Miles of food

As most people know, I'm not a fan of supermarkets. I do occasionally shop in Sainsbury's or Morrisons, but I've never been in an Asda and it's been about 10 years since i've parted with cash in a Tesco.

There are so many reasons; poor treatment of farmers and producers, underhand tactics for getting planning permission, their habit of killing off local producers in small towns, and their generally aggressive practices.

Many people tell me that popping into Tescos is convenient, or getting their Asda shopping is easier - without giving a thought to the bigger picture. They tell me they buy local (in the supermarket) and that they like the choice - but it's a con.

Choice is eroded by supermarkets - think about it, you'll only see the products that the supermarket wants you to see, from the producers who can afford to trade with them. Often when you see a BOGOF (buy one get one free) it's the producer who foots the bill, not the supermarket.

Choice is deciding what you want for yourself, being able to chose which shop you want to buy in, and to compare prices - think about it, when Tesco have driven every other retailer out of the market place you won't have a choice - the price will be set by Tesco and you'll have to pay up.

Buying local is a con too. Your Longley Farm natural yoghurt might have been made just down the road in Holmfirth, but it will have travelled hundreds of miles more to be on the shelf in Asda.

Yesterday an article in The Guardian drew attention to this with the example of Roddas clotted cream (one of my Mum's favourite things, which used to be only avaliable in Cornwall near to where it was made) and Cornish Brie.

The reason all these items are available in all parts of the country is that supermarkets use big distribution centres - but this can have crazy consequences.

Roddas cream is made in Scorrier near Redruth, driven 170 miles to a distribution centre in Avonmouth, then back 170 miles to go on sale in the supermarket 2 miles down the road from the creamery! Obviously some of the cream goes north to other parts of the country, but does the stuff to be sold locally have to do the 340 mile roundtrip?

In the article one person said that if we didn't have these systems people would have less choice and have no fresh fruit or out of season vegetables - but that is muddling the arguments - I'm not against importing food we can't grow ourselves, and I'm sure not being able to get strawberries in the middle of winter wouldn't kill anyone!?