Farmers

Our farmers and our commitment to British agriculture

We value our farmers, so we are doing all we can to support them and help maintain a prosperous British agricultural industry. Click on the links below to find out how closely we work with our farmers, how this relationship helps us maintain our rigorous high standards and how we're trying to bring you in closer contact with our farmers.

Tomatoes on the vine

Communicating with our customers

Research shows Marks & Spencer customers want to know more about where their food comes from, and they want closer links to the farmers who produce it. So we’re trying hard to bridge the gap between farmers and customers, by running the following schemes.


  • Named Farmer

    We now include the name of the farmer or grower on a range of food labels, and the name of the county the food was produced in. Our farmers are passionate about the food they produce for us, so we want to let our customers know who they are. This makes our products more interesting and assures customers the food is fresh, safe and produced from a known source. Look out for our Named Farmer products in your local Marks & Spencer.

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  • Meet the Farmer

    Every summer, customers can meet many of our farmers and growers at a number of the agricultural shows across the country. They can sample a selection of our fresh food range and watch expert cookery demonstrations using local produce at our stand. We also sponsor a number of the livestock classes at each of the shows.

    This year, you can find us at the following agricultural shows:

  • Balmoral Show, Belfast see www.balmoralshow.co.uk
  • Bath & West Show, Shepton Mallet see www.bathandwest.com
  • Royal Highland Show, Edinburgh see www.royalhighlandshow.org
  • Royal Welsh Show, Builth Wells see www.rwas.co.uk/society

    • Communicating with our farmers

    We've always believed in building long term partnerships with our farmers and growers. Recently we've taken steps to improve our communication with them further - letting them know our plans for the future, ensuring an honest exchange of views and emphasising our appreciation of their contribution to our success.

    We have a team of agriculture specialists who work closely with our farmers and growers. We also meet with an estimated 1,800 farmers and associates at agricultural shows up and down the country as well as produce a famer and grower newsletter, farmfile, several times a year. To see the latest edition click here.
     
    Our farmers and growers are passionate about the high quality food they supply for Marks & Spencer. So we like to recognise their hard work and help protect British agriculture by supporting various agricultural shows, farming initiatives and prize-giving events throughout the year.

    These include:

  • Attending and providing sponsorship at the many agricultural shows throughout the UK
  • Attending the annual Oxford Farming Conference;  in January 2004 M&S gave one of the keynote speeches, the first retailer ever to be asked to do so. See www.ofc.org.uk
  • Sponsoring the Farm Business magazine annual Agricultural Awards

    • M&S Farm Assurance

    Marks & Spencer has its own farm assurance scheme, which guarantees the high-quality food production you expect from us. It sets standards across the whole agricultural supply chains and is more extensive in its requirements than other schemes such as national farm assurance initiatives. These requirements are regularly reviewed and amended to ensure we maintain high standards.

    Our technologists and our suppliers’ specially trained auditors inspect everything from animal welfare, livestock housing, food safety and quality, to animal feed, farm hygiene, environment and slaughter. Every detail is well-documented, and every farm regularly audited.
    Strawberries

    Animal wellfare

    As a 100% own brand retailer, our animal welfare policy applies to every food product we sell. Our continued commitment to farm animal welfare has been recognised by leading animal welfare groups such as the RSCPA and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF). Our leading standards position and policies on farm animal welfare led us to be awarded Compassionate Supermarket of the Year 2008 by CIWF.

    At Marks & Spencer, we work closely with our suppliers to ensure they raise their animals using high standards of animal health, husbandry and welfare. We have a team of animal welfare specialists who inspect our farms to ensure this is the case.
     
    We’ve based our welfare policy on recommendations from the UK’s Farm Animal Welfare Council, which include what are known as the Five Freedoms.

    Our animals have freedom:

  • From hunger and thirst
  • From discomfort
  • From pain, injury and disease
  • To express normal behaviour
  • From fear and distress

    We realise animal health and welfare are closely linked, so we always provide animals with the appropriate veterinary care if needed – although we only use medicines if it’s absolutely necessary to ensure good health and welfare. Working closely with experts, we’re looking at ways of monitoring our husbandry systems to reduce the amount of medicines we use in the future. For example, we prohibited the use of growth-promoting antibiotics in the diets of all animal used in our foods ahead of the EU legislative ban.

    At Marks & Spencer we know exactly where our animals come from and what they’ve been fed. We ensure they’re provided with a suitable, safe and nutritious diet. We don't allow meat, bone meal or any unauthorised feed products in our livestock diets. In addition we've removed the GM soya and maize ingredients from the diets of animals which produce our fresh beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, eggs, farmed salmon and standard milk.
    For animal welfare reasons, it is Marks & Spencer policy to sell only free range eggs and use free range eggs as an ingredient in all its foods. We choose not to sell foie gras or by-products sourced from the foie gras industry, eg, goose fat.

    • View video - Meet our dairy farmer