Activists flocked to Tesco’s annual general meeting this morning to protest greenwashing and meat that causes deforestation, holding giant letters which spelt the words ‘Forest Crime.
The protestors ambushed delegates attending the supermarket giant’s annual general meeting (AGM), held at Tesco’s headquarters in Welwyn Garden City.
The 10-metre wide ‘Forest Crime’ sign was accompanied by 10,000 handwritten messages from customers urging Tesco to stop fuelling unsustainable meat.
“10,000 shoppers have sent personal pleas for Tesco to drop forest destroyers from its supply chain – many threatening a boycott if it doesn’t,” warned Greenpeace senior forests campaigner, Elena Polisano.
“Tesco can’t afford to ignore them and we won’t stop campaigning until Tesco stops greenwashing and takes action.”
A Tesco spokesperson told City A.M.: “We require all our suppliers to meet our environmental and zero deforestation standards.
“We recognise there is more to do to ensure deforestation is prevented across the sector, which is why we’ve set an additional industry-leading target for the soy we use in the UK to be from entire areas that are verified deforestation-free by 2025.”
Overnight, more than 200 Tesco stores across the country awoke to chalk stencils that read ‘Tesco meat = deforestation’ in their entrances.
Greenpeace, the activist group behind the protest, has warned it will target more stores with a series of ‘peaceful direct actions’ over the coming months – in a bid to raise awareness on Tesco’s role in deforestation and fires across Brazil.
“Tesco’s chicken supplier is owned by a company notorious for destroying the Amazon rainforest,” Polisano, said, adding that “Tesco’s chicken is reared on soya that’s driving deforestation and fires across Brazil.”
Around 250,000 people have signed a petition calling on the supermarket heavyweight to end its relationships with meat producers that cause deforestation, according to Greenpeace.
Tesco itself stopped selling Brazilian beef in 2018 and said its supply chain uses an ‘extremely small’ proportion of total global soy production – which is used to feed livestock.
The UK’s popular supermarket chain has been urged to cut ties with suppliers with links to farms involved in Amazon deforestation before.
Last year, Tesco said it would not delist two JBS-owned meat suppliers after JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, was allegedly linked to Brazillian deforestation.
In March, JBS said it would “eliminate illegal Amazon deforestation from its supply chain” by 2025, and in other Brazilian biomes by 2030.
