Tag Archives: GM Food

The start of 2015 saw a very old saying amongst stockbrokers come true: ‘Sell your shares in any company when it buys a company jet or builds a new headquarters’ they say. Companies lose touch with reality as they get bigger and one person who seems to agree is ‘Drastic Dave’ Lewis, the new Chief Exec. of Tesco. He announced the closure of both their Cheshunt HQ and Kansas Transportation Ltd, the Company subsidiary which discreetly operates a fleet of 5 executive jets.

From now on it’s RyanAir only for Tesco directors as they struggle against falling sales and a £260 million accounting scandal

This must come as a disappointment to former CEO Phillip Clarke (currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office). It limits the possibility of doing a flit in the £31 million Gulfstream jet delivered last month as part of the £29m cost of flying executives around the world 2005-2012. From now on it’s RyanAir only for Tesco directors as they struggle against falling sales and a £260 million accounting scandal. And now we know who owns all those private jets parked at Luton airport.

The good people of Cheshunt, home to Tesco’s ugly concrete HQ since 1973 were also less than happy about job losses and a move for remaining staff to Welwyn Garden City. ‘I can’t believe it’ Ward Councillor Mike Iszatt told the ‘Hertfordshire Mercury’. ‘I don’t know why they want to move out of the Borough – it’s so convenient for their employees next to the station and we’ve got crossrail coming in the near future. I hope they will reassess their decision’.

The international credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Tesco’s credit rating to ‘junk’

Apart from that, Drastic Dave suspended yet a ninth executive – Chris Robinson, finance director at food sourcing – and confirmed the closure of the defined benefit pension scheme for staff, 43 convenience stores and cancellation of 49 new store developments. Stockbrokers seemed mildly pleased and shares rose to £2.20, still less than half their pre-scandal level. Nevertheless the international credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Tesco’s credit rating to ‘junk’, saying “structural changes in the UK grocery retail market will continue to challenge the Company’s operating performance”. Whether that enables suppliers to demand better terms from the retailer is unclear.

The announcement of a new ‘Retail Ombudsman’ has been greeted with mixed feelings

The ‘Kipper season’ is now upon us. It’s always a good time for everyone to have a moan so the announcement of a new ‘Retail Ombudsman’ has been greeted with mixed feelings. The response to this ‘new independent service to resolve disputes with supermarkets, high street brands and online retailers’ has been less then overwhelming. Like several other Ombudsman services it lacks teeth as it is unofficial i.e. not established or vetted by Parliament. Its adjudications are not binding on anyone unless they happen to subscribe to it, but if you do and it does find in your favour don’t feel too smug – the complainant can still take you to court.

So why establish a toothless Ombudsman?

So why establish a toothless Ombudsman? Apparently this is a mainstream retail response to the forthcoming EU ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution directive’ which will take effect in July. This says the retail sector must have an ‘Alternative dispute resolution body’ – but Parliament has already decided the new watchdog must be official i.e. vetted by the Trading Standards Institute. So whilst toothless in the interim it may morph into that in due course but the meantime is funded by subscriptions from 3,000 or so retailers who have signed-up to it. You can offer it as part of your Customer Care Charter which is one way to take pressure off your Customer complaints department. Especially if you run the notorious ‘No-help-whatsoever-desk’ at RyanAir which has an annoying habit of emailing an apology to your mobile and not accepting replies.

Although the new Retail Ombudsman may be a bit of a crock in terms of Consumer protection it’s a different thing if the Ombudsman is regulated e.g. for energy, financial advice, mortgages, insurance and savings. If you receive or want to make a complaint then go to http://www.ombudsmanassociation.org to see if there is a relevant ombudsman and if its findings are binding.

Meanwhile suitably-barmy advocates of ‘Workplace Wellness’ in the USA are hoping 2015 will be the year that ‘Standup Desks’ take off. These have been favoured by great minds such as Leonardo da Vinci and of course Michael O’Leary, the Chief Exec. of RyanAir. He once suggested RyanAir were considering ‘standing-only’ spaces on their flights and charging people to use the loo. Despite criticism from the Guild of Chairmakers, Joe Nafziger, the Californian inventor of Standup desks said “It’s definitely a worldwide thing that’s picking up speed”.

Advocates of ‘Workplace Wellness’ in the USA are hoping 2015 will be the year that ‘Standup Desks’ take off

Joe would love to hear your opinion of whether standing behind a stall all day in January is good for your health.

Back in the 1960’s Colonel Sanders of fried chicken fame allegedly tried to breed chickens with three legs for his restaurants. This was thankfully unsuccessful, well before the potential for genetic modification became apparent. It now seems likely the first ever genetically-modified meat will be a fish, not a chicken and could be hitting the shelves next year if the US Food and Drug Administration gives approval. GM-modified plants have of course been around for some time (although banned by the EU) but this GM salmon is likely to be the first meat to be approved for human consumption. Not surprisingly it’s been called the ‘Frankenfish’ by Friends of the Earth who are mounting a campaign against it.

Scientists have already proved they can grow meat tissue under laboratory conditions.

Sooner or later this was bound to happen and open up a whole raft of ethical and scientific arguments about changing the natural world. Scientists have already proved they can grow meat tissue under laboratory conditions for a disgusting-looking beefburger, but that’s entirely different to creating a new sentient life form before killing and eating it. Just you wait until world religious leaders start debating the ethics let alone the EU bureaucrats.

Hybrid fish is far more suitable for farming as it grows twice as fast as it’s ‘real’ cousin in the ocean.

The ‘AquaAdvantage’ salmon has been created by inserting genes from other fish species into the DNA of an Atlantic salmon. The resulting hybrid fish is far more suitable for farming as it grows twice as fast as it’s ‘real’ cousin in the ocean, promising higher yields and lower costs for salmon farmers. This is of considerable interest to protein-hungry populations like China where plans are afoot for an inland salmon farm on the edge of the Mongolian desert, no less. Just like farmed prawns, you don’t want to know what they’ll be fed on.

The FDA have concluded the GM salmon is ‘as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon’ and does not threaten the environment. Owners of Scottish rivers which have been decimated by sealice infestation from salmon farms would doubtless disagree. Meanwhile the UK salmon farming industry is wondering whether consumers would be prepared to eat GM-modified, farmed salmon.

An FDA approval could persuade UK producers to apply for a production licence, encouraged by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson’s recent support for GM foods. Government scientists have already endorsed GM plants to increase food crop production but they’ve not yet been brave enough to endorse GM-modified animals.

A ‘YouGov’ poll in June found just 21 per cent of people said they supported the production of GM food, while 35 per cent opposed it.

Some GM plant stuff is already included in livestock feeds but taking the logical next step and running the risk of introducing a nasty like Mad Cow disease directly into the human food chain is a bit too rich. There is also little backing for the move from the public. A ‘YouGov’ poll in June found just 21 per cent of people said they supported the production of GM food, while 35 per cent opposed it. And that was without their being asked if they would make a distinction between GM-modified plants and animals.

The ‘AquaAdvantage’ salmon has been developed by a Canadian Company called AquaBounty. Whilst the Company insists it will only produce sterile, female fish several campaigners who’ve watched ‘Jurassic Park’ point out escapes are inevitable and will place wild stocks under threat. Salmon can – believe it or not – change sex when put under stress e.g. raised in a cage. Campaigners are suggesting it would be better to properly-manage the stocks of wild salmon but developing countries who need cheap protein and don’t have wild salmon don’t give a stuff.

FoE have pointed out that approval will ‘set a precedent for other genetically-engineered animals, including cows, chickens and pigs, to enter our food system’ and are urging supermarkets to pledge for only GM-free seafood. Kroger, owner of several US supermarket chains, have not committed so are being targeted by FoE supporters tweeting about their products.

FoE have some unlikely supporters in Alaska as well. Apart from exporting lots of lovely oil and natural gas their Alaskan neighbours have an important commercial and recreational salmon fishing industry. Alaskan US Senators have been listening to sceptical scientists who maintain escapees will interbreed with wild stocks and then scoff all the young wild salmon in the ecosystem. Senator Mark Begich has said ‘Well-managed, wild salmon are one of our nation’s richest resources and these fish pose a real risk to ocean ecosystems’. He must have been talking to the same Scottish Ghillie who gave me an hour-long lecture on the evils of salmon farming.

The fun of salmon fishing is trying to outwit a wary natural predator, not simply haul in an overdeveloped hybrid so I’m sympathetic. This years’ Company fishing competition was the usual catalogue of ones that got away, apart from Peter Naylor who smugly landed a 38lb’er.

When I was about six years old the first supermarket opened in my home town. I can still remember my parents curiosity and our first visit to this self-service heaven. Also how a salesgirl in the Macfisheries shop (remember them?) told me fish had fingers just like mine, so cutting them off was cruel. I played right into her hands and insisted my parents continued to buy whole fresh fish from Macfisheries and not frozen fish fingers from the supermarket. Not that it helped Macfisheries, who went belly-up in the 1970’s.

The recent heatwave has got everyone hot under the collar – none more so than MP’s keen to reject a pay RISE. Whilst the country was sweltering the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) proposed a cool 11% hike in MP’s salaries from their basic £66,396 to £75,000 per annum ‘after years of pay restraint’.

The Conservatives considered it ‘entirely inappropriate’ that Government should cost more in times of austerity.

This triggered the Party Leaders to outdo each other in rejecting any increase. PM David Cameron kicked-off by saying the Conservatives considered it ‘entirely inappropriate’ that Government should cost more in times of austerity. His deputy Nick Clegg responded for the LibDems who consider it ‘totally incomprehensible’ given the restraint imposed on other public sector workers. Finally, Ed Milliband topped them both by announcing Labour rejected any increase outright and if it was imposed then personally he won’t accept it.

Westminster watchers are waiting to see if this goes nuclear. Will IPSA be disbanded as part of the public sector cuts and party leaders impose a pay CUT on all MP’s? That’s one way to show solidarity with the country and win the next election.

PR campaign to convince the EU genetically-modified food is the solution to food price hikes.

This news was less than welcome to well-meaning Environment Secretary Owen Paterson who was already having a bad month. Only three weeks after launching his PR campaign to convince the EU genetically-modified food is the solution to food price hikes the world’s leading GM seed producer, Monsanto, announced it was pulling out of Europe.

The Company confirmed it was withdrawing all it’s applications for new crops in frustration at EU delays in approvals. ‘As the EU today is effectively a conventional seed market…we will focus on enabling imports of biotech crops’ it said. In other words: ‘We won’t grow GM in the EU but we will continue to sell GM produce’. Hmmmmmm… Maybe Greenpeace and the Prince of Wales should postpone any celebration.

Meanwhile other campaigners were also having a poke at Owens department, Defra. They launched fresh calls for a ‘plastic bag levy’ in England after it was revealed a record-breaking 7 billion single-use plastic bags were handed out to shoppers last year. The figures from WRAP – the Waste and Resources Action Programme – confirmed that ‘Bags for Life’ sales fell whilst suggesting that top-up shopping at convenience stores was causing the rise, together with online groceries delivered in plastic bags.

England is the only part of the UK which does not have a levy on plastic bags and saw a 4.4% increase in bag usage last year.

In Wales, where a 5p levy was introduced in 2011 usage has plunged by 76 per cent so Samantha Harding, spokesperson for the ‘Break the Bag Habit’ Coalition, said there was ‘no credible excuse’ left for not imposing a levy.

But Owen Paterson’s department, Defra prevaricated and said: ‘We’re considering all the relevant factors, including the pressure on household budgets’ and ‘We intend to work with the industry to encourage the development of a viable biodegradable carrier bag’.

What is not clear is why Defra needs to get involved at all. The Welsh Assembly just introduced a ban and waited for retailers to find solutions, which they were commendably quick to do.

Tesco and Asda have admitted their ‘Everyday Value’ and ‘Smartprice’ Still Water is actually tap water.

Finally, do you remember the episode of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ where Delboy rebottled tap water to sell it as ‘Peckham Spring’? Hilarious – and like all good ideas quickly copied by the competition. Tesco and Asda have admitted their ‘Everyday Value’ and ‘Smartprice’ Still Water is actually tap water bought at one third of a penny per litre before being bottled and sold on for 17p for two litres. Apart from the massive profit margin this makes sense because tap water has already been filtered with chlorine to polish off any nasties. Tesco though were then accused of taking the proverbial in the heatwave by hiking the price for two litres from 17p to 24p.

This not-entirely-earthshaking news was revealed in Cardiff when NHS nurse Ross Evans, 33, went shopping at the Culverhouse Cross Tesco to buy water for his patients. Quite why an NHS nurse was buying water for his patients is unclear but strange things happen in Cardiff. You may remember how Tesco Cardiff barred the Jedi Knight brotherhood from shopping whilst wearing their hooded robes. And banned Elaine Carmody and her friends for shopping in their pyjamas and bare feet.

Anyway, the 33-year old father-of-two said: ‘I didn’t expect Tesco to be so immoral as to put up the price of water in the middle of heatwave and cash in on people’s misery. This is shameless profiteering. When I realised the price of the bottles had gone up from 17p to 24p I put them down again and walked out.’

Beer may well be a better choice.

The Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson comes across as pretty credible when making speeches, but he can be let down by his friends. Last month he made a major speech in Parliament to overcome public scepticism and persuade the EU to allow cultivation of Genetically-Modified crops. His speech was straightforward enough but a lot less entertaining than John ‘Mad Cow Disease’ Gummer who, you’ll remember, made his point by force-feeding his daughter with a beefburger on TV. But Owen still has to persuade the Prince of Wales, Prime Minister and House of Commons Catering Committee to put ‘Frankenstein food’ on their menu.

A meat-based diet is amazingly inefficient in terms of resource-use compared to a plant-based one.

Paterson wants the EU to approve a long list of new GM crops, including herbicide-tolerant maize and sugar beet on the basis they offer increased yields which keep food prices down. Critics say the technology is unproven, threatens human health and the ecosystem and is driven by the corporate greed of food producers, not the needs of consumers. The precursor to Paterson’s speech was a report by the Parliamentary International Development Committee two weeks earlier to the G8 ‘International Summit on Nutrition’ held in London. It is generally acknowledged that a meat-based diet is amazingly inefficient in terms of resource-use compared to a plant-based one, so it was hardly surprising when the Chairman Sir Malcolm Bruce announced:

‘There is no room for complacency about food security if UK consumers are to enjoy reasonable food prices. With the UK never more than a few days away from a significant food shortage, UK consumers should be encouraged over time to reduce how often they eat meat.’

The ‘Springwatch’ presenter and president of the RSPB, Kate Humble was pretty supportive of both. She suggested the Sir Paul McCartney approach to meat consumption was one solution.

One solution is meat has to become a luxury – a treat.

‘Don’t be too quick to knock the science’ she said. ‘One solution is meat has to become a luxury – a treat. We need to stop having bacon sandwiches for breakfast, chicken sandwiches for lunch and steak for dinner.’

Whilst the well-rehearsed arguments for and against GM are kicked back and forth across Europe now could be a good time to read the report. It recommends the UK Dept. for International Development continues to help smallholders in the developing world increase food production and reduce reliance on imports. It emphasizes the damage which rising commodity prices do to the UK food industry and consumers and is particularly critical of the EU requirement that 10% of transport energy must be provided from renewable sources by 2020.

Diverting production from food into bio-fuel solves one problem but creates another…

…as seen when the USA shifted production of maize for export into maize for bio-fuel. The resulting price hike in this staple food sparked riots South of the border.

But the report does leave several elephants wandering through the room e.g. whether GM or better farming practices is the solution and whether DFID’s budget should be hacked in the government spending cuts. It does not shy away from the contentious issue of population control in the developing world and points out that when world population grows from 7.1 billion today to 9.3 billion by 2050 as predicted then food prices (let alone energy prices) will go through the roof. The Committee praises DFID’s efforts to meet the need for contraception in many developing nations and urges HMG to maintain a keen focus on women’s reproductive rights.

The Committee also took some shots at emerging problems e.g. investors who buy up areas of land farmed by smallholders in developing countries. They recommended UK-domiciled corporations are required to be transparent about such land deals.

There is ‘considerable scope for the Government to reduce domestic food waste and set national targets to curb food waste within the UK food production and retail sectors…with clear sanctions for Companies which fail to meet these targets’.

Of course one way to keep prices down for the UK’s (relatively-static) population is to increase domestic production, hence Owen Paterson’s speech. Another is to reduce food wastage. According to the committee there is ‘considerable scope for the Government to reduce domestic food waste and set national targets to curb food waste within the UK food production and retail sectors…with clear sanctions for Companies which fail to meet these targets’. It sounds like portions may be about to get smaller at the Market Cafe – which is one way to curb obesity and save money for the NHS.

Meanwhile, a Good Food news story: The miserable weather this spring may have caused the unexpected surge seen in the number of elvers migrating up the river Severn. Cool weather may have shifted ocean currents and helped the baby eels return to the Severn estuary from their birthplace in the Sargasso Sea. Elvers are a local delicacy in Gloucester but when exported to the Far East sell at a price, pound for pound, higher than caviare. I was introduced to catching elvers many years ago by a friend who fries them with smoky bacon and serves them with scrambled egg on toast. Very nice, but too expensive nowadays for anything but an occasional treat.

Netting is strictly controlled by the UK Environment Agency to between February and May and because of the decline the EU has imposed a ban on exports to outside Europe.

Sadly, elver numbers have fallen by 90% over the last 20 years (no-one really knows why) so the European Eel is now on the EU list of endangered species. Netting is strictly controlled by the UK Environment Agency to between February and May and because of the decline the EU has imposed a ban on exports to outside Europe. The French have, predictably, refused to sign-up to the ban and continue to employ their preferred fishing method of trawling by boat. This is of course far less fun than risking your life with a hand net on a muddy Gloucestershire riverbank through a freezing night.

Hopefully the eels now know all about the French and will continue to return to the UK instead.