Tesco Funded Study Blames Farmers for Food Waste

[CornishTone]

Tesco and WWF call for government to act on farm food waste scandal

The report comes amid fears the UK's plans to tackle food waste are being slowed down by the economic situation

www.thegrocer.co.uk

So, Tesco deliberately sets unachievable product specs to manipulate produce prices (nothing new there), has it written into contracts that growers can't supply anyone else, then funds a study with the WWF that blames farmers for the food wasted due to their (Tesco's) unrealistic requirements!

Surely someone in a position of power see's this for the un-f*#king-believable bullshittery it is?! Where's the NFU? Where's the grocery ombudsman?

 

[Hesstondriver]

I used to work for a tesco supplier

Put simply , unsold produce in store was never tescos fault for over ordering, it was the the suppliers fault : 'if you supplied a better product we would have sold it and not have to discount it ' and so you will now have to fund the profit loss and disposal cost

 

[Tarw Coch]

Went to a Tesco milk meeting about carbon footprint some years back, virtually none of the carbon footprint for milk was tescos liability……………so much for @delilah s the fridges in Tesco have a higher carbon footprint than British ag, they put up some fancy charts to show it was anyones fault but theirs………….less than 1% IIRC

 

[farmerm]

Went to a Tesco milk meeting about carbon footprint some years back, virtually none of the carbon footprint for milk was tescos liability……………so much for @delilah s the fridges in Tesco have a higher carbon footprint than British ag, they put up some fancy charts to show it was anyones fault but theirs………….less than 1% IIRC

I keep warning... industries upstream of us will try pass their carbon responsibility down to us, industries downstream of us will pass the responsibilities back up to us and we will get left in the middle holding the carbon baby! If carbon is to be taxed it should be taxed at one place and one place only, the point where "new" carbon is brought into the above ground carbon cycle, the point at which fossil fuel is extracted! Taxing fuel extraction/fuel imports isn't politically popular though and makes high energy domestic industries uncompetitive against competitors that refuse to impose such measures.

 

[delilah]

Went to a Tesco milk meeting about carbon footprint some years back, virtually none of the carbon footprint for milk was tescos liability……………so much for @delilah s the fridges in Tesco have a higher carbon footprint than British ag, they put up some fancy charts to show it was anyones fault but theirs………….less than 1% IIRC

If you've a Tesco contact, I will happily send them the references to show that their freezers burn more electricity than does all of UK agriculture. I will cc it to Tesco's allies in all of this at the NFU and AHDB.

 

[delilah]

Where's the NFU?

So far up Tesco's arse they will need a torch.

 

[delilah]

Kate Norgrove at WWF is going to get a rocket from me.

 

[CornishTone]

I keep warning... industries upstream of us will try pass their carbon responsibility down to us, industries downstream of us will pass the responsibilities back up to us and we will get left in the middle holding the carbon baby! If carbon is to be taxed it should be taxed at one place and one place only, the point where "new" carbon is brought into the above ground carbon cycle, the point at which fossil fuel is extracted! Taxing fuel extraction/fuel imports isn't politically popular though and makes high energy domestic industries uncompetitive against competitors that refuse to impose such measures.

100%! Ag will be everyone's whipping boy in this and it's not science driven, it's almost entirely political!

 

[delilah]

It's farmings fuggin fault. Had decades to see this coming, done nothing about it, allowed your representative bodies to embrace it.

 

[Chris F]

The NFU surely have to respond to this.

 

[delilah]

The NFU surely have to respond to this.

"We apologize, we will try harder".

 

[Barleymow]

So far up Tesco's arse they will need a torch.

this post needs an award

 

[melted welly]

There’s a comments section at the bottom of the article, might be worth adding some voices…

 

[melted welly]

Out of interest, text from the wwf release….

I don’t know how clear that will be as my phone camera lens is like a spider’s web and full of stoor.

So I paraphrase:

the term “farm food waste” describes any food AND INEDIBLE PARTS that are, or at some point we’re intended for human consumption but have either ended up not harvested or sent to one of 7 food waste destinations:
AD
Compost
Burnt
Flailed/spread on land
Not harvested/ploughed in
Refused/discarded
Sewer/wastewater

So included in the farm waste total is produce discarded by retail, refused by retail, inedible parts, outgrades sent to compost/AD, flailed off/ploughed in crop.

Nice work

 

[delilah]

You want to know why WWF put their name to this ?

https://www.wwf.org.uk/who-we-are/trustees/dave-lewis

This is what happens when you allow corporate control of the food chain. They end up with their spies, their lackeys and their henchmen everywhere.

 

[Turnip]

So clarify for me why as a farmer you would waste product and not find an alternative market for it if the supermarket doesn't want it? Its great complaining about supermarket high standards but the choice to waste the product is still ours as producers.

 

[CornishTone]

Out of interest, text from the wwf release….

View attachment 1074146

I don’t know how clear that will be as my phone camera lens is like a spider’s web and full of stoor.

So I paraphrase:

the term “farm food waste” describes any food AND INEDIBLE PARTS that are, or at some point we’re intended for human consumption but have either ended up not harvested or sent to one of 7 food waste destinations:
AD
Compost
Burnt
Flailed/spread on land
Not harvested/ploughed in
Refused/discarded
Sewer/wastewater

So included in the farm waste total is produce discarded by retail, refused by retail, inedible parts, outgrades sent to compost/AD, flailed off/ploughed in crop.

Nice work

What they don't specify, of course, is every time a super market over orders, reneges on an order, turns a shipment away because it got stuck in traffic and arrived 5mins late, the list of horror stories goes on and on.

The other thing they doesn't mention is much of it is fed to livestock to produce quality, nutrient dense meat and is therefore not really wasted at all.

None of us wants to throw food away, yet this report seems to be suggesting the industry wilfully throws food away for the sheer hell of it!

 

[CornishTone]

So clarify for me why as a farmer you would waste product and not find an alternative market for it if the supermarket doesn't want it? Its great complaining about supermarket high standards but the choice to waste the product is still ours as producers.

Not if your contract prevents you from supplying another retailer, which many do. Same in the milk industry. The only option left is to, plough it in, send it for animal feed, AD, (non of which would be "waste" as such as they all turn it into something useful) or land fill... which defiantly is waste! The report doesn't differentiate between any of them, they are making the assumption that its all wasted and it's all the farmers fault regardless of the part the retailer plays in the hideous process.

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

Why does anyone still supply tesco with good then

 

[Yale]

Why does anyone still supply tesco with good then

Cartel!