In 24 cities in France including Besançon (Doubs), this Saturday, November 16, activists returned products from the Le Gaulois, Maître Coq and Marie brands to the shelves. Objective: to raise awareness among consumers and invite the agri-food group LDC to reduce the suffering of animals in intensive farming.
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Buy French chicken. Although some consumers make the effort, they do not always know what the animal went through before ending up in a plastic container on the shelf. Raised outdoors, or in very dense flocks, chickens do not experience the same conditions.
In intensive farming, animal welfare is not always respected.
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© Denis Colle – France Télévisions
The LDC group, headquartered in Sablé-sur-Sarthe (72), owns the brands Marie, Le Gaulois and Maitre Coq. According to L214, which denounces the breeding conditions, LDC is still not a signatory to the European Chicken Commitment. An agreement which, via several criteria, aims to ban the worst chicken breeding practices, such as the use of ultra-rapidly growing strains by genetic selection, or breeding densities of up to 20 chickens per square meter .
In the main street of Besançon, L214 activists are raising consumer awareness.
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© Denis Colle – France Télévisions
In front of the Monoprix store in Besançon, L214 activists displayed banners and photos to raise awareness among consumers. For the association, the poultry giant which reigns over 40% of market share in France must do better.
“KFC has signed the European Chicken Commitment, so it is possible for this large LDC group. It has the financial means to do it” estimates Amandine Moity, L214 Besançon referent, speaking to our journalist Catherine Schulbaum. “It is a current ecological and ethical necessity” adds the young woman. 120 companies in France have already made this commitment.
During their action, the Besançon activists returned trays of chicken distributed by the LDC group to around ten stores in the city, affixing a message “let's turn our backs”. The objective of the activists who mobilized in around twenty cities in France was to exceed the online counter of 100,000 trays returned in total, in particular thanks to public participation. In short, putting media and economic pressure on the chicken giant.
Products from the LDC group returned to a store in Besançon.
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© L214
The LDC group publishes its animal welfare improvement policy every year. It could go further, according to L214.
More than 85% of French people are opposed to intensive farming according to a 2021 IFOP survey. Consumers do not necessarily have the animal condition in mind when they buy their chicken thigh or fillet. For reasons of economic crisis, these major brands are often reflexively the ones to be found first in our shopping carts.
