Media Release

10th July 2003 Immediate use DAILY TELEGRAPH PUBLISHES YEAR-OLD NEWS STORY The Daily Telegraph published a story on Wednesday (9/7/3) entitled "Vegetarians rediscover the taste of red meat" which has led to a number of "me-too" stories on the decline in numbers of vegetarians. The story is based on the Realeat Survey on vegetarianism, carried out by Gallup and and promoted by PR firm Landmark Mayo on behalf of Haldane Foods, Realeat's parent company. The survey was published last summer and received media coverage both at the time of publication and in November of last year. The Telegraph omitted to mention that the figures were published a year ago. Follow-up stories have appeared in the Daily Mail and on BBC Breakfast News, among others. Viva! campaigner Alistair Currie said: "We know the Telegraph lives in the past in many ways but their decision to run a year-old news story is still an achievement. It was also nice to see Max Hastings in the Mail boldly following where they led. And just think, their readers still have so much to look forward to: the 'dodgy dossier', lesbian schoolgirls from Russia reaching number one in the charts and the appointment of a gay Bishop. "For the record, numbers of vegetarians are double what they were twenty years ago and the underlying curve is still very definitely upwards. But God forbid the Telegraph should actually report social progress." Contact: Alistair Currie, 0117 944 1000