26 January 2009

Head of Rathbone Greenbank Investments Elizabeth Haigh featured on the Channel 4 update of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘Chicken Out‘ campaign, broadcast Saturday 31 January 2009. The programme followed the progress of the resolution that Rathbone Greenbank Investments was involved in last year, encouraging leading retailers such as Tesco to take action on the welfare of standard broiler chickens.

The ‘Chicken Out’ campaign has had some notable successes. In November 2008, the campaign reported that Sainsbury’s had seen continued sales growth of its new range of RSPCA Freedom Food chicken. Sainsbury’s has also pledged to remove battery farmed eggs from its supply chain. Overall, the campaign claims that sales of higher welfare chicken have grown from 5% to 15% of UK sales.

As a result of the resolution, Tesco pledged to be part of an industry wide forum on the issue of improving welfare standards. This process begun with a Chatham House discussion in November 2008 intended to set the scene for the debate. This forum has been co-ordinated by the England Implementation Group (EIG), and it was agreed that the group should look at a range of issues including agreeing on what is an acceptable ‘good’ UK standard of poultry welfare, ensuring that industry progress in improving welfare is not undermined by lower welfare imports and addressing the issue of competitive pressure on pricing.

Rathbone Greenbank Investments continues to encourage retailers to address the ethical sourcing issues related to food production, and welcomes moves to open up higher welfare alternatives for those on lower incomes, such as those provided by the RSPCA Freedom Foods standard.