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Scampi madness

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:27 am
by Shirley
Scottish langoustines are to travel around the world only to make it back to a freezer near you in the form of scampi. This also means that 120 workers in Scotland will lose their jobs.

I'm never going to eat scampi from Youngs again - I don't eat it a lot anyway, but I do rather like it, but it's off my menu completely now.

Dawnfresh are not a company I've heard of, but I'll be avoiding them too.

The 17,000-mile round trip that costs the earth
STEPHEN MCGINTY AND IAN JOHNSTON
(smcginty@scotsman.com)
Firm cuts 120 jobs in Scotland to send seafood to Thailand for UK shops Environmentalist say damage to Earth will cost £2m to £2.5m a year Shellfish to be shipped to Thailand where workers are paid 25p per hour

Key quote "Very little could better sum up the environmental madness of modern globalisation than the nearly 17,000-mile round trip that will be taken by Young's scampi before it even arrives at the supermarket distribution depot" - Duncan McLaren, Friends of the Earth Scotland chief executive
Read the story in full here

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:50 pm
by rosiep
that is disgusting, both companies are now boycotted from my shopping!

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 2:03 pm
by Stonehead
rosiep wrote:that is disgusting, both companies are now boycotted from my shopping!
You should have been boycotting them anyway!

Findus and Young's Bluecrest are both owned by Capvest, and have some rather dubious links with pirate fisheries. Swedish TV reported earlier this year that Findus was sourcing fish from illegal fisheries and also had ties to two companies with very poor records in the fish industry - Denmark's Kangamiut and China's Pacific Andes.

Also, be aware that Findus and Youngs also supply own-brand frozen fish and meals to the big UK supermarkets, and also supply the restaurant/catering industry as well!

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:03 pm
by Merry
Thanks for that info Stoney!
It`s hard to keep track of boycotts - another reason to stick to local produce where you can I guess.

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 5:31 pm
by Stonehead
Merry wrote:Thanks for that info Stoney!
It`s hard to keep track of boycotts - another reason to stick to local produce where you can I guess.
The biggest difficulty is finding out exactly who owns which brands -Findus itself has been owned in recent times by Nestle, Unilever and EQT as well as Capvest.

I haven't had much chance to look into this today (too busy cutting firewood, mucking out pigs, digging and looking after boys), but I think it goes something like

Capvest owns Findus and Young's Bluecrest
Young's Bluecrest's brands are Young's, Ross, Bluecrest, King Frost, Marr, Scotpak, Macfisheries and Macrae
Young's Bluecrest also supply Sainsbury's, T***o, Asda, Morrison's and Somerfield with own-brand seafood. They're now targeting the smaller and independent stores as well, plus they want to be the leader in the chilled seafood segment of the ready meal market.
Young's claims 40% of the UK retail frozen seafood market, of which 24% is branded.

Dawnfresh Seafoods is an independent, brands include Dawnfresh and Kintyres, and it supplies Sainsbury's, T***o, Asda, Morrisons's, Co-op, Somerfield and Aldi with own-brand seafood, plus Whitbread pubs.

This information is from a variety of sources, but the main ones were Intrafish, Dawnfresh Seafoods and Greenpeace.

I'll add more later but I have to dash now.

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 6:30 pm
by PurpleDragon
Stoney, do you actually sleep at any time in life?

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:43 pm
by Stonehead
PurpleDragon wrote:Stoney, do you actually sleep at any time in life?
I'm one of the living dead, ha ha ha. Just need to plant my feet in grave soil once a week and I'm right. :cooldude:

Only problem is my fingers occasionally fall off... :mrgreen:



I'm just checking in now between boys being changed and boys finishing toothbrushing so will have to go in 5, 4, 3, 2.....

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 8:24 pm
by PurpleDragon
Stonehead wrote:Only problem is my fingers occasionally fall off... :mrgreen:
Which would make collecting eggs a bit inconvenient, I should imagine .. :shock:

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 8:41 pm
by Stonehead
PurpleDragon wrote:
Stonehead wrote:Only problem is my fingers occasionally fall off... :mrgreen:
Which would make collecting eggs a bit inconvenient, I should imagine .. :shock:
ROFL! :mrgreen:

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:10 pm
by baldowrie
Having just had a short spell in hospital receiving a procedure that concluded what we all knew anyway I had time to read a book on Scottish Myths and legends... I am sure there was Stonehead from Insch mentioned in the book! :wink:



There you go Deadly Disturbances..the living dead.

Think they were under the influences of home brew too!