Tescos Are Chickens

It's rare for me to be political on this blog - unless its about home education, education, children, schools or families of course ;0) but I can't help it - this has got me SOOOOO mad.

I signed up to Hugh FW's campaign to get all battery farmed chickens and chicken products off the supermarket shelves.

I know that Tescos are now the only supermarket who have refused to meet with him to discuss this.

This is from the email I got this morning:

----------

"A few weeks ago I submitted a resolution to Tesco plc with the support of 102 shareholders representing some 3.7 million ordinary shares. The resolution challenges Tesco’s claims about poultry welfare, and urges them to set new minimum welfare standards, including lower stocking densities and more environmental stimuli for the birds.

Now Tesco have told me that they will only take our resolution to the AGM if I meet the cost of distributing the relevant papers to their shareholders. They are entitled to waive this fee, and we have requested that they do so, in the interest of shareholder democracy, but they have declined. In other words, the resolution is dead in the water unless I pay them £86,888 to print and post the papers out to all 269,000 Tesco shareholders.

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. So I’m putting my money where my mouth is to take this issue all the way to the Tesco AGM on June 27th.

I’m going to start the ball rolling by putting £30k of my own money into the pot. And, with your help, I’m hoping to raise the rest of the money by selling myself, and my services, as well as by appealing to other Tesco shareholders and supporters of our resolution.

We need to raise the remaining £56,888 by noon, this Wednesday 11th June.

And that’s where you come in. The River Cottage team and I have put together a bespoke selection of top notch prizes which will be auctioned over the next couple of days. The auction will take place by confidential sealed bids on line. Whoever bids the highest amount for each item by noon on Wednesday 11 June 2008 will win the prize in question. To enter please send your bid in a simple email to chicken@keofilms.com stating which prize you’re bidding for, the maximum sum you’re prepared to pay, your name, and a contact telephone number. All entrants must be over 18 years of age.

If you would like to make a simple donation to the fund, as well as or instead of bidding in the auction, you can do so through the Compassion in World Farming Website. CIWF have supported our campaign and resolution from the start, and have agreed to process donations without any administrative charge.

In other words, the full amount for all successful bids and donations will be passed on to the action fund. We undertake that all expenses for processing bids and donations, administering the fund and fulfilling the auction prizes will be met either by River Cottage, or Compassion in World Farming, or by Hugh personally.

Thanks for your support and good luck!

www.chickenout.tv
----------------------

Now I know that most of us can't afford to bid on the prizes (such a shame - I'd love a meal at River Cottage, or him coming here to cook for me! - but maybe some can donate something via CWF or, just as vital, pass this email on to others you know who would be interested, and blog about it.

I'm going to write to Tescos and take back my tesco card. Painful, because lots of the gluten free stuff I have to buy I can only get from them - or twice the price from a health food shop. But I can't support a retailer who acts like this.

Off my soap box now!