Tell Tesco to go vegan! Action Alert from Viva!

Juliet Gellatley of Viva! met with Tesco this summer to discuss their provision for vegans. Tesco stated that they are interested in trialling new vegan products but expressed concern that people are not asking them for lists of vegan foods or 'demanding' more vegan products. Whether you are vegan or not wouldn't it be wonderful to have major food outlets supplying more delicious vegan foods that help save animals and the planet! Please write to their Customer Services NOW! They want to hear what you'd like them to stock, and/or what you'd like them to 'veganise'. Or you may want a list of the vegan foods they already stock.
You can contact them at:
Email:
customer.service@tesco.co.uk


By phone: 0845 7225533, 8am to 11pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm Saturday and 10am to 6pm Sunday
By PostTesco Customer ServicePO Box 73Baird AvenueDryburgh Industrial EstateDundeeDD1 9NF

Vegetarians' outrage as Tesco admits 'macabre' practice of turning out-of-date meat into electricity

Tesco sends of out-of-date meat to be turned into electricity in what it claims is a 'green' drive

Consumers should be informed if any of their home electricity is being generated using the 'macabre' recycling of waste meat from supermarkets, campaigners said today.

Tesco now sends 5,000 tonnes of meat that has passed its sell-by date to be turned into enough National Grid electricity to power 600 homes for a year.

The retail giant has hailed the scheme as part of a 'green' drive which had enabled it to stop sending any of the waste it produces to environmentally damaging landfill sites.

But animal rights campaign group Viva said many non-meat eaters would be 'horrified' that their houses were being part-powered by out-of-date meat.

And they said any environmental benefits of recycling the meat were far outweighed by the greenhouse gases produced by rearing so much more meat than was needed in the first place.

Justin Kerswell, campaigns manager for Viva (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals), said: 'It's a sad indictment of modern life that not only hundreds of millions of animals are killed each year in the UK, but so much meat is left over from greed and indifference.

'To turn this wasted meat into power might seem like a good idea at first, but you have to ask yourself why is so much left over and why are so many animals dying to provide this excess?

'Surely killing fewer animals in the first place should be the aim.

'Whatever savings are made by turning this meat into energy is more than voided by the huge amount of greenhouse gases generated by the farming and production of the meat in the first place. Tesco should take a long hard look at its wasteful practices.'

He said consumers should be told if their domestic power came from such sources.

'More and more people are choosing to adopt an ethical and green vegetarian or vegan diet.

'Most would be horrified to find out that their power was generated by left-over meat. Consumers should have the right to know if their power is generated in this macabre manner.'

Government-funded waste body Wrap (Waste and Resources Action Programme) says retailers generate about 1.6 million tonnes of food waste each year, including meat, with food manufacturers throwing away 4.1 million tonnes and restaurant and other outlets another three million.

Britain lags behind other European countries in the use of so-called 'anaerobic digestion' conversion, and ministers were handed recommendations on how to boost rates by an expert review panel last month.

Meat and other food waste is processed in biomass-to-energy plants which turn waste food into bio-fuel and then use that to produce renewable electricity.

Tesco, the UK's biggest retailer, said this week that it had succeeded in diverting all of its annual 531,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill.

Schemes such as the meat-to-power conversion, recycling cardboard boxes into new ones and turning recycled carrier bags into rubbish sacks had all been used as part of the drive, it said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204525/Vegetarians-outrage-Tesco-admits-macabre-practice-turning-date-meat-electricity.html#ixzz0NKHLMgU2

FOIE GRAS-FOUR PAWS INVESTIGATION IN HUNGARY AND BULGARIA

Animal welfare campaigners are demanding a ban on the delicacy foie gras after uncovering evidence of cruelty to ducks and geese.


Foie gras, which translates as "fat liver", is often made from force fed animals



Investigations carried out by the charity Four Paws in Hungary and Bulgaria discovered animals suffering from the effects of force-feeding.

Campaigners said the force-fed foie gras often ends up in the UK.

Foie gras, which translates from French as "fat liver", is produced by the artificial fattening of the birds' livers. It is hugely popular in countries like France.

While production is banned in most of Europe, Hungary is the biggest producer on the continent and foie gras is a protected part of the country's heritage.


The birds get fever, they need antibiotics to survive, and then they create this fatty liver.



Four Paws investigators say they have received hundreds of death threats from farmers in Hungary as they have tried to highlight what goes on in foie gras farms.

One told Sky News: "It shows that people who do harm to animals have no problem doing harm to humans as well.

"Just imagine you are stuffed with food immediately, like 13kg of spaghetti in two seconds into your stomach. You will suffer and get disease.

"The birds get fever, they need antibiotics to survive, and then they create this fatty liver.

"It can be compared to an alcoholic, the same sort of diseased liver."

The Hungarian Poultry Association said hundreds of jobs would be lost if foie gras farming was banned.



Tesco sells foie gras in Hungary

Meanwhile, the supermarket Tesco has defended selling foie gras in its Hungarian stores when, like most major UK stores, it refuses to in Britain.

A Tesco spokesman said: "We operate a successful local business in Hungary, responding to the needs and wishes of our customers.

"While we always look to uphold the very important issue of animal welfare, we also need to balance different cultural attitudes - in this case respecting the expectations and values that exist in Hungary."