PAN UK acts as a ‘critical friend’ to supermarkets. This means we work closely with their technical staff to highlight where certain practices in their global supply chains are problematic, and advise on how they can strengthen their efforts to reduce pesticide-related harms. Our work includes running roundtable events where staff from all ten supermarkets have a chance to hear from experts in pesticide reduction. We also offer supermarkets bespoke advice and individual support on specific issues. This may be through sharing case studies of effective non-chemical and environmentally friendly alternatives to pesticides, suggesting helpful training options for their growers, or assisting them to update their lists of pesticides which they prohibit, restrict or monitor within their global supply chains.
Since January 2019, when we began work on the first of this new round of supermarket rankings, PAN UK has not accepted any form of financial compensation from supermarkets in order to remain completely impartial.
Previous to the 2019 launch of our current supermarkets campaign, we conducted occasional consultancy work which is detailed below.
Between 2010 and 2017, PAN UK provided paid advice to two of the supermarkets in the latest rankings:
- Between 2011 and 2017, PAN UK provided paid advice to M&S on Highly Hazardous Pesticides and options for removing them from the M&S supply chain.
- Between 2010 and 2013, PAN UK provided advice to the Co-op on Integrated Pest Management and pollinator-friendly farming practices; the Co-op also sponsored PAN UK’s Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture in 2010 and 2011, and an event at the House of Commons in 2013 focused on pollinator threats from neonicotinoid pesticides.
PAN UK last received funds from Co-op in 2013 and from M&S in 2017. Separate from our consultancy work, PAN UK also conducted and published supermarket rankings in 2009 and 2011.
