After years of cheap food, prices are on the up. Staples such as bread, milk and cheese are all climbing and the rising cost of living has been making headlines.The fear is that the golden age of low-cost food is coming to an end. Last week, the Office for National Statistics reported the Consumer Price Index showed food price inflation jumped to 5.9 per cent year on year in December. Along with April 2007 it was the highest recorded rise since 2001. -- Retail Week
Consumers will see dramatic effects on their food budgets, we read.
Of course, regular readers of this blog will be under no illusions about the costs of cheap food, which do not register on the till receipt but are clear to see.
But spare a thought for those on the other side. William Hudson was a British Strawberry grower supplying to the big supermarkets:
He grew fruit on ten acres in Ardleigh, near Colchester, and supplied strawberries to all the main chains through a marketing agent. He was paid about £2.50 per kilogram but then was forced to pay half that amount to another company for packaging, labelling and transportation. He had no choice in this expense because using the other company was a condition of his supermarket.Farmers are first forced into expensive preferred supplier schemes. The supermarkets then exploit, rip off and abuse their position, forcing the price lower and demanding ever increasing discounts. Farmers pump increasing agrochemicals into the soil, forced into unsustainable practices by decreasing prices and unobtainable goals. Mr Hudson got off the treadmill and retrained as a photographer.“Every three months the supermarket would count up the volume supplied by the grower and demand at least 3 per cent discount on price regardless of production costs,” he said.
He also put the spotlight on promotions, mainly “buy one, get one free” offers. “We used to see promotions as a way of getting rid of a glut of fruit. It’s not like that any more. Strawberry growers now have to pay for a promotion during Wimbledon fortnight. It’s not even the main strawberry season but we have to go along with the myth. For every punnet sold we have to supply the other free. Just remember when you see that sign in a store it is the farmer or grower paying for it." -- The Times
Four massive supermarkets supply around 75% of the £175 billion goods market, with Tesco accounting for £1 in every £8 spent by the British consumer on all goods, food and non-food. The love-affair of the British consumer with over-packaged consistent products gives free reign to the supermarket bullies to push around suppliers.
Whilst many of us are concerned about the way our food is produced, it is clear that overproduction and exploitation is endemic in a system where retailers are powerful and consumers refuse to make alternative choices.
It doesn't have to be this way. Locally produced food is often more expensive than supermarket food, but it depends on what you are comparing it with -- it's often 'cheap' food against 'real' food. Also, with supermarket prices rising substantially, the 'cheap' food is no longer cheap at all, in price at least.
Delia Smith - not quite getting it |
"I'll stick to cooking... I don't do organic because I am a cook and I cannot get into politics of food... If I want to buy fresh beetroot, I'll get whatever looks best... I love fresh shelled peas from Kenya, I'm sorry about the planet, but y'know..." -- audio clip from BBCYes, we do know, Delia. You are sorry about the planet, but you're more interested to sell a few cookery books. Unfortunately she is not alone in this attitude: We would like to save the planet, but y'know, life is too short.
Meanwhile the planet dies for the sake of a few shelled peas. How on earth are you going to explain that to future generations, Delia?
