With all its claims to greenness, I was kind of surprised to hear that Marks and Sparks still sold Veal of any sort, but the good news is, it's taking imported white veal (along with white calves' liver) off its shelves.
M&S has announced that from Wednesday, it will remove the two products from its food stores, but will continue to sell British 'rose' veal, which it claims is from animals 'reared in well-lit barns and fed a natural diet which meets the welfare standards of both Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA. The chain's food director Steven Esom said: "We have banned white veal as we were increasingly unhappy with the animal welfare standards associated with the rearing of calves."
Earlier in the year, M&S improved the welfare for pigs used in its fresh and speciality pork products, which is now 100% outdoor-bred.
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How are their chickens and eggs produced? Are they all free range? If not then they should be, if it's wrong to sell cruelly-reared veal then it's wrong to sell broiler chickens and battery eggs and chickens with hock burns.
I get sick of hearing people say they will never touch veal but are happy to eat chicken because it doesn't matter about chickens.
Yes, M&S went 100% free range (including in their cakes, quiches etc) for 10 years now, which is possibly why you won't have heard this recently - it's old news!
Why do you not think a 'green' store should not sell veal of any kind? Veal is actually a very ethical meat, as long as it is reared nicely, as it makes use of unwanted bull calves from the dairy industry. Would you rather farmers shot the calves at birth, as is happening by the thousand because of outdated attitudes towards veal?
Also, why do you illustrate the item with a picture of a newborn calf? Veal is usually from animals around 6 months old (older than any supermarket pork or chicken, and most lamb). At the age of slaughter they look nothing like your photo.
It's good that you welcome M&S' move to sell only British veal, and we can only hope other supermarkets follow suit, but your general anti-veal tone smacks of a general (and widespread) ignorance of the real issues at stake.