Jamie, who is very likeable and makes watchable TV for Channel 4, is back on our screens leading a campaign for better treatment of chickens in 'Jamie's Fowl Dinners'.
Yesterday, we learned that Sainsbury's (along with Tesco and Asda) did not want to take part in a TV debate and that only Waitrose and the Co-op were willing to do so.
This led Oliver to lay into the supermarket group that pays him £1.2m a year to help shift its food.
"I'm really upset ... why didn't they come? What is there to hide? It's shocking that people I work for didn't turn up on the day. I don't know why. Their PR department hasn't even got the confidence to turn up and talk about what they do for millions of people who come through their doors each week. Of course, the supermarket should have turned up. How dare they not?"
The decision not to turn up was wholly in keeping with the actions of big supermarkets who, above all things, loathe transparency and having their domination of the British food market put in the spotlight.
Oliver should know this by now -- he has spent long enough taking the cash from the UK's second biggest chain.
Oliver's fellow chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall found the same reaction in his own chicken odyssey that has also been running this week on Channel 4. No one was prepared to show him how battery farmed chickens were treated on their way to the UK's dining tables.
After the attack and a chat with PR advisers, Oliver was on the record again. This time writing to Justin King, Sainsbury's chief executive, and copied to 150,000 staff nationwide. He was he said on their side.
"I am happy to confirm what I have said on several occasions: that Sainsbury's has the most to be proud of on this important animal welfare issue. Indeed I would not have continued working with Sainsbury's for so many years if I did not believe that you were showing real leadership. Your team have been particularly helpful."
Sainsbury's are clearly keen to keep him. Well, at least that is what King said yesterday: "We're very happy with Jamie. I mean, he's someone who's got an independence of mind and that independence of mind is actually a great benefit to Sainsbury's". But then he would say that wouldn't he? You can't exactly dump him for highlighting your involvement in a very unpleasant aspect of modern food production, can you?
The question that is becoming increasingly apparent is: Is Sainsbury's any good for Oliver? Sure the money must be good, but the association clearly undermines the other work he does.
Gordon Macmillan
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