"poland" news and stories

At Luxist, Deidre mentioned that there is a vodka with a purpose beyond mere intoxication. Snow Leopard Vodka is an ultra-premium Polish vodka made with spelt grain that promises to be the "best vodka on the market," with a round, smooth taste. It is being sold to benefit the Snow Leopard Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to the protection of the endangered felines. A full 15% of the profits will be donated to the trust and the company hopes to be able to donate more than £543,000 ($1 million) each year. The vodka will be available at Harvey Nichols wine shops in the UK this month, where it will sell for £36. There will also be at least eight upscale restaurants and nightclubs that will be selling the vodka and specialty cocktails that feature it, so customers can drink with a conscience.

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British supermarket chains, such as Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, are rethinking their pork supplier. The Polish pig farms that produced much of the supermarket pork products have been condemned for "'appalling' animal welfare practices."

The farms in question are in Poland and have been run by Animex, a subsidiary of the American company Smithfield Foods, since 2002. An undercover investigation revealed industrial factory farms, conditions where hundreds of pigs were crammed into light-less barns with dead companions rotting underfoot. The investigation also found that "powerful cocktails of drugs," including a cocktail of antibiotics that is banned or considered to be a growth-promoter in other countries. One such drug is Tylbian 20%, a form of the growth promoting drug Tylosin, which was banned by the European Union in 1999. Local residents showed investigators large open-air cesspits of pig waste and farm detritus that included syringes and needles.

Waitrose has already pulled the products supplied by this producer. No wrong-doing has been shown on the part of Smithfield Foods and a Smithfield representative denied knowledge of such conditions, assuring the public that it would investigate thoroughly.

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