Supermarket Secrets

Bemoaning, as I was the other day, the lack of decent programming on ethical matters here in the UK and Ireland, I overlooked some excellent stuff: namely Channel Four's Dispatches programme. In particular, while looking around on Google Video, I came across two programmes on the food sold and produced for supermarkets here. You can find both by doing a search on Google Video for Supermarket Secrets (or follow the link).

I am a vegetarian but am I even more resolutely one after watching the first episode which is mainly given over to an expose of the factory-farmed chicken sold by all the big retailers in the UK. The second programme chronicles the suffering of other animals that make their ways onto supermarket shelves as well as the ludicrous standards that mean that up to 40% of the vegetables grown for sale in supermarkets is rejected by them because it does not look pretty enough. That figure is the same for the organic produce that the big supermarkets sell too.

Both shows are about 50 mins long so you'll need a reasonably good broadband connection to download them but they are excellent examples - backed up by academic studies and commentary - of excellent tv journalism on ethical issues.