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Fearnley-Whittingstall passes £87k Tesco target

11th June 2008, 12:36pm

TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has today said that him and his chicken campaign team have raised the money needed to challenge Tesco shareholders regarding chicken welfare.

On the www.chickenout.tv website the team said: "We believe that we have now passed our target for paying the Tesco bill of £86,888 for distributing our resolution! Surplus funds will be donated to Compassion in World Farming for their ongoing work with poultry welfare."

We reported on Monday how Tesco had demanded £86,888 to pay for the printing and distribution of forms and literature to Tesco's 269,000 shareholders.

Hugh explained the situation further: "A few weeks ago I submitted a resolution to Tesco with the support of 102 shareholders representing some 3.7 million ordinary shares. The resolution challenges Tesco's claims about poultry welfare, and urges them to set new minimum welfare standards, including lower stocking densities and more environmental stimuli for the birds.

"Now Tesco have told me that they will only take our resolution to the AGM if I meet the cost of distributing the relevant papers to their shareholders. They are entitled to waive this fee, and we have requested that they do so, in the interest of shareholder democracy, but they have declined. In other words, the resolution is dead in the water unless I pay them £86,888 to print and post the papers out to all 269,000 Tesco shareholders.

"Tesco is the biggest retailer in the country and they can make the biggest difference to the lives of hundreds of millions of chickens. And so I'm determined, along with my fellow supporting shareholders and Chicken Out campaigners, to pursue this resolution. So I'm putting my money where my mouth is to take this issue all the way to the Tesco AGM on June 27th."

Around £30,000 of Hugh's money went into the fund and the rest was raised via an online auction.

Related Articles:

01 Sep 2010 - Star chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to present Organic Food Awards
04 Dec 2009 - Chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall dishes out school food awards

Words Clare Riley 0 comments

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