Food inflation

Partner's family live in New Zealand now. When they arrived they had to get used to eating food that was in season only, as the cost of imported foods are extortionate. A complete culture shock, but they've got used to it.

I agree, supermarkets are seen as the wicked destroyers of communities and forcing us to eat how they want us to, but its two way relationship. Consumers are as much to blame, but we can also lead the way and shop elsewhere or buy what we want to buy, not what we are told we need to buy.

Glad to see that free range chickens are flying off the shelves though at Sainsbury's and the intensive, cheap meat is still sitting unsold. We had to go shopping again for a free range chicken today as they'd completely sold out yesterday.

 

"Consumers are as much to blame"

Hmmm ... I think its the old "What came first the Consumer's requirement or the Supermarket's suggestion?" ... and as time passes its hard to remember which was which.

(MY daughter will tell you that "The egg came first, because Dinosaurs laid eggs, and they were around long before Chickens" ... but I digress!)

Supermarkets provide lean pork (indeed, they penalise farmers who's Pork is fatter than their "requirements"), but I need more fat [than supermarkets provide] to get my Pork joints to cook well, and taste nice. That fat isn't part of what, notionally, I eat. Which came first? I've long since forgotten ... but I've also long since stopped buying Pork at the supermarket. Or any other meat, for that matter. (and my Vegetables now come from the Veg Patch, just like they used to Before Supermarkets ...)

I didn't have Ready meals when I was a kid (long time ago, admittedly!!), my Mum prepared the food, from scratch, and we were lucky enough to have good quality meat and so on. Ten years of shopping at supermarkets, in my 20's (because my time was precocious), eroded my memory of how good food can taste. But Tesco's fixed that for me, bless them! When their online shopping started I bought all my Loo Rolls and Bottled Water from them, but used the time-saved to shop at local Butchers and Delicatessens. Blimey! that brought back to me how much sense of taste I had lost, and how much, bit-by-bit, I had given up my enjoyment of good food.

But, in that time, a whole generation has grown up not knowing what real food is like :(

 

The weak pound is having an effect on the price of imported food, in fact anything that is imported is affected. It is worrying that shops are selling off their stocks at vastly reduced prices to shore up their cash flows in the short term, but when it comes to re-stocking their shelves it will be a shock.

On the imported food question, personaly I have been only buying food in season for years from our local greengrocer, it is nearly impossible to grow everything ourselves but we do what we can. The only exception is food we either do not grow in this country, such as oranges, bananas, or it is commercially unfeasible to do so, such as peppers, aubergines etc.

Food has been unrealistically cheap in this country for years due to the supermarkets undercutting their suppliers, and they will do exactly what the customer wants. The reason that their quality control is based purely on the look of vegetables, rather than taste, is because they pile their appples, tomatoes etc high and customers then only choose the most perfect specimens leaving anything slightly bruised which has to be thrown away. In the past, green grocers would serve you a pound of carrots in a brown paper bag and you got what you were given (ncluding rude shaped ones with soil on) and yet we hardly ever threw anything out.

 

I made an especial effort to throw nothing out in the last couple of years, and this year will be no exception. I buy what I will use within a couple of days, I found the big shop caused most wastage

 

Not really getting at anyone in particular as a few have said that they always buy stuff that is in season and only buy the things from abroad that we cant grow here.

The problem I see with that is, that its a slight cop out, because half the stuff we can grow here, isn't.
Due to higher production costs.
Or sadly lower quality, and badly marketed.

And as to buying aubergines, sweet peppers, mangos, we didn't eat that kind of stuff years ago.
It was brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauli, carrots, parsnips etc.:D

So its OK to transport a mango or orange half way around the world because we cant grow it here, but its not OK to transport a plum or cherry, when ours are out of season.

 

I see your point Pete. We are spoilt for choice nowadays with food from wherever we want it. But I still would like to see more food in season, tasting as it should do. It also makes you enjoy it more. Not quite on the same level, but imagine having mince pies all year round. They'd soon lose their appeal and specialness. Strawberries and asparagus should be like that too.

 

Oh I do see your point Aaron, one which I kind of agree with.
I just think its gone too far now to turn back the clock.

A lot of the greengrocers have now gone and I can only think of one independent butcher in my town, although there are a few in the villages.

Food does not taste as it should, a lot of it due to processing or preservatives.

We have "in store baked bread" at morrisons, its just awful, but no less than we have come to expect these days.
Real bread goes bad in a couple of days, this stuff is suitable for building walls and lasts for weeks, in fact it not easy to tell by the taste if its gone off or not.:D


We have hot cross buns all year now

 

Yes, we don't have a greengrocers here anymore, although we have a great (though expensive) del-butchers and a regular butchers. We do have a market on a Saturday selling local produce which is cheaper than Sainsburys and food that's in season

Does anyone get organic fruit/veg boxes delivered? I've looked at them but I think the price you pay is a lot more than the market.

 

"I just think its gone too far now to turn back the clock."

My view is that we have no choice, just it isn't obvious yet ... but by the time it is it will be too late :(

Do we need another runway ... or fewer planes flying?

 

Cant think of any time in recent history when the clock has been turned back.

I think there was a spell, during the dark ages, when a lot of the things learnt were forgotten, but my history is not good.

Less people would be a good start, but society is not ready to take that one on board.

A massive drop in the standard of living is also not an option, so it will be interesting to see what cracks first.

Plagues and pestilence perhaps:D

 

Time will tell, eh?!

 

Aaron, I looked into it but found that there either too big for me and my lad, stuff we don't eat or it's too chostly to order the things we do like, when I can pick what we do like from the supermarket when we need it, I now only buy what we're going to use and the little bits we don't go to the chucks, in the compost bin or the freezer.

 

Puts on History hat (sorry) Yes the Dark Ages did see a loss of learning and skills, but only in Western Europe - the Byzantine Empire in the East Med and the Arab states of the Middle East continued learning (History Hat off now...)

Perhaps with the coming recession, worse than most of the population will have ever seen, we might see a change in spending. Most of consumerism is for stuff we don't really need (Memo to self - read Affluenza)

 

Judging by the trash that is the frozen ready meals and the prices they charge for them it wont be for the better if budget is the sole criteria. 5 meals for £4-it just ain`t right.

 

We still have some Greengrocers, my Grandson is a chef. He goes in early morning and does breakfasts and lunches, then he's finished. He goes to work in the Greengrocers in the afternoon (saving up to get married). His future wife is PA to a chef at a local high class restaurant.

We shop at Morrison's and ALDI's, but why are large British eggs £2.55 per dozen (21.25p each) at Morrison's while at Aldi's they are 99p per 10 (9.9p each)