Vicky Bond
Why ‘ranges’ don’t go far enough for animals. If you want to support our campaigns sign up to our newsletter.
Imagine for a moment that supermarkets all start selling a new, in-demand product. This product, unfortunately, causes significant harm to animals.
Still, supermarkets sell it in vast quantities, and make high profits on it.
After some backlash, the supermarkets make an announcement. They’ll be launching a new range of the product which doesn’t cause nearly as much harm to animals. It’ll be more expensive than the original one, and will only be available in small quantities in select stores. Problem solved! Right?
Well, this scenario isn’t at all far from reality. While millions upon millions of chickens suffer daily on factory farms, destined to line supermarket shelves, companies like Morrisons would have you believe they’re taking action - by releasing a range of higher welfare chicken.
Morrisons could have committed to completely move away from the very worst forms of abuse inflicted upon chickens, by signing on to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC). That’s what the BCC is about - raising the standards for all chickens in a company’s supply chain. Not just a few.
Instead, they will produce a new ‘line’, which could account for as little as 1% of their supply - and if they want, they can later turn around and say it wasn’t successful enough to continue, reverting back to the status quo.
One key issue here is that these small actions now prevent large-scale, meaningful action in the near future. There’s a ‘done and dusted’ feel about the approach, as if they were telling us ‘give us a break, at least we’re doing something!’
But the way chickens are treated in this country needs more than something. More than a range. It needs change.
That’s why Chris Packham, who is supporting the campaign asking supermarkets to commit to the BCC, rightly said we have no right to call ourselves a nation of animal lovers until we improve the way we treat chickens.
All major supermarkets in France have now committed to completely meet the BCC by 2026. Major UK companies such as KFC, Nando’s, Greggs, and Burger King have joined on too. But only two UK supermarkets have made the commitment - Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.
With the scale of the suffering happening each day, supermarket ranges simply aren’t good enough. We need strong, decisive action. We need the Better Chicken Commitment.
What you can do
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