'Badger-friendly' milk only guaranteed in three UK supermarkets, says charity

Related tags Milk

Only three UK supermarkets – Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Asda – can guarantee that their own-brand fresh milk does not come from dairy farms within badger cull zones, a survey by wildlife charity, Care for the Wild has found.

Through dialogue with a number of major UK supermarkets, Care for the Wild established that only Asda, Waitrose and Mark & Spencer could guarantee that their own-label milk would come from farms outside of Somerset and Gloucestershire. From 1 June, farmers in these counties will be permitted to shoot badgers.

Around 5,000 badgers in these areas will be culled during the cull in an attempt to curb rising levels of bovine TB.

Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, and the Co-op were unable to guarantee that their own-label milk is 'badger-friendly', Care for the Wild said.

“The reasons why supermarkets can or can’t offer this might be to do with luck rather than policy, or it might be to do with complicated supply chains which, frankly, shouldn’t be so complicated that they don’t actually know where the milk has come from,” said CEO of Care for the Wild, Philip Mansbridge.

“Either way, consumers should be given choice – a choice to buy cage-free eggs, a choice to buy free range pork, and a choice to buy badger-friendly milk. I think when they are given that choice, many will take it.”

2 comments

Re Badger-Friendly Milk

Posted by Nicki Rawson, 12 June 2013 - 08:59 GMT

Arla supply Asda. They recently removed their 'badger-friendly' status from their Cravendale website. I received this yesterday.

'There was an error on the Cravendale website regarding the brands' position about badgers. This information has been removed from the site. Our position on the management of Bovine TB remains in line with that of the dairy industry.'

I think we can confidently assume Asda are NOT badger-friendly.

Report abuse

Re Badger Cull Free Milk

Posted by jill Edwardes, 11 June 2013 - 18:00 GMT

I emailed Waitrose about this and got the following reply:-
Thank you for your enquiry about our stance on the proposed badger cull.

We understand the strength of feeling on both sides of this debate but, as this
is a government initiative, we feel that participation should be left entirely
at the discretion of farmers themselves.

Report abuse