And Then There Was One...

As I said a few days ago, it’s nice to be current.  However sometimes you can be too damn current for your own good.  I think perhaps as a blogger I do better by waiting for the dust to settle and taking a more reflective look at events.  Yesterday provided just such a case in point.

In my latest blog I berated the supermarket giant Tesco for abandoning its long standing commitment to exclude chicken and egg products reared with GM soya.  I compared the company unfavourably with some of their competitors and reminded consumers that they do have a choice in where they shop.  The electrons were barely dry on the server before arch rivals Sainsbury’s and also Marks & Spencer and the Co-Op all announced that they would  be following Tesco’s lead and dropping that particular pledge.

Four major food retailers making almost identical policy statements on the same day. A coincidence?  You decide.  I am not a lawyer but don’t the 1998 Competition Act, and Articles 81 and 82 of the EC treaty have something or other to say about anti-competitive agreements between businesses?

ASDA, part of the gargantuan Walmart group, gave up on non-GM feed in 2010 and Morrison’s followed suit in 2012.

Fortunately you do still have a choice.  Waitrose is now the only (almost) national supermarket chain still committed to keeping GM-free eggs.  As I reported yesterday, Waitrose is also taking an extremely proactive approach to the pressing issue of neonic pesticides and bee mortality.  All this starts to chime positively with other snippets that I have picked up along the way.

A Suffolk pig farmer I know produces free range British pork exclusively for Waitrose.  He says the retailer takes the toughest possible stance on both animal welfare and on wider issues of environmental management.  Waitrose inspectors, he told me, regularly visit his property to measure field margins and map biodiversity in his hedgerows.

Waitrose has also been at the forefront of ensuring that all wet fish and fish products sold in their stores are sourced from sustainable fisheries.  Not only that, but they take pains to ensure that all fish can be securely traced from catch to counter, and they’ve done that for years, long before recent MSC concerns surfaced about accreditation.

Waitrose has a reputation for being upmarket and a bit expensive, but according to the company’s website their 1,000 basic branded grocery products are the same price as Tesco’s.  The only thing that’s exclusive about Waitrose is their commitment to environmental issues.

It’s not my place as a blogger to promote any particular retailer, but when one company does stand out from the pack they deserve to be recognized.  Surely it cannot be a coincidence that, as a part of the John Lewis Partnership, Waitrose is not your normal shareholder driven company.  This retailer is for me the truly acceptable face of capitalism.

In the interests of fairness I should point out that most, if not all, of the supermarkets named continue to sell ‘organic’ chicken and eggs, which do adhere to the Soil Association’s definition and therefore remain GM free.