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- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense13 June 2003
A new Friends of the Earth report for Tesco's annual shareholder meeting reveals how the supermarket is putting profit before people and the environment, despite the claims made in its annual and corporate social responsibility reports.
Friends of the Earth was joined at the AGM by individual farmers and representatives from Bananalink, Corporate Watch, farm, Grassroots Action for Food and Farming, the Small and Family Farms Alliance, and the National Sheep Association, who all have concerns about the way the supermarket giant behaves.
The report includes personal responses from farmers, who say that Tesco has boosted profits at the expense of farmers, and who argue this has affected environmental and animal welfare standards. The report also highlights the environmental impacts of Tesco's global business, with fruit and veg flown around the world, increasing the need for packaging and contributing to climate change; and questions whether Tesco's Healthy Living range is as healthy as Tesco suggests.
Tesco is being targeted because of the power it wields as the largest UK supermarket with 1,982 stores in the UK. Company profits for 2002-03 stood at £1.4 billion, while Tesco boss Terry Leahy receives a pay package of £2.8 million - providing a sharp contrast to the average farmer's salary (including subsidies) of £11,107.
"Tesco claims to be committed to UK farming and to protecting the environment," said Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner, Sandra Bell. "But the reality is that it profits at the expense of farmers and the environment. It is time fat cats likes Terry Leahy were forced to face their responsibilities to stakeholders and be held accountable for the damage their companies cause."
Friends of the Earth is calling for changes in Company Law to force companies to be accountable to stakeholders as well as shareholders, with duties placed on directors to recognise these rights.
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