**Update: 27 July 2017: We got in touch with Waitrose, and a spokesperson said, 'Waitrose has some of the highest standards of farming and food production in the world. We have never considered changing this, and will not change this. More information on our standards can be found here.'
Now we have to get other retailers on board: Call on the Co-op to maintain its food and animal welfare standards! **
Brexit puts UK food standards at risk.
Negotiations on our exit from the EU have begun, and Theresa May is still sticking to her Brexit guns. And that means everything is up for grabs -- including dropping strict EU standards on what goes in our food -- in the rush to secure trade deals with countries outside of Europe.
It’s a nightmare scenario. UK trade secretary Liam Fox is kicking off trade talks with the US today, and says he’s open to putting chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-pumped meat on our supermarket shelves to secure a deal.
We know that big supermarkets like Waitrose don’t want to see this any more than we do -- endless confusion about standards will only make their jobs harder.
So let’s use our voices to get supermarkets to speak out and commit to not putting lower standard food on the shelves. This is our chance to stop the UK becoming a corporate free for all.
Tell Waitrose to commit to maintaining EU standards of food and animal welfare in all products it sells after Brexit.
Theresa May’s hard Brexit means we’re facing a double whammy of jettisoning EU standards and striking a quick trade deal with the US. This opens the door to cheap imports made under US factory farm conditions and grown with 82 pesticides banned in EU. Just last week, a new report warned that the government is sleepwalking into a post-Brexit future of insecure, unsafe and increasingly expensive food supplies.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Supermarkets might be the only thing standing between us and lower quality food and farm animal welfare standards.
Now is the time to push -- we know Waitrose is proud of its commitment to food that’s sustainable and ethically sourced, and from farms with high animal welfare standards. It stakes its reputation on those values and has invested in supporting UK farmers to work to the highest standards.
Waitrose: commit to not selling food that wouldn’t meet EU standards after Brexit.
UK Farmers are worried that they won’t be able to compete with the cheap factory farmed produce that could flood the market with a US trade deal and will go out of business. Consumers have fought too hard, and for too long, to see our food safety and animal welfare standards go up in smoke!
Supermarkets care what we think. When tens of thousands of SumOfUs members took action, Sainsbury’s dropped krill oil from its shelves. The supplement is made from the cornerstone of the Antarctic food chain that marine creatures like whales rely on for survival.
So let’s make Waitrose speak out -- in favour of keeping some of the highest standards in the world when it comes to what goes into our food, and how farm animals are treated. For the sake of our health, our environment, our farm animals and our farmers.
Waitrose: commit to maintaining EU standards of food and animal welfare in all products you sell after Brexit.
More information
US chlorinated chicken not ruled out by No 10 in pursuit of trade deals
The Guardian. 24 July 2017.
The Guardian. 24 July 2017.
UK 'sleepwalking' into food insecurity after Brexit, academics say
The Guardian. 16 July 2017.
The Guardian. 16 July 2017.
Liam Fox 'open' to importing US chlorinated chicken
Sky News. 24 July 2017.
Sky News. 24 July 2017.
Is chlorinated chicken about to hit our shelves after new US trade deal?
The Guardian. 29 January 2017.
The Guardian. 29 January 2017.