ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

June 18th 2008

Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall Lobbies Against Tesco’s Cruelty

Filed under: animals, campaigns, food & drink, shopping — parrish @ 1:39 pm

For the past year or so Ecorazzi has kept you abreast on the food reform initiative that’s taking place in the UK. Celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have all been deeply involved with raising the bar on animal welfare.

A couple months ago Ecorazzi reported news that Jamie Oliver had convinced Tesco (a popular Brittish supermarket) to double their order of premium chickens, bringing the proportion of higher welfare chickens to about 30 percent of total poultry sales-an increase of 70 percent from this time last year. However, Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall doesn’t think that’s enough and claims that Tesco is serverely lagging in animal welfare issues. Wittingstall is urging Tesco to adopt the RSPCA’s higher standards on chicken or drop its claims that it fulfils the government’s aspirations on animal welfare. And this chef ain’t just whistling dixie!

Wittingstall has received official support from the PIRC, the corporate governance adviser, and will be recommending its members to vote in favor of his special resolution at Tesco’s annual meeting next week. For all you Ecorazzi readers that live abroad, you have the chance to watch Hugh tonight on Channel 4’s River Cottage Spring program as he speaks about the benefit of using free range and organic chickens.

I think it’s safe to say that whatever your dietary choice might be, everyone would agree that no animal deserves to be the subject of cruelty and torture. So if you do choose to eat meat, spend the extra buck or two and purchase the more humanely treated variety — it’s healthier, happier and all around more environmentally sound. Don’t believe me? Just ask Hugh.

via: business.timesonline.co.uk

June 2nd 2008

The Green Quote: Tana Ramsay On Green Youth

Filed under: campaigns — parrish @ 12:05 pm

“Teaching children how to be eco-friendly at preschool age is just so obvious and so fantastic. It creates habits that they get into for a lifetime and then they put pressure on their parents.”

- Tana Ramsay on teaching children how to be green. Tana is chef Gordon Ramsay’s wife and the ambassador for the inaugural Playing for the Planet Awards — a campaign for preschoolers to enter competitions that teach what they can do to be greener.

via: timesonline.co.uk

May 12th 2008

Chef Gordon Ramsay Puts Up A Fight For Local Produce

Filed under: campaigns, food & drink — parrish @ 2:01 pm

Chef Gordon Ramsay, most commonly known as the face of Hell’s Kitchen, is getting all local up on your ass! For the past few years Ramsay has been quite outspoken on the importance of using locally grown fruits and veggies, but now he’s taken it a step further by suggesting that restaurants be charged a fine for using out-of-season produce.

Ramsay told the BBC News: ” I don’t want to see asparagus on in the middle of December. I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home grown.”  However, a surge of bloggers have begun to attack Ramsay’s own restaurants (he has 20 in the UK) for menu items like “tropical fruit desserts” and “ravioli of Italian winter squash.”

In response, Ramsay’s people say (and remember they’re British so ignore the strange spellings): “Gordon Ramsay Holdings recognises the importance of sourcing ingredients which are both local and within season. Nevertheless, the overriding concern for all our chefs is they use the highest quality produce, and therefore in some cases, they source ingredients from further afield.”

This whole local food thing brings up a pretty interesting predicament. Is it ALWAYS better to buy local? Should we consider farmers in indigenous countries who rely on our moola to make a living? Is local more important than organic? I agree with Gordon that buying local is the way to go, but also think that enforcing a fine is just…well stupid. What do you think bloggers? Local or not? Speak now or forever hold your peace.

via: lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk

February 13th 2008

British Supermarket Tesco Doubles Order For Free-Range Chickens

Filed under: animals, campaigns, food & drink, green and famous, healthy living, products, shopping, thegreenpicture — parrish @ 1:28 pm

I think it’s safe to say that Ecorazzi has been relentless in covering all the chicken drama going on in Britian. In case you haven’t been reading (shame on you), here’s the low down on the down low:

A bunch of celebrity chefs were sick of all the piss poor conditions that most chickens are forced to endure. So, they decided to go VERY public with their concern, asking supermarkets and consumers to raise the bar on poultry standards. Jamie Oliver talked some trash and got in a little trouble with Sainsbury’s, but at the end of the day, the large grocery retailer agreed to adopt higher standards, so it was all kind of worth it. However, every time we’d write a story about the “premium” British chickens (do they have cool accents?), we’d get tons of comments that they were all sold out. Well here’s some good news:

The British supermarket, Tesco, has just doubled their order for premium chickens!!! This will bring the proportion of higher welfare chicken to about 30 percent of total chicken sales-an increase of 70 per cent from this time last year. What’s also great is that the media is acknowledging the fact that the crew of celebrity chefs had everything to do with the rise in awareness. You guys…THIS IS AWESOME!!

Now even though I don’t eat chicken (go vegans) and even though I’ve never been out of the country (go ignorant Americans), I’m basically flapping my wings over the fact that things seem to be getting better. My personal thanks to Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for seriously stepping to the plate and really making a difference. Now British readers, it’s up you! If you’re a meat-eater, visit Tesco this week and let Ecorazzi know if “premium” chickens are back in stock. If not, I’ll just have to finally get a passport and go abroad for some undercover Ecorazzi reporting.

photo credit: famouschicken.com

January 10th 2008

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Sheds Some Much Needed Light On The Broiler Chick

Filed under: animals, campaigns, food & drink, green and famous, shopping — parrish @ 11:05 am

As Ecorazzi reported previously, some of the UK’s top celebrity chefs like Jaime Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, are getting involved to help spread the news about the dastardly poultry market that dominates their country.  Now, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is taking it one step further with his Chicken Out campaign.

The Chicken Out campaign attempts to educate the British consumer on the plight of the broiler chicken who is often reared without light or proper space for the sake of mass production.  In fact, there are 850 million chickens reared in the UK each year, but only a pathetic five percent are free range, and even less than that get the organic seal of approval. Whittingstall hopes to improve those numbers.

As you can imagine, The National Farming Union isn’t overly excited about Whittingstall’s attempts, saying, “Hugh’s Chicken Run could increase confusion among consumers” and that “we would prefer it if consumers were able to make an informed choice.”

I mean how to you want me to sum this one up, kiddies? I’m overwhelmed here. Of course as a person who is greatly concerned with the welfare of our planet and the rights of all animals I think Whittingstall actions are incredibly noble, but I know that not everybody shares my views.  I think (or hope) most of us can agree that when we have the choice to buy a product that’s a little cruel or very cruel, we’d always choose the former. To me, this attempt is an example of real progress, and I so respect Whittingstall for trying to change the world one plate at a time.

December 20th 2007

The Green Picture: UK’s Top Chefs Pull Back Curtain On Chicken Farms

Filed under: food & drink, thegreenpicture — michael @ 10:20 am

The UK’s Channel 4 is getting ready for a season of programming on eating healthy and informing people where processed food comes from; including the horrible conditions present in factory chicken farms and other operations. Helping them along the way are chefs Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

You can read more about the effort in a past post here. To put aside any differences, the three were sent into the woods to perform some team building exercises and shoot a trailer for the series. What follows in the video is some hilarious tongue-in-cheek humor that’s worth a look.

For more information on the series, jump here.

November 26th 2007

UK Celebrity Chefs To Go After Cruel Chicken Farms

Oliver, Ramsay, and Fearnley-Whittingstall join forces

Filed under: animals, food & drink — michael @ 4:45 pm

Setting aside any cooking differences, the top three chefs in the UK (otherwise known as the culinary “three tenors”) have created a united front to expose cruel chicken farming practices and encourage consumers to make smart choices. Jaime Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will all promote organic, free range meat through January on UK’s Channel 4. From the article,

“Oliver will reveal to his guests some of the “hideous” ways chicken-related dishes make their way from farm to fork through a series of “shocking demonstrations”. To show the public “what happens to chickens that are sold for less than the price of a pint of beer”, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall will set up his own intensive-rearing chicken farm near his home in Axminster, Devon. He will be shown breaking down in tears at the plight of the unnaturally large 39-day-old broiler chicks, crying: “I can’t kill another chicken.”

What about Ramsay? Well, as far as we can tell, he’ll be the host of a “Cook-Along” live special to encourage everyone to get into the kitchen at the same time. We’re sure there will be some organic promotions during this time — but it doesn’t appear as if the controversial chef will be doing nearly as much as Oliver or Whittingstall. As we’ve mentioned before, Ramsay has irked animal rights groups such as PETA for his use of certain animals in the kitchen; especially horse meat and duck liver. Let’s hope his efforts are as genuine as the others.

via the guardian