I was treated to dinner last week by a friend, a vegetarian friend actually, who booked a table in the Galvin Bistro de Luxe on Baker Street. We were both amused to see this notice near our table.
I emailed the Galvin group in July to ask about what steps they take to ensure that Hen Harriers are not persecuted illegally on the grouse moors which supply them with grouse, how they feel about the ecosystem damage to water supplies etc that is caused by intensive grouse moor management and whether they take any measures to reduce the amount of lead that they feed their customers? I don’t seem to have had a reply – which appears to be too sadly typical for the London restaurants selling grouse meat to their customers.
So we made some enquiries at the restaurant and were told that the grouse comes from Braehead Estate near Aberdeen. I don’t know of, and can’t find, a Braehead Estate in that part of the world, but there is a Braehead Foods which is a game dealer near Kilmarnock – perhaps they get grouse from Donside or Deeside? It’s difficult to say really.
I noticed two other guests tucking into grouse, both were definitely non-British citizens, and one of them, at least, seemed to find the grouse rather hard going.
The vegetarian risotto was delicious with a glass or two of Picpoul de Pinet.
London restaurants (Rules, Jugged Hare, The Ledbury, The Square) seem very defensive about the sourcing of their game meat – isn’t that odd? Wouldn’t you expect them to be vying with each other to boast about their superior quality and the wonderful nature of their suppliers? Instead it seems as though they would much rather not be asked, and if asked, will mostly clam up.
However, some restaurants are different, and I’ll come to them in due course.
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This is great work, Mark.
It’s intriguing. We live in a world where businesses are increasingly falling over themselves to clean up their supply chains. They recognise harm to biodiversity and people as a business risk; and nature and people friendly sourcing as an opportunity to differentiate their produce in the market place. We have retailers pledging to source Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certified oil to address deforestation. Numerous restaurants and supermarkets stock MSC-certified sea fish. The International Finance Corporation requires its commodity clients to apply comprehensive biodiversity safeguards. DIY and furniture stores increasingly vie with each other to source certified timber.
And then we have UK game selling restaurants and retailers ignoring inquiries or at best giving replies of bluster and obfuscation. It’s as if they feel protected by some sort of cosy Establishment, bullet proof in the face of increasing public awareness of the damage of driven grouse shooting and all too eager to protect the status quo. Yet calls for transparency in sourcing grouse will only intensify, investigations will highlight poor practice.
At some point these restaurants and retailers are going to have to step up and champion the interests of their customers rather than the poor practice of their suppliers.
Food standards…. its a killer for game.
Wild game is not fit for human consumption and as soon as FSA are pressured into confirming the risks and condemning the practices- it will not be on the market anymore.
There is no estate near Aberdeen of that name.
Paul – thanks. That’s what I thought.
You could try and get Hugh F-W to stop going on about fish and take up Henry’s cause. I emailed his Dorset set-up a year or so ago and never got a reply. He is probably too busy cruising around the states looking at whales………………then again, I seem to recall he is related to the PM by marriage so maybe he won’t want to blow his chances of a gong for services to barbecuing on beaches.
Market forces and campaigns like this will bring about change, I doubt loss of sales into the restaurant trade will make much of an impact on the ‘sport’ but the media coverage of potential lead poisoning of diners will be good for the campaign?
If the usual suspects media machines got involved then the epetition would be nearing the 100k target by now, see what another passionate and committed conservationist thinks of their endeavours so far via http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/01/chris-packham-slams-shameful-silence-of-britains-conservation-charities
I am reminded of your reply to a question you were asked at the Birdfair when someone asked you ‘what next’ and you sought the ‘NGOs’ take it forward ….
I have heard and read their reasoning but hats off to you & Chris, BAWC and indeed to all those at the Birdfair who each had a plug about the plight of the Hen Harrier particularly. Shame that all those in the audience who hadn’t already signed didn’t go home & sign up.
“…he is related to the PM by marriage so maybe he won’t want to blow his chances of a gong for services to barbecuing on beaches”
Is that perhaps a little unfair?
I guess that depends upon your point of view. Old Hugh seems a little too comfortable in his campaigning to me. Maybe he needs Packam to show him the way.
Maybe some stealth stickering would be a minor but useful instrument in the campaign to raise awareness. Because I have been alive for two Centuries, I still have my ‘Coal not Dole’ sticker. More recently I’ve been stickering Israeli produce grown on the West Bank in Waitrose and M&S. A suitable, short slogan and website address (‘Mmmm, lead shot…; ‘What’s your grouse?’) Might just help to bring some consumers towards an understanding of what’s involved and a few more signatures on the petition. They’re cheap to produce and it’s great fun being a guerilla stickerer.
And this could also be a way of raising further money for satellite tags.
Never go into a Japanese restaurant and ask where doe’s the ‘shark fin’ soup come from! The only reply you’ll get is ‘sharks’.
It’s OK to eat whale meat in a Japanese restaurant because the whales are just culled for scientific purposes.
Isn’t Japanese law wonderful!