shareholder resolution designed to get Tesco to change it's chicken welfare procurement and selling policy.

Fresh & Easy Buzz has been reported on the chef-activist's campaign and resolution, which will be presented to Tesco shareholders at its annual general meeting (AGM) on June 27, this week in the blog here and here.

In the resolution document, which was posted this morning on Tesco's website, Fearnley-Whittingstall argues that Tesco's selling of intensive or battery-raised chickens fails to meet the UK Farm Animal Council's "Five Freedoms" standards which Tesco has adopted as its corporate animal welfare policy.

Those five freedoms are:

• Freedom from hunger and thirst

• Freedom from discomfort

• Freedom from pain, injury or disease

• Freedom to express normal and natural behavior

• Freedom from fear and distress

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall argues in his resolution document the intensively raised broiler chickens Tesco is selling fail to meet the Farm Animal Council's "Five Freedoms" because the birds:

• Sustain a significant percentage of hockburn

• Have no access to natural light

• Have no access to the outside

• Have no access to perches or objects that allow them to express their natural behavior.

Tesco disagrees, saying the standard broiler chickens it sells in its stores meet and in some cases exceed the Farm Animal Council's national farm assurance standards for chicken production.

Further, Tesco says the RSPCA Freedom Food standards the chicken welfare activist-campaigner wants the retailer to meet exceed the "Five Freedoms" standards it has adopted as its policy. [Read the UK RSPCA organization's "Good Chicken" guidelines here.]

In a statement in response to Fearnley-Whittingstall's shareholder resolution document, Tesco said:

"We do not agree that this approach is the best way of advancing animal welfare. It would in effect commit us to restricting choice for our customers and pricing out many of them. This would hit our lower-income customers very hard, especially at a time when they are already concerned about rising costs."

Tesco is urging its shareholders to vote against the chicken welfare campaigner's resolution at the annual general meeting on June 27.

Fearnley-Whittingstall's resolution will be tabled as a motion at the annual meeting, with shareholders getting a chance to vote on it.

The UK Farm Animal Council, which is sponsored by the government, and the RSPCA, an independent non-profit animal right organization, are two separate organizations--or "different animals, so to speak. As such, it appears Tesco and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are playing a bit of a written word version of the game of "chicken" in the sense of basing the standards alternatively on the Farm Animal Council on the one hand, and on the RSPCA on the other. Which comes first--the chicken or the egg?

Meanwhile, the chef-chicken welfare campaigner says he is pressing on, rallying supporters in advance of the June 27 meeting.

Tesco also plans to communicate fully to its shareholders it wants them to vote against the resolution at the annual general meeting.

We expect more pro and con publicity to come from both sides of the issue in the next couple weeks leading up to the June 27 Tesco AGM.

Will the stockholders vote against Fearnley-Whittingstall's chicken welfare policy resolution, thereby taking the position that a current bird in the hand beats two in the bush? Or will the shareholders side with the chef-activist, and perhaps the chickens, and vote for his resolution, thereby suggesting a cheap chicken isn't always a happy chicken?

Stay tuned.

You can read the full Tesco chicken welfare shareholder resolution document authored by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall here.

Satire From The Daily Mash: Tesco Nails Chicken to River Cottage Door

SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has stepped up its campaign against TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whttingstall by nailing a live chicken to the door of River Cottage (the chef's farm and home).

Attached to the squawking bird was a note warning the chef he had 24 hours to 'cough-up 86 grand' or there 'might just be a little accident'.

Last week Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy and two henchmen used buckets of chicken blood to paint 'Every Little Helps You Die' in 10 foot high letters on the side of the idyllic West Country small-holding.

Tesco's latest assault follows a barrage of polite letters and phone calls from Fearnley- Whittingstall asking if the company fancied a friendly chat about chicken welfare over a big pot of tea and a slice of Hugh's extra-chocolatey home made chocolate cake.

The chef had hoped to arrange the meeting for a lovely warm afternoon in mid June, just as the last of the apple blossom had floated away on the breeze and the River Cottage strawberries ripened to the colour of a Dorset pillar box.

But the supermarket refused and sent Fearnley-Whittingstall a £2 roasting bird stuffed with a copy of its accounts from 2007 and a letter explaining why its shareholders need chickens to drown in their own faeces.

A Tesco spokesman said: "Money. Money, money, money, money, money, money. Money, money.

From: The Daily Mash, June 9, 2008.

Related Fresh & Easy Buzz Story: "Tesco, the Chef, and the Chickens: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Plans to Put Tesco's Chicken Policy Under the Broiler at Upcoming Annual Meeting."

Tesco, the Chef, and the Chickens: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Plans to Put Tesco's Chicken Policy Under the Broiler At Upcoming Annual Meeting

Popular British celebrity chef and ethical foods activist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall last month bought one share of Tesco PLC stock so he could attend the United Kingdom-based retailers next annual shareholders meeting, which will be held on June 27.

The chef's plan: to author a Tesco shareholders resolution calling for the retailer to create what he and other activists say needs to be a higher ethical standard for chickens sold in Tesco stores.

Fearnley-Whittingstall and fellow British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver have been campaigning in the UK for better treatment of chickens by the nation's farmers, as well as arguing that UK supermarket chains like Tesco, Sainsbury's, who Oliver is the TV pitchman for, Wal-Mart-owned Asda and others should raise their standards for the birds they sell in their stores, which would then require chicken farmers to change their methods because those three retailers are the top buyers of chickens in the UK. In other words, get the retail leaders to change and the others will follow.

The focus of celeb chef Fearnley-Whittigstall's campaign has been to get chicken farmers to increase the sizes of the cages they rear the birds in, but even more significantly and vocally to get them to raise more chickens outdoors, free-range style.

The campaigns of both Fearnley-Whittigstall and Jamie Oliver, have convinced more UK consumers to switch from chickens raised traditionally in small cages to organic and free-range-reared birds. In fact, earlier this year both Sainsbury's and the upscale Waitrose supermarket chain reported sales of free-range chickens were nearing the 50% mark in their UK supermarkets.

But it's Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain with a 31% share of the market, that Hugh Fearnley-Whittigstall, chef and animal rights activist, has set his sights on.

Last week Tesco informed shareholder Fearnley-Whittingstall that if he wanted to put his ethical chicken sales shareholder resolution to stockholders at the annual meeting, he would have to come up with ~86,888 British pounds in order to pay for "the cost of distributing the relevant papers to the shareholders."

The celebrity chef and activist initially cried fowl, since Tesco has in the past waved such fees, usually much less by the way, to others wishing to discuss various issues and even submit resolutions to stockholders at the annual meetings.

Fearnley-Whittigstall's discussion and resolution isn't a typical one, as its accompanied by his ongoing campaign to get UK consumers to change Tesco's chicken-selling policy in any form they can, which includes boycotting the stores.

It seems Tesco likely figured the celebrity chef and activist would simply drop the stockholder resolution issue rather than pay the princely sum of ~86,888 pounds.

Hugh Fearnly-Whittigstall almost did just that. Last week he said he had ~30,000 pounds to pay Tesco if they insisted on making him pay, but lacked the rest of the money to meet the ~86,888 total.

However, not one to be placed under a hot broiler by anybody, the chef came up with a marketing and PR brainstorm to raise the remaining amount of money, which is far from "chicken scratch."

Fearnley-Whittigstall has launched a website named, "Chicken Out; Campaign For A Free Range Future."

On the website, along with all sorts of information about free-range chickens, his ethical chicken campaign, a link to "Chicken Run: The Musical, and even recipes for chicken dishes, the celebrity chef is launching "Hugh's Tesco Chicken Check Out Challenge," which includes an online fundraising campaign to help him obtain the remaining ~56,888 pounds he needs to add to his ~30,000 to pay Tesco's ~86,888 fee in order to get his resolution before the retailer's stockholders at the June 27 meeting just three weeks from now.

The chef is using an online auction system to raise the money from supporters or just those who want to do something with Hugh. For example, there's an online auction item for a chicken dinner with Hugh. Starting bid: ~5,000 pounds.

There's a day at Fearnley-Whittigstall's River Cottage chicken farms with Hugh and the chickens, which currently has a bid of ~3,000 pounds and is still being bid on.

There's "Dinner Ahoy: You hook 'em, we cook 'em," in which Hugh and his team will take seven people out on a fishing boat, then cook the fish for the group back at River Cottage Farms. Current bid: ~1,800 pounds.

That's just a few of the creative items the celebrity chef has up on the website for auction. You can view these items and all the others on the website here.

We have a feeling the chef-activist will raise much more than the ~56,888 pounds needed to pay Tesco its ~86,888, minus the ~30,000 pounds Fearnley-Whittigstall says he has out of his own pocket to pay. Although we have it on good authority the well paid chef could write a check for the full amount easily.

But that looks to be the point of the website scheme; as any monies over that amount will go to his campaign to convert the UK's chicken-producing industry to a free-range one. We're told ~6,000 pounds has already been pledged just today on the website.

By telling the celebrity chef he must pay the ~86,888 pounds to get attention at the annual meeting for his ethical chicken-selling resolution, the Tesco has handed Fearnley-Whittigstall a million dollar angle for his overall free-range chicken campaign, and the ability to garner more publicity and raise more money than he and his fellow activists could ever have done without Tesco's help.

Tesco's position on the chef-activist's resolution and campaign to get the retailer to change its chicken procurement and selling policy is that the company has a fine and reputable policy in terms of the chickens it sells. The retailer says Fearnley-Whittigstall is essentially using the campaign against Tesco for publicity, which he denies. He says he simply wants the nation's leading retailer to change so that others--including chicken farmers--will follow. The chef's ultimate goal is to have as many UK farmers raising free-range birds as he can, he says.

Tesco has yet to make a statement of any kind regarding the chef's website or aonline fund-rasing auction.

"Tesco is the biggest retailer in the country and they can make the biggest difference to the lives of hundreds of millions of chickens. And so I’m determined, along with my fellow supporting shareholders and Chicken Out campaigners, to pursue this resolution," Fearnley-Whittigstall said today. " So I’m putting my money where my mouth is to take this issue all the way to the Tesco AGM (the stockholders meeting) on June 27.”

It should be an interesting annual meeting on June 27.