The 2005, US documentary being shown at the rampART tonight (from 8pm) covers the behavior of the world's largest retailer in the US and at the factories that supply the giant chain that also owns the UK supermarket chain ASDA. However, how about the story in the UK?

Working undercover as mild mannered web surfers, rampARTs crack team of investigative journalists have discovered that the story is identical in the UK...

The US film looks at how the vast chainstore carparks are a magnets for muggers, car theives, abduction and rape. The film shows how little interest the corporation has in protecting it's staff while it spends a fortune on CCTV to prevent theft from the stores and to put down union organising. Here in the UK the story may not be vastly different. In one recent example a young mother has been left terrified to venture out alone after being mugged in Sunderland. The 27-year-old was making one of her regular visits to Asda in Grangetown at the weekend when attacked.

Likewise, the US documentary shows how small family owned shops are routinely driven out of business by the cut price sweatshop products and non-unionisd labour of the big chains. In the UK the story has been pretty much the same with many shopping areas reduced to a shadow of their former selves when a new supermarket is opened in the area.

Perhaps the most significant impact of the actions of big supermarkets in the UK has been that on farmers. The big retailers like Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury play suppliers off against each other over contracts and many farmers end up being forced to accept less than the cost of production in order to secure a sale. The diary industry has been one of the worst effected.

According to fishupdate.com, which is a online publication by the well known publishers of European Fish Trader, Fishing Monthly, Fish Farming Today, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of fishy wallplanners, the UK retail giant ASDA "has confirmed it has removed Skate Wings, Ling, Huss (Dog Fish) and Dover Sole from its shelves following claims from the environmental group Greenpeace that the species are unsustainable."

However, a spokesperson for the Walmart company told FISHupdate this morning that it had been discussing sustainable fish policy with Greenpeace for some time and and was therefore "surprised" when Greenpeace staged it's media stunt at ASDAs Leeds headquarters.

"However, it was an opportunity to bring Greenpeace up to date and let them know that we took Skate Wings, Ling, Huss (Dog Fish) and Dover Sole off sale last week. We also told them that we will be introducing a sustainably sourced "fish of the month" and have asked for their advice about which species that should be. We'll be taking another look at policy on sourcing Marlin and Swordfish as part of that review and will be keeping in touch with them about this."

FishUPDATE reports Greenpeace's side of the story:

"We took this action because, despite our many meetings with them, ASDA had consistently refused to change their buying policies. In our report Supermarkets' Insatiable Appetite for Seafood (released in October 2005), we named ASDA as the worst performing UK supermarket on seafood. At the same time we asked them to take immediate action to remove 14 of the most destructively fished species from their shelves, a request we had repeated in four face-to-meetings."

According to the FishUPDATE article, Greenpeace will continue to campaign against the seafood policies of the UK's major supermarket chains, with the exception of Waitrose and Marks & Spencer which have aready greenwashed their seafood policies.

You can read the whole article or check out other amazing fishy tails on FishUPDATE.com  http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/3701/ASDA_removes__unsustainable__seafood_from_shelves.html

 http://walmartworkersrights.org/