A recent survey done for Farm Not Factories #PigsinChain campaign found that 73% of the 60 British high street supermarkets & food chains sell pork from factory farms. The vast majority of these don’t offer a single high welfare alternative. Pigs reared in factory farms (an intensive farming system that is permitted under the Red Tractor labelling scheme) have to endure permanent indoor confinement in barren, overcrowded pens for their entire lives. Mother pigs are kept in narrow metal cages so small they cannot even turn around for weeks on end.
Game Of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn and Farms Not Factories are calling on people to help end factory farming by signing this letter addressed to unethical high street food chain & supermarket CEOs, urging them to only source high welfare pork across their entire own-brand ranges. Farms Not Factories are also calling on the UK government to ban the importation of pork produced in conditions that would be illegal in the UK.
Says Jerome, “Factory Farming is one of the most horrific examples of how far we have strayed from our hearts in the relentless drive for profit and so-called progress. We call on all our major retailers to do the right thing and lead the way by ceasing to trade in any meat that isn’t high welfare. If we are going to farm and take the lives of our animals, then it is our responsibility to honour and care deeply for their lives while they are here, by giving them space to play and roam happily. I call on anyone with a compassionate heart to send a strong message to our government and our supermarkets by refusing to buy any factory-farmed meat! It’s a horror story that has to stop!”
Tracy Worcester (Director & Founder of Farms Not Factories) personally bought single shares in a number of food chains so that she could attend shareholder meetings and ask questions to the CEOs directly. She warned them that their share values will fall if they don’t follow consumer trends away from factory-farmed meat. In a recent report 31% of shoppers in the UK said they would personally boycott businesses with poor animal welfare standards.
Farms Not Factories bought single shares and attended the annual general meetings (AGMs) of Greggs, Tesco, Morrisons, Domino’s and Sainsbury’s in summer 2019. At the Greggs AGM they asked the directors why, as the vegan sausage roll was such a success, was Greggs still sourcing factory-farmed pork. At the Tesco and Morrisons AGMs they asked why such a small percentage of their own-brand pork was RSPCA Assured. At Domino’s they stressed to the board that, as pork in the form of pepperoni or bacon is such a small portion of a pizza, sourcing high welfare would incur a relatively small cost.
There is already a growing number of investors that see factory farming as a vulnerable investment and are shifting their capital elsewhere. In particular, antibiotics misuse presents a systemic risk to investor portfolios. Factory farms still use antibiotics to prevent disease in healthy pigs rather than treat individual sick animals directly. As a result, 25% of all antibiotics in the UK are used on pigs in factory farms alone. The UK’s outgoing chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, has said “antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to human health”.
Thankfully there are some high street food chains that are already setting higher animal welfare standards. McDonald’s only sell RSPCA Assured pork across their entire menu and the Co-op only sells Outdoor Bred RSPCA Assured pork throughout their entire own-brand fresh pork range.
Here is the full breakdown of the 60 popular supermarkets and high street chains surveyed in the #PigsinChain campaign:
Tracy Worcester advises that, “As consumers, we can all help end the horrors of factory farming- that causes endemic animal suffering by cramming pigs into barren concrete cages, spreads excessive slurry and nitrates destroying ecosystems and undercutting smaller scale family farms – only buy RSPCA Assured, Free Range or best of all Organic.”
For more information about the #PigsinChain visit Farm Not Factories.
Other things you might like to read
The survey of supermarkets and brands is so interesting! Do you know if it exists anywhere for other animals?
Yes it is very interesting. I am sure surveys must have been done for other animals. Do check https://www.eating-better.org/ and https://www.ciwf.org.uk/. Annabelle
Stop factory farming.
I could not agree more. If you do not already please follow https://www.ciwf.org.uk/ and https://farmsnotfactories.org . Both do great work to stop this inhumane practice.
If this type of farming is possible under the “Red Tractor” umbrella,that is advertised by most of our supermarkets as being almost organic, how do we as consumers really know what,how or where the goods are really originating
The Red Tractor standard is unfortunately only just above the legal minimum UK requirements. I also find it very confusing and somehow misleading. This is one of the reasons why I decided to reduce my meat consumption. As a family, we now only buy meat certified organic. If you visit https://farmsnotfactories.org/ you will see the Red Tractor Pig Welfare Appeal which is worth signing. There is a lot of room for improvement.
We try to buy only free-range meat. Outdoor bred does not mean free-range. We may pay a bit more but we eat and enjoy with a good conscience
We are buying more on line from farms now.