I have a pre-school memory of going into town with Mum to do the shopping. She stacked it on and around me in the pushchair.
In those days you had to shop for fresh food two or three times a week. No fridges for us until the 1960s. Meat kept only for so long in a mesh-fronted meat safe. Milk was delivered daily to the door. You had to buy from different shops: the grocer, the butcher, the greengrocer, and others. Nearly all produce was locally grown and in season. Life was simpler and less frantic. Most mothers did not work, and one ordinary wage could support a family.
Now, of course, you can buy anything you want at any time of the year: fresh peas and new potatoes in Winter, strawberries at Christmas, and oranges at other times. You never saw blueberries at all. It is flown in cheaply from all over the world.
Perhaps we expect too much. The toll on the environment is enormous, therefore many prefer to spend a little more and buy locally-grown, ethically-produced meat, fruit, and vegetables. To meet this need, supermarkets offer special brands with idyllic-sounding farm names on the front of the packet. It implies that the product is from those farms.
This is deliberately misleading. Behind the image of quaint British family farms usually lies a reality of industrial-scale production, with much imported from abroad. Three of the biggest producers have a combined annual turnover of £4.8 billion. The ‘farm’ on the label, such as Tesco’s Redmere Farms, does not exist. It is just a marketing device. At the same time, the real farms this imitates are being driven out of business as their own products are devalued. Large numbers of small farmers fear having to give up their farms, and few believe that supermarket claims to support British farming reflect their actual behaviour.
This is in effect theft, stealing the goodwill of the small farmers. Such cynical manipulation of customers and consumers by big businesses of all kinds (we can probably think of others), with the pursuit of profit above all sense of morality, needs to stop. I can get very angry about it.
We buy some of our own vegetables from Riverford who have created a website and four short videos with more about Farmwashing. You will never look at a supermarket vegetable aisle in the same way again.
The website and videos are at www.stopfarmwashing.co.uk and also on YouTube:
I agree with you, Tasker. Over here, the giant Tesco bought out our local supermarket chain so there is virtually no competition, apart from a few small Co-Op stores. I have been told, but cannot verify the truth of this, that Tesco negotiated a deal with a local farm here to provide them with their fresh veg crop and agreed a price if the farmer could produce a larger amount than he currently grew. The farmer complied and when the time came to deliver the crop, Tesco announced that they would now not be paying the agreed price and offered a much lower rate. As this was all last minute and the farmer now had nowhere else to sell his crop he was forced to take a loss.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to buy any meat or veg from Tesco and only buy from local traders, even though it is slightly more expensive.
What appalling double crossing. It shows they can't be trusted. It's easy to say afterwards, that it should all have been in writing with penalties for not honouring the agreement. I remember you writing about the takeover. Good that you support local businesses.
DeleteThe big supermarkets do not give a damn about anything - as long as their profits keep rolling in. Who benefits from all that dosh? They are well-hidden and largely unreported. Like most British citizens, I don't want blueberries flown in from Peru nor extra fine green beans from Egypt... but if I am honest I would miss my bananas which still arrive by ship from Central America.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders how these people sleep at night. I suppose if they didn't behave as they do, there would be others to take their place.
DeleteFyffes were shipping in bananas from at least the 1950s. They can't really be grown here of course.
Consumer society is all bullshit in every area.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger the bullshit, the greater the profit. +
DeleteNo-one wants to pay too much for their food and the supermarkets claim to be on the consumer's side by offering low prices. It's the farmers who suffer.
ReplyDeleteWith the outcome that eventually we have no farms, except those bought at overinflated prices by property developers to offset their carbon footprint.
DeleteGood post Tasker. I would like to see vegetables sold with signs saying: Chemical free veg free from artificial fertilizers and weedkillers and pesticides. What's wrong with buying food from an EU country? The 22 billion black hole in the British economy is caused because of Brexit.
ReplyDeleteBox veg schemes are good because the produce is fresh but it is often expensive. I grow a lot of vegetables at home but we also buy them from Lidl when there is an hunger gap like winter or we have ate all our potatoes. I especially look for organic vegetables.
So do we, but it is more expensive. What is unforgivable is the implication that produce is local, British or organic when it isn't, which is what these farmers think should be illegal.
DeleteI've done a couple of weeks of 'Eating Local' on my blog https://attheendofasuffolklane.blogspot.com/search/label/1%20Week%20Eating%20Local.
ReplyDeletehttps://attheendofasuffolklane.blogspot.com/search/label/1%20Week%20Eating%20Local%282%29
It was interesting to do but involved a lot more driving around to various villages for farm shops and butchers and was more expensive of course.
The last time was 4 years ago and it will have got more difficult since then.
I also don't want out of season fruit flown in from god knows where - so don't buy it!
You set yourself interesting challenges. Yes, I understand while some can afford to pay more, there are many who cannot. Uncontrolled competition is the quick and easy answer, but it seems to create more problems than it solves.
DeleteWhen you said most mothers did not work, I think you meant to say most mothers were not paid for their work. They worked damned hard.
ReplyDeleteI buy my groceries from a company which buys excess and nonstandard organic foods, from smaller farms, and sells at a discount. I think I'm avoiding the big grocery chains as well as I can, while eating well on a budget. They also build in tips for drivers ,which I support. I don't go to supermarkets. They oppress farmers and big ag. drives out family farms. So I'm doing what one person can.
Of course, I was using the colloquial way it was expressed in the past. Staying home to raise children should be possible for anyone who wants that, but most now are forced to go out to work for economic reasons.
DeleteChoosing what and where we buy is all any of us can do, provided we can afford it.
Well said Tasker.
ReplyDeleteI go now always to my local butcher. They're sometimes cheaper than tescos.
A lot of these shops relying on misleading customers and psychological tricks to make you buy more stuff than you want or need.
It should be as illegal as copying packaging and untrue descriptions. They seem to have the knack of staying just a hair's breadth on the right side of the trade descriptions act.
DeleteI am going to bring one thought to the table. It really is as far as consumers are concerned about the pound in your purse. I notice the governments do not address any of the concerns about the cheap foods that are sold in supermarkets - probably scared of them. You can afford organic food from Riverford, others can't. Supermarkets of course want profit, it is disgraceful how they can treat the farmers, but it is the consumer who has to lead the way.
ReplyDeleteI blame it all on the conservatives ;)
Yes, we are fortunate. We don't buy all of our vegetables from Riverford, but we look carefully at labels in the supermarket. For most, it is all about price, of course. Just about every aspect of our lives has been utilised so someone profits from it; our time and everything.
DeleteWe do often go to the local butcher and greengrocer, but even there they have a lot of imported exotic produce. It seems many people are no longer happy to eat in season. When I was a kid I remember being unable to get certain foods at certain times, but that's not the case any longer -- and you're right, we expect too much.
ReplyDeleteAs for "farmwashing," it reminds me of the "organic" craze 20 years ago or so, when producers would label food "organic" but it turned out the term wasn't particularly meaningful. (At least in the states.) I think regulators have since tried to legally define it more stringently.
It's always the frauds and charlatans that make the most profit, which is why we need regulation rather than a free-for-all.
DeleteI'm fortunate to live in a more agricultural part of Ohio. Small farms sell produce at farmer's markets, mostly on weekends. In addition to all the seasonal produce there is honey, bread, desserts (Amish bakers!), fruit, preserves, raw milk, lamb, beef, pork. But the season is so short.
ReplyDeleteIt always was. We are too smart now.
DeleteApart from what you describe, there is another thing that really makes me angry: Food waste. It is a huge problem, and while it is relatively easy for me to buy (mostly for myself, at least during the week when I am on my own) just enough to get me through the week, every now and then it has happened that I was unexpectedly invited and did not cook and eat what I had bought, and had to throw out a rotting stalk of brokkoli or a foul-smelling (and looking) half head of lettuce. I felt bad about it every single time and do my best to avoid it.
ReplyDeleteLike others here have said, some (like myself) can spend more money on local food, preferably organic, or animal products such as meat, butter and cheese that is classified as coming from "premium" conditions for the animals - hoping, of course, that what the official (and strictly controlled) label says is true (at least in Germany).
But, seriously - does any adult person really believe that the packaging shows the actual reality, when you see cows happily grazing on sunlit meadows full of buttercups, and so on?
There aren't many sunlit meadows full of buttercups any more.
DeleteIn one of the videos they as how can anyone sell a whole chicken for £1? There must be some cheating on welfare standards going on.
We are so lucky to live in an area where farm stands are everywhere due to our large Amish population. I buy potatoes 50 lbs at a time from a large scale farmer. I seldom buy produce of any kind in a store during the summer months.
ReplyDeleteHere, prices seem to have jumped like crazy since the election. The price of a dozen eggs has jumped 50 cents in one week. I think it has everything to do with the fact that price gouging was a major talking point during the Harris/Walz rallies. Now they have lost, and it is business as usual...which means price gouging. Another of the points here is that there are four major meat processing companies in the country which are basically controlling the price of meat, to include what the farmers are paid. If they don't agree to a low ball offer, none of the four companies will deal with them which means a farmer has beef he can't sell at all. S/he has no choice.
Living in the country, we have options. Gardens, hunting, having chickens, even raising our own beef if we choose. I feel badly for those who have no option but to buy at a grocery store.
...and of course, that was Debby...
DeleteThanks Debby. The more independent one is, the less you are at the mercy of these rip-offs. We grow a little ourselves, but mainly have to buy from stores. One thing we did to be independent was to pay off the house as quickly as we could, rather than spend on, say, expensive holidays - I have never been to the US. Once it was paid off lots of other benefits followed, such as that we can afford to buy organic when we choose.
DeleteYour childhood sound just like mine. My stay-at-home mother went shopping nearly every day, as that was the only way to keep food fresh. I recall we stood milk bottles on the windowsills outside in winter to keep the milk cool. Thank you for this interesting post. I had up to now assumed that when something had FARM printed on it, it genuinely came from that farm.
ReplyDeleteLife used to be so much simpler. I believe that it was only because people became greedy that the price of houses went up and now two incomes are necessary.
DeleteThe videos make me feel pretty angry at the cynicism. I like Meike's description of the myth of cows grazing in meadows full of buttercups.