Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth was due to launch a scathing attack on UK supermarkets this week targeting Tesco in particular with its pamphlet The Tesco Takeover.
The group was set to declare the supermarkets are damaging British business, are bad for consumers and bad for the environment, at a Friends of the Earth briefing for MPs hosted by Andrew George MP.
The warning comes on the eve of the supermarket giant’s agm and follows record profits for the company. The pressure group is asking MPs for action to control supermarket practices and to curb Tesco’s huge market share to prevent farmers and consumers paying the price of its success.
Friends of the Earth’s supermarket campaigner Vicki Hird said: “Tesco is lauded as a British success story but the image is a deceptive one and it is beginning to tarnish. Farmers and consumers are paying the price of its uncontrolled expansion here and overseas. MPs must act now to curb the growing market power of supermarkets and ensure that Britain’s booming supermarket industry does not kill off farmers, consumer choice and the traditional British high street.”
The group has also been critical of Tesco’s role in the banana price deflation despite the chain being a signatory of the Ethical Trading Initiative.
FoE and fellow campaigners ActionAid and the New Economics Foundation are calling for a stricter code of practice, enforced by an independent regulator, for all supermarkets, to ensure suppliers are treated fairly and for corporate accountability legislation to be introduced to make UK companies responsible for their impacts on communities and the environment worldwide.
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