trulyresponsible.org

I saw and heard a fascinating report on the TV and radio yesterday.

In summary it would appear that the Bishop of Liverpool, curious about the origins and destination of large quantities of soy beans being landed at Liverpool docks discovered that they had come from cleared Amazon rainforest and are destined to become feed for the huge quantities of Chicken meat we produce in the UK and Europe.

What I found most interesting about the report was that I believe I heard him say we should be asking the retailer where the food for the chickens we buy had come from. So I’m going to put this to the test. Over the next few weeks as we buy chicken from various sources, I’m going to see if we can find out where the food ingredients that were fed to the chickens comes from. I don’t hold much hope that we’ll have much success. But lets see….

It’s been some time since I poked around to find out what the major supermarkets are doing to help us get more information about the food they sell us. I decided today that I’d write to Sainsbury as I know that for some time they have provided a look up service for discovering the origins of whole organic products such as potatoes. So far as I know not a single food retailer has ever done this for a complex processed food product.

I know it’s possible. For example, Made-By in Holland now provide customers with the full list of companies involved in production of a range of their fashion clothing. If it can be done for something as complex as clothing it must be possible for food, where there are generally fewer companies involved.

So here is what I wrote to them:

Hello,

I wonder if you can provide me with a document or a link to more information concerning what you are doing to improve transparency in the food supply chain.

Recent initiatives by companies such as Historic Futures Ltd, have made it possible for consumers to obtain the full details of production for complex clothing products and nutraceuticals. A simple example can be found at http://www.made-by.org

If it is possible for this type of product, I feel sure it must be possible for processed food. I know you already provide this sort of service for unprocessed whole organic food (e.g. potatoes, whole chickens etc) - when will you start providing it for processed food which by it’s very nature is much less transparent to the consumer?

Many thanks for any information you can provide.

Simon