I can not believe I am reading this today:

“Tesco is also cutting the price of standard whole birds from £3.30 to £1.99 to ensure shoppers on a budget also benefit. This lower price will mean families can sit down to roast chicken and all the trimmings for less than £1.00 per person.”

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised really, given it is alleged that one in every eight pounds in the UK is spent in a Tesco store. Thankfully, I can say with hand on heart my weekly shopping is not done in Tesco’s, nor my insurances, phones etc…. And, with this news it is even less likely that will become the case.

Hugh’s Chickenout.tv campaign, kick started earlier this year really brought home to some of my work colleagues exactly what it is they could be eating when they eat Chicken. Infact, some of them have been starting to make decisions based on ethics, rather than pure finance. Be sure you understand - before anyone else says it - that for some of my friends and colleagues money is an issue, but for them animal welfare and the knowledge of a healthy life is more important. How can Tesco’s possibly believe what they have done today is the right thing to do?

“Consumers have had a tough start to the year with mortgage worries, energy price rises and inflation creeping into some areas of household spending. We are determined to help by keeping the cost of the family shop down.”

This is utter rubbish. In case nobody (or at least Tesco) hasn’t noticed mortgage rates have not gone up. Infact, they dropped just prior to Christmas and if the news is to be believed they’re likely to drop again tomorrow. Inflationary rises are normal for a fiscally secure population and are not an overnight occurence - Tesco’s picing policy and press statements would have us believe they have negated any inflationary rises for households that shop with them!

I’m all for keeping the cost of family shopping down, but not at the expense of ethical welfare. It is not possible. Really, it is not possible to raise a Chicken for around 37 days, slaughter it, prepare it, ship it etc for £1.99. These Chickens are being sold at a loss! Why? It is not necessary.

“No-one should feel guilty for buying a chicken just because it is good value. The only reduction we make is in the price - not the welfare.”

Quite right! Good value is one thing. Cheap and nasty is something else. At £1.99 these Chickens are nothing more than cheap and nasty. They lack the flavour and texture of other birds. Contrary to - what some might term - popular opinion you do not have to pay upwards of £14.00 for great tasting Chicken.

I love the manner in which the BBC have commented on this story:

“Reflecting on recent media coverage of chicken production by celebrity chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, Mr Church added that the debate “has helped raise awareness of the choice available to customers”.

But the reality is Mr. Church is missing the point. There is an old adage that goes something along the lines of “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”. Personally, this is probably as good a time as any to bear this in mind. I find this state of affairs appalling.

There is no need to drop the price of the lowest price Chickens. If a price drop must be made, why not drop the price of Free Range (or even Barn Reared) Chickens?

 

To try and make sense of the Tesco press release, why not do everything within your - great - power to make higher quality food (Chicken) affordable and available to more people? That would make sense. At a time when this country continues to make the wrong choice about food products and the tendency to obesity is higher than it has ever been, why not commit to making higher quality food available to a wider market at an affordable price? That would almost make sense.

OK. Now, I didn’t expect my first Food blog entry to be about Tesco, much less a rant, but there you go.