labelling « A Compassionate World

Posts Tagged ‘labelling’

Consumers Blindfolded

Friday, March 1st, 2013

Do we know what’s in our food? How it’s produced? And where it came from?

These simple questions are uppermost in my mind as the international scandal in horsemeat continues to unfold.

People have a right to know the facts about the food they buy.

With the urgent need to rebuild consumer trust in their food, there has never been a better time to introduce better labelling. And by that I mean food labelling that serves the consumer – you and me – not just the interests of government and food producers.

Yes, there are various labelling terms already used, including free-range and organic.

But the vast majority of meat and dairy on supermarket shelves is produced from animals raised in intensive factory-farmed systems. But you wouldn’t know it from the labels.

Slogans such as “Farm Fresh” and “All Natural,” which are all too often prominently displayed alongside cute drawings of animals roaming in fields and farm yards, beckon us to believe something far removed from how today’s industrialised food is really produced. (more…)

Tags: food labelling, labelling. Posted in General | No Comments »

Horsemeat: The WHOLE truth about cheap meat

Friday, February 15th, 2013

It seems like it should be simple; we just want to know what we are eating.

But recent revelations about horse meat in beef ready meals, pork in beef pies, and now even suspicions of donkey meat labelled as beef on supermarket shelves, show that we can’t trust what food labels tell us. Compassion has a simple solution; join us in calling for food labels that tell the whole truth.

The recent scandals are revealing the true nature of the cheap meat production system, and it isn’t a pretty picture. The corruption and contamination issues are just the tip of the iceberg. The scale and complexity of the food chain are not just bad news for consumers, they are also a disaster for animal welfare.

With more than 80% of the EU’s farm animals being factory farmed in inhumane conditions; confined, overcrowded, unable to express natural behaviours, pumped full of antibiotics, undertaking long journeys or suffering painful mutilations – the animals that go into many meat products are likely to have endured a great deal of suffering in their short lives.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We know that consumers are interested in animal welfare. We know that clear labelling leads to an increase in sales of higher welfare animal products. We need labels that tell us the truth about what is in our food, and how it was produced.

The whole truth; so consumers can exercise their right to choose higher welfare products and know what they are eating. We are calling for true transparency in food labelling, including country of origin and mandatory method of production labelling. Please join us.

Thank you for your support.

Tags: food labelling, horse meat, horses, labelling. Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Hidden tragedy of horses forgotten?

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

The current food scandal is shocking, if nothing else, for revealing the extent to which horse meat has fraudulently made its way into processed meat products labelled “beef”. It turns out that horse meat is so ubiquitous that UK government ministers now talk about an international criminal conspiracy.

The scandal has been met by popular outrage. The serious debate has focused on how a profusion of horsemeat got into the food chain and who’s to blame. But in all of the debate, it seems we’ve forgotten the welfare of horses themselves.

I fear for them. How were they treated? How did they die?

These horses are often not bred for food. They are mostly surplus animals who end up as meat. Their lives often start out as pets, or as working animals on a farm, or as race horses. When they become unwanted and unloved, their financial value drops and their meagre worth is determined by how much profit can be extracted from their carcasses.

We know that even in the best regulated slaughterhouses, cows, pigs, sheep and chickens are likely to suffer fear and anxiety. Horses too can suffer terribly during the slaughter process. Their future is now as cheap meat. Let’s look at what we know.

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Tags: food, food system, horse meat, horses, labelling. Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Betrayal of consumer trust

Friday, February 8th, 2013

As the horsemeat scandal takes yet another twist, the true extent is revealed of the betrayal of consumer trust. That so much horsemeat masquerading as beef could enter the British food chain is staggering enough. It also begs the bigger question of what else is getting into our food without us knowing?

How do we know that meat from religiously slaughtered animals – their throats often cut whilst fully conscious – isn’t getting into the wider food chain?

How do we know that pig meat isn’t getting into non-pork products; something that would be of real concern to some religious communities?

How do we know that pork produced using cruel sow stalls, banned in Britain and partially so in Europe, isn’t being stocked on some supermarket shelves?

How do we know that meat from the offspring of cloned animals isn’t once again in the British food chain, as it was in 2010? After all, there is no requirement to label meat and milk from the offspring of clones. What’s more, the UK government leads the way in opposing any effective European restrictions on cloning.

What we do know is that much of the meat on many supermarket shelves is from factory farmed animals, but consumers are denied real power of choice because it isn’t labelled to say how it was produced.

And there’s another question that no one seems to be asking. The horses that found their way into British burgers and ready meals; how were they killed? Did they end their lives in a state of fear, pain and misery? I suspect we’ll never know. After all, if their meat can slip into our food so widely without us knowing, how will we ever find out how they died?

The scandal raises more questions than answers. What I do know is that urgent action is needed, not least by Government, to start rebuilding public confidence. An obvious first measure would be to introduce compulsory labelling telling consumers how their food was produced. By my reckoning, it’s the least they should do.

Tags: food, food system, horse meat, labelling. Posted in General | 5 Comments »

Horse Meat Scandal

Friday, February 8th, 2013

Now we know we can add horse meat in beef lasagne to a long list of food scandals. A litany that already includes mad cow disease, salmonella in eggs, antibiotics-resistant superbugs, etc..

Consumers feel betrayed.

Do we really know how our food is produced? Can we ever know what is in the food we eat? Are farmers and food producers to be trusted?

Today’s scandal of horse meat in beef products is likely the tip of the iceberg. There are real and deep-rooted problems sitting below the surface of our broken food system. And the bottom line is that we clearly, all too often, just don’t know what’s in our food or how it’s produced.

Beef lasagne products removed from supermarket shelves have been found to be almost entirely horse meat. The Food Standards Agency reports the product was produced by a French supplier.

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Tags: food, food system, horse meat, labelling. Posted in General | 1 Comment »

Minister, end live exports!

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Last week, my team and I met with Defra Minister, David Heath. Although my lobbying team had met with Mr Heath previously, this was my first time. The meeting was in Smith Square, the venue of many a demonstration against live exports, quite a few organised by our own campaigns team. We went through security and were greeted by an official designated to show us up several floors, along seemingly never-ending corridors, to the office of the Minister.

I’ve met many government ministers throughout my career, in London and around the world. I always sit with my team well ahead of the meeting and prepare in detail what we’re going to cover. I’ve found that you very seldom get long to put your point across. Preparation and brevity are key to making points successfully. As we waited to go in, I felt my usual nervous tension; I’m always keenly aware of carrying the case for animals.

We were greeted warmly by the Minister and launched into our two-pointed agenda; better labelling and live animal exports. We were accompanied at the start of the meeting by 9-year old Ayrton Cable, grandson of the Minister’s cabinet colleague, Business Secretary, Vince Cable. Ayrton is youth ambassador for the Labelling Matters campaign, a joint initiative with the RSPCA, Soil Association and WSPA. He produced a film making the case for meat and milk to carry labels telling consumers how the food was produced. Ayrton’s presence helped diffuse the opening mood of the meeting, with the Minister suggesting he had sympathy for our case on labelling.
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Tags: calves, food labelling, labelling, Labelling Matters, live exports. Posted in General | 2 Comments »

DEFRA Developments

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

Compassion is anchored in the original mission of our founders, Peter and Anna Roberts, as an animal protection organisation. Since our founding in 1967, Compassion has grown to become an international force against factory farming. With thousands of caring people throughout the world who support our work, we have worked hard together to accomplish many significant victories.

We have also witnessed many changes. A notable one came to mind this week. It was prompted by David Cameron’s announcement of a new UK Cabinet. The significant change I was thinking of was how the number of governments we now deal with on animal welfare has increased. In the 1960s, Compassion only dealt with the UK government in the Palace of Westminster, London. Today, we work with the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament, the European Parliament and governments throughout the EU. This is partly a sign of the political times, but also of how Compassion has grown into a European and, increasingly, international voice for animals.

In Britain, of the outgoing DEFRA ministers, Compassion worked more with Jim Paice than Caroline Spelman. Although we didn’t always agree with him, we found Jim Paice to be approachable, attentive and sympathetic on some issues. For example, he was committed to bringing the debeaking of laying hens to an end. He also fully supported the EU ban on the barren battery cage. But we disagreed on cloning, which we oppose; and he refused to oppose mega dairies and promoted the oxymoron idea of sustainable intensification.
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Tags: cloning, labelling, live exports, Mega dairies, sustainable intensification, zero grazing. Posted in General | No Comments »

Rabbit Revolution

Friday, June 8th, 2012

Our recent investigations in Europe have revealed factory farming’s best kept secret: millions of rabbits raised in barren battery cages so small they cannot hop about or sit upright. Each rabbit has the space equivalent to a standard A4 sheet of typing paper. It’s a familiar story, even if the victim is new.

Having led a successful campaign to ban barren battery cages for hens in the EU, it’s particularly galling to find yet another animal being widely forced to live in similar conditions. Our investigators looked into this appalling industry in France, Italy and Spain. This is how they described what they found:

‘Dripping urine and rabbit faeces had built up underneath the wire mesh battery cages…mounds piled knee-high in several sections. It’s a truly filthy business.’

‘The intensive rabbit farms I saw were the dirtiest and most squalid farms I’ve ever visited – one was literally ramshackle, falling apart at the seams, exposing tiers of caged rabbits to the elements.’

This is why Compassion is calling for an end to factory farming for rabbits. It’s estimated that over 300 million rabbits are farmed in the EU, the vast majority of them in cages. Despite this incredible number of rabbits – in fact they are the second most farmed species in Europe, second only to chickens – we cannot find one single piece of EU legislation that specifically protects them from cruelty, injury or pain. Rabbits have even been left out of the new EU slaughter regulations for 2013.

That is why we’re looking for a Rabbit Revolution! We want an urgent end to caged rabbit farming in favour of group housing and free range farming. We also want to see rabbit meat labelled according to method of production so that consumers can know whether the meat is produced humanely or not. If we can get chickens and pigs out of cages, then, we must also free rabbits from factory farms. Please join with me today to make rabbits in factory farms illegal.