Like most people in Britain, I eat chicken. And I believe that we have a duty of care to the animals we eat. Chicken is by far the nation’s most popular meat. And I am now a shareholder in Tesco the company which sells more chicken than any other company in Britain. Tesco therefore has a greater duty of care to Britain’s chickens than any other business in Britain.

Our shareholder resolution centres on the Five Freedoms, a set of animal husbandry principles which describe the basic right of farm animals to lead comfortable, pain and stress free lives. We believe in these Five Freedoms, and the company in which we now have a stake claims to believe in them too.

But we believe Tesco is manifestly not living up to these ideals – and that it is therefore failing to meet its own stated welfare policy. And in that view we have the support of the UK’s leading farm animal welfare NGO’s: The RSPCA, and Compassion in World Farming, both of whom are represented here with me today.

This failure is a simple consequence of the system used to produce the majority of chickens for sale in Tesco: the standard indoor intensive production system.

It is no secret that I am not a supporter of this system. But my resolution does not criticise this system; nor does it question the rigour or good intentions with which that system is administered and regulated. My resolution simply contends that standard indoor intensive production is inherently incompatible with the Five Freedoms.

For example, the third of the Five Freedoms is Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease. Yet in the standard indoor intensive production system in which most Tesco chickens are raised, the premature mortality rate – deaths caused by heart attacks and leg injuries, is routinely between 4 and 5 per cent. Evidence also shows that 20 to 30 per cent of all birds raised in this system experience severe to moderate leg pain during the last week of their life.

Another example: the fourth of the Five Freedoms is the Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour. Yet the standard indoor intensive production system in which most Tesco chickens are raised provides no natural light, no perches and no pecking objects. These conditions do not even meet Defra’s own recommendations on poultry welfare. The result is that these birds do not engage in the basic behaviours that would help strengthen them, and protect them against injury.

Yet these problems of pain, injury and premature death can be vastly alleviated. The RSPCA Freedom Foods System uses birds from slower growing, more active breeds. They are stocked at a lower density, and they are raised in an enriched, stimulating environment which allows them to express natural behaviours. As a result, they have, on average, less than half the injury and mortality rates of birds produced in the standard indoor intensive system.

I was delighted to hear a few weeks ago that Tesco has decided to upgrade one of its poultry lines, the Willow Farm chicken, to the Freedom Food system. This is great news for two reasons. It makes it clear that Tesco is genuinely engaged in the issue of poultry welfare. It also means that Tesco has another product on its shelves that is capable of delivering the company’s welfare commitment to the Five Freedoms. Unfortunately, Willow Farm only accounts for 8 per cent of Tesco poultry sales. Whereas standard intensive chicken still accounts for over 75 per cent.

Clearly if Tesco wishes to continue to claim the Five Freedoms as its aspirational standard for animal welfare, it follows that it cannot also continue to sell animals produced in systems which are inherently incompatible with those Freedoms. It must at the very least express its intention to adopt Freedom Food, or an equivalent system, as its new minimum standard. It may take time for the switch to be made, but the commitment can be made now.

So Tesco must either announce its commitment to upgrade its welfare standards. Or it must amend its animal welfare policy ambitions so that it no longer claims to endorse the Five Freedoms.

What is stopping Tesco from doing this?

Tesco has said that it is at the forefront of taking initiatives to improve chicken welfare. Yet Compassion in World Farming ranks Tesco 5th in order of farm animal welfare performance compared to the other major supermarkets. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer have already stopped selling chicken produced in the standard indoor intensive production system. The Co-Op and Sainsbury’s have both made commitments to stop selling standard intensive chicken over a reasonable time period.

Tesco has said that adopting Freedom Foods as its new minimum standard would deprive its customers of choice. But Tesco, like any retailer, already makes decisions in the choices available to its customers. Given that there has to be an entry level, our resolution simply asks Tesco to move that minimum level upwards to a standard that is at least capable of satisfying its welfare claims.

Tesco has said that to adopt Freedom Foods as their new minimum standard would increase the cost of a chicken by as much as a pound. This is not a valid argument for a business which effectively creates the marketplace in which it operates. One of its chief high street rivals, Somerfield, already sells Freedom Foods chicken for only 10p per kilo more than Tesco’s standard chicken. If Tesco decided to set a new standard in chicken welfare, they would, in a market which they indisputably dominate, be able to do so at a highly competitive price.

As I have already said, it is the commitment to change that is important rather than a rigid timetable. Given a reasonable time frame – two or three years – to implement the changes our resolution proposes, Tesco could make its poultry lines more profitable, not less. And we believe that if Tesco does not make these changes, it will begin to lose its share of the poultry market.

But in the end, it is the moral dimension, not a business argument that makes this the right thing to do. You can’t budget your way out of an ethical issue. Some things are just wrong. And claming to believe in a set of ethical principles that your policies can never live up to, is just plain wrong. As a shareholder, this concerns me. The gap between what Tesco says, and what Tesco does, must be closed.

Whatever happens today, I will keep my shareholding in Tesco because I believe that the time honoured relationship between shareholder and company is the right way to effect progress and change in that company. I believe that it is the companies who make brave decisions because they are the right decisions, which will ultimately prosper. And I believe that Tesco may yet make a brave decision on this issue.

When it does, and when Tesco can claim that it really does lead the way among UK retailers on animal welfare, those of us who support this resolution here today will wave our share certificates with pride, and say, ‘this is a great thing for British agriculture and British retailing, and we, the shareholders of Tesco, helped it to happen.’

Hugh comments after vote

‘Almost a fifth of Tesco shareholders defied Tesco’s strict instructions to oppose our resolution. That is a figure they cannot ignore. Tesco said today that they are happy to take part in an industry wide forum on poultry welfare. I hope not only that they do but that they also take the lead in organising and helping to push through change. It has been a long slog to get to this point but has definitely been worth it. Britain continues to support our campaign and sales of higher welfare poulty continues to rise despite the gloomy economic climate. That is great news and long may it continue.’

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Friday 27^th June, 4pm

Source: Chicken Out TV