M&S will not stock grouse meat this year.
Phew! I’ve been missing shopping in M&S. I may buy a bottle of their champagne to celebrate.
In a statement posted on their corporate blog M&S say that they will not stock grouse because there aren’t enough of them on the estate which they intend to use as their sole supplier.
The information on the blog suggests that the estate, which we know is in Scotland, is probably Langholm Moor – but that’s just my guess. The guess is made easier by the suggestion that there are Hen Harriers on the moor – that narrows it down an awful lot (not just to Langholm but there aren’t many others in the running).
If it is Langholm, and it may not be, then the statement made at a GWCT meeting and reported on by Ruth Tingay in a guest blog here, that the Buccleugh Estate wanted to control raptors might have been a bit of a sticking point with some interested M&S customers…
M&S have got a year to ensure that the grouse they get from their supplier are shot with non-toxic ammunition and then they might get enthusiastic customers from some quarters for their grouse meat.
It wouldn’t have been very sensible to announce grouse meat sales at a time when an e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting has reached 91,705 signatures, now would it?
Six out of ten marks for Marks (and Spencer too) – you’ve done the right thing but you haven’t half made a meal out of it, and you’ve eroded trust as a result.
[registration_form]
A convenient way out of a sticky situation for M&S.
Now that it seems certain we can reach 100,000 it is surely every bit as important that we all carry on writing to N.E., N.T., Defra, Scottish Environment minister, BBC et al. with the added weight that 100,000+ and debate in the house brings to the situation.
I’m still waiting to receive their response to questions about lead levels in their meat and warning labels etc.
Suspect we’ll get mass printed ‘standard’ dribble, but yep another notch on the campaign belt, well lead Mark (ooops no pun intended, a trypo sorry;)
Definitely, we must all keep up the flow of ‘correspondence’ ….
92, 127 @ 16:17
Yes it still looks like a bit of a compromise rather than any principled decision. Still we will take it-given our current feel-good factor!
Well that’s good then, but I’ve already made acquaintances with Waitrose and their beer is cheaper. Maybe I’ll return next year as M&S do have a rather good craft beer range, but maybe I won’t.
‘This year we’ve put a great deal of preparation into getting the standards and supply right for a speciality game meat – Red Grouse. Unfortunately it’s not worked out. For sustainability reasons, we have always said that we would only stock grouse in our stores if the numbers on the estate we have been working with were strong enough.’
So, will that give the moor owner the green light to increase the heather yield, hence grouse numbers for next year? More draining and burning?
Presumably they’ll blame voles or bad weather for it “not working out”…
Thankyou M&S for your rather late, but welcome decision not to stock Red Grouse this year. Whatever your reasoning really was, please do not put us concerned shoppers through this next year.
In the last paragraph of your statement though, you mention ‘stakeholders’. Please do not forget that all your UK customers are stakeholders in the wellbeing of the UK uplands and wildlife, and also stakeholders in the observance of UK Law.
I can remain a happy M&S customer – thankyou
Have they stopped using workfare labour too? Because I’m am about as cool with that as I am with their connection to driven grouse estates.
What has really eroded trust, and is still eroding it, is their point blank refusal to name the estate or to publish their Code of Practice so we can see for ourselves whether it really is the “comprehensive guide to best practice” they claim it to be. As it was developed in conjunction with the GWCT and not the RSPB I shall remain sceptical until I get to read it for myself.
In the meantime I shall go along with your “six out of ten”, Mark, and carry on enjoying their premium pork sausages for another year.
That’s a pretty weak response…but at least it is a response..in the past they would have ignored you. Sustainability to them is obviously only about sustaining artificially high grouse numbers, not sustaining any wildlife/habitat balance…The bit at the end about licensing has the usual taint of “we know best” about it….”stakeholders” to them will not include the mass of concerned public citizens.
I’m relieved too as it’s avoided an expensive and messy divorce, at least for this year – I got sent an M&S Gift Card as a thank you for renewing my Which? membership and was going to send it back to the Consumers’ Association and explain the reasons why I was returning it. Mrs W-w-I found out and was livid, as she pointed out she’d have to shell* out on school uniforms etc. (* See what I did there?!)
I’d say you aren’t half right Mark about eroding trust – personally I’m unlikely to spend any of my hard earned overdraft with Marks and Sparks any time soon – the whole business has left a sour taste (must be all the bits of spent cartridge…geddit?). Their explanation that there aren’t enough grouse to sell is a miserable fudge and they haven’t revealed their industry leading code of practice or answered questions about lead levels (or indeed anything at all) satisfactorily. I can’t believe they let it get this far. It’s such a bizarre approach to brand management, corporate social responsibility etc. as to defy explanation, and suggests a top management woefully arrogant or out of touch with reality (or both).
But it’s another little victory … and today of all days – congratulations to you and Chris Packham and others for this reward for your efforts; none of my grousing (I’M HERE ALL WEEK!!) takes anything away from that…
I’m presuming you have seen this from the BTO, Mark;
‘A bird survey that was reported to have taken place on a managed grouse moor in the Pennines has been widely quoted in the media this week. The report arising suggested that 800 pairs of Lapwing, 400 pairs of Curlew and 100 pairs of Golden Plover were present, and that 89 species of bird were seen. These results have been used as evidence that moorland managed for grouse shooting is good for birds.
These figures have been attributed to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), but this claim is erroneous. This fieldwork was not carried out by the BTO and did not use the rigorous statistical methods employed by BTO in order to produce accurate estimates of this type.
The organisation wishes to make it clear that the quoted figures should not be attributed to the BTO’.
http://us13.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b0c8b4689232cb8e38fb5af91&id=07fb501f79&e=2a5d91fc88
I thought that was a weird stat.
Anyone know here they got it?
Credit to you Mark and everyone who complained! What an amazing job you are doing in raising awareness of what actually goes on in the driven grouse shooting industry! Keep up the good work! The more signatures the better once we get to 100,000.
I’m really missing out, can some one please give me the link to the debate between Botham & Sir Chris. Thanks, Dave.
94,000. 18.36. This truly has been a Glorious Twelfth, however this time it has been for us and you Mark.
There you go, Dave;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p044fnlg
Unlikely to be Langholm as they have not shot there since 1989 when they killed over 2000 brace of Red Grouse and over 300 birds of prey in one year! [Ratcliffe in print]
But could have been the other moors owned by Buccleugh Estate.
ANY shops and food outlets which supply or serve game should be asking the question about how many pairs of breeding Raptors there are on the Estate which is supplying the game. Consumers need to ask the same question. Estate owners need to understand the value placed on raptors by the public. Perhaps the best thing to come out of this petition is public awareness through education about the appalling persecution of raptors and many mammals which takes place routinely on many shooting estates.
Marks and Spencers have taken the ‘rap’ over game and although I do think their response has been tardy and carefully crafted, there are many other establishments who continue to sell and supply game – Harrods, Waitrose, and of course many restaurants and Cruise ships.