Food prices - Scaremongering? (Warning - Potential Political Content!)

Ahh, Mum, my first Thanksgiving with husband's folks was canned veggies, and pillbury dough boy for the bread. Then next holiday, I brought the good stuff.
Anyway, also from this years Thanksgving Turkey, the finally offering the turkey gave to me was a fine kettle of turkey bone soup, which is frozen in 4 separate 2 cup containers.

 

I read an interesting book last year - "Growing a Farmer: How I learned to live off the land" by Kurt Timmermeister which is about how he decided to quit his city job & become a smallholder ; he talks quite a lot about the economics of small scale farming & comes to the conclusion that theres no way to make it pay unless you add value (in his case by making cheese) & can guarantee a steady output. It also has some amusing insight into living with cows (!). Its out of print at the moment I think but worth picking up a second hand copy if you can find one cheap... Sadly someone has borrowed my copy & not returned it.

 

A mass of wonderful posts - I need to re-read them - and all highly relevant to what we do.

Mum - As for Maggie Thatcher - I agree She (for it is 'She') made important, essential inroads for women; that is never in dispute. The wreckage She left was Colossal. Romance is optional, but you have my Enduring Respect!

DaveW - my DW's old Uncle Derek Kinne (who is alive today) is a survivor of the Korean POW camps where he was tortured as well as starved (The Korean Army then called its detainees 'Students' so as to 'avoid' the Geneva Convention on keeping POW's) and he wrote a book about his experience. He was awarded the Victoria Cross. As such he gets an invite every year to Her Madge's Tea Party, all expenses paid. That said, He - along with my Dad - bear the scars every day. This past 2 years I have been watching the WWII channel and the horrors of War - something which our young cannot understand (and hopefully never again). Sadly the proceeds of his book amounts to nearly nothing but his book is stored physically and electronically in the British Library. I know of another similar author who gets just 2pence per book sold. That makes me sad, but I post this to make you aware of the time and costs involved in producing a book. As it happens, Morrisons sell Gravy Salt and my father's mother used to mix one level teaspoon with 2 pints of water and boil it forever on the coal fireside. This is what he had, and as a special treat he would have a slice of bread with it. On very special days his mother would use a heaped teaspoon of Gravy Salt. This was the main meal. Try it! I have said I will eat this with my Dad but (understandably) he has left it on the kitchen shelf.

Shiney - your post is especially valuable. I'll be taking note of your comments. I also take your point about the role the newspapers play and it's a real bug-bear/bone of contention with me in that I just don't know what they get out of it. We can go into detail with this if you like because I'm absolutely clueless about this part of it.

 

OxfordNick - you will find your book here - online
http://www.openisbn.com/preview/0393070859/

 

Ooh yes - thats the one. Nice to know I can pick up another copy if I never see mine again (lending things to people who never return them is a pet peeve of mine!)

 

Not only that - but I've had a situation where someone has insisted that I take his vinyl album home to listen to and I had to take it to appease DW but did not play it. Said owner of vinyl declared that I returned it to him scratched and so he demanded a new album. He got a new one and I ended the so-called friendship, against DW wishes. Now I don't lend or borrow but I will give away.

 

Synopsis:

~ need to teach children how to cook properly ----> learning to eat more healthily
So, bring back old fashioned "Home Economics" and put Food Tech in the bin with ready meals

In addition ....

~ as importantly .... teach children *how* to read a newspaper!
How to distinguish fact from opinion; how emotive language is used to pursue an argument; how a one sided argument is constructed and how to identify it. How, and where, to find facts to back up arguments.

In a number of ways, the "progression" of our society/culture, in just a generation or two, has resulted in a regression of personal skills once deemed fundamental.

 

Yes, agreed - likewise. Thank you for your kind courtesy of your reply, though!

 

I cant see it posted here on this topic anywhere, so I'll add it.

Farmers and consumers alike could be helped if irregular shaped and sized veg was bought from the farmers and sold on to consumers. I remember the days you went to a veg shop and bought cauliflower at pence per pound as opposed to the now statutory pence per item, you got what you paid for then, proper sized caulis and large and small where sold together...now they are little tiny efforts all the same size and the farmers compost what the supermarkets do not buy...which is very wasteful indeed. So if the farmer gets a less than perfect crop he/she makes less profit.

The supermarket#s stance is and always has been that their customers demand uniform perfect veg...yet over the years I have never ever met anyone who admits to this.

C'mon supermarkets, help our farmers out!

Steve...

 

SteveR - there was such a shop near to me ('Oop North) - they took in perfectly good veg in whatever shape it was and sold it. Sadly customers voted with their feet and continued to shop at the Borgs and so the shop selling 'normal' veg was forced to close. (I recall a documentary about it but cannot remember its name.)

 

It wasn't consumer demand, Steve, but EU directives.

EU changes rules on misshapen vegetables (and that goes back to 2008!)

Also, Supermarkets to stock 'ugly' vegetables this Christmas (Dec 2012)

And, Sainsbury's has relaxed its rules on the cosmetic appearance of fresh produce after one of the worst harvests in decades (Sept, 2012)

Finally, Tonnes of 'ugly' produce sold as supermarkets relax rules (Dec 2012)