The Rising Cost of Food

GreyQueen

ceridwen wrote: »

Are we talking about a bit of roadkill GreyQueen my lass by any chance?:D:rotfl:

Nah, that's not roadkill, that's just random opportunism.

I used to work with someone who drove all over the country and was apt to lurch the van off the road and onto the verge without a word of warning if he spotted some likely-looking roadkill. Very disconcerting if you were his passenger.

His missus was and is a pro cook and they loved entertaining but those of us who knew them well were always bit wary as we knew where the venison or whatever was likely to come from!

In my delivery-driving days I'd be on rural routes and would sometimes have to make choices such as stay on the correct side of the road and kill one pheasant, or cross to the other side and kill two phesants. I would choose the least-worst option, of course; those darned things are raised in coops and let out by keepers to run all over the road and have no more sense than a day-old chick.

Wasn't unknown to come back with a bird or two. Strictly speaking, you're not supposed to pick up things which you, personally, have knocked down, so you could hunt in pairs of cars and have the first do the deed and the second collect the booty.

Ooops, just remembered you're a vegetarian - sorry!

(Still, it's probably cheaper to have a 10 y.o. Fiesta than a Purdy shotgun).

notatvstar

Didn't Sainsbury do this line of wonky veg - does it still exist? Unfortunately all this binning of healthy, but ugly, crops is due to us the consumer... (perhaps not us, us - but you know what I mean). I have no idea of the state of the veg that goes into ready meals but all this 'apples have to be this big' and 'cucumbers have to straight', is basically the fault of Mrs (or Mr!) Blogs whinging that the carrots are hairy and the courgettes are bent.

I think I may write a couple of letters to some supermarkets and find out exactly what selection procedures they implement on their organic, yogurt knitting ranges.... It'll be a bit hypocritical to say the least if their greener than green lines are just as wasteful as their more plastic versions.

i actually grow my own veg (fortunate enough to have a large garden and a nice LL) so I'm used to suggestive carrots and comedy potatoes but I have to admit - I am put off buying veggies from supermarkets because of some (forced) farming practices. Thankfully meat has got 'kinder' due to the public horror at welfare outrages, and I'm hoping that fishing 'discards' also become a thing of the past. In as much as it'll probably be deemed as a bit weird, I think we need to get more publicly angry about wasting veg - The price of food nowadays is more than enough reason to do so.

Going4TheDream

blackandwhitebunny wrote: »

My neighbour works on a veg farm and he says they throw away tons of veggies every day as they are too fat, thin, long, short or just the wrong shape. Most of them end up in land fill. It makes my blood boil :mad:especially when the government preaches at consumers about wasting food but does nothing about such large scale waste. Maybe we need to go back the war time regulations when throwing edible food away was against the law.

I agree fully, I believe a lot of this stems for both EU regulations on size ,shape etc ...i seem to recall the big who ha over bananas several years back and sizes of apples being regulated on or something very similar...also supermarkets which many growers have contracts with demand 'nice looking stuff' of a certain size etc.... I know my home grown veg isnt of uniform size but I will still be eating it

blackandwhitebunny

The farm he works on supplies all the big supermarkets except Mr T and they all have their own exact specifications for the veggies. (its one main vegetable but I don't want to mention which in case someone can recognise which farm) Some of the rejects go for animal feed and some for another product but there are far too many to use them all. We are talking tons a week here :mad:
The supermarkets don't want to know as they make more of a margin on 'perfect' veggies, and if they are sold elsewhere they will lose money as those people won't buy theirs. Mr S does sell some '2nd' class fruit and veg as part of their basics range but only the very popular things. My neighbour is not even supposed to bring any of the rejects home (although he does ) part of the supermarkets contracts.
As a variation on the same theme - we buy the vast majority of our fruit and veg (those we don't grow) from the market and its often '2nds' but its so much cheaper, we don't mind the shapes and sizes and neither do all the other people who we see filling baskets there every weekend.

bonnie_bumpkins

Confuzzled wrote: »

it's a sad state of affairs when supermarkets won't even sell these products cheaper... i honestly think it's because they fear eventually everyone will go for them and they'll lose money!

Yes this is so true!! I hadn't thought of this and I thought I was mega cynical/critical

Confuzzled wrote: »

i honestly believe that with a long committed campaign backed by some celebrities we COULD force the gov't into doing something about this kind of wasteage. if not by forcing supermarkets to offer them then at least by making them more readily available to the public somehow

I totally agree. I'm going to write to my local supermarkets as well and quiz them on their policies (as suggested elsewhere in this thread). Whilst I'm unemployed I may as well do something useful... as otherwise it WILL be me lurking behind walls & bins and on the corners of country lanes to grab the wonky stuff Actually I think I might just do this anyway.

Reverbe

I am always fascinated by the supermarkets rejecting fruit and veg... does anyone here or has anyone here seen anyone say ooh I'm not buying that delicious looking apple cos it's not round enough?NO course we havent cos those ppl dont exist..

bonnie_bumpkins

notatvstar wrote: »

Didn't Sainsbury do this line of wonky veg - does it still exist?

Waitrose sold 'ugly fruit' - ie not perfect - in 2006 and marketed them as suitable for jam-making etc. I've not seen anything like this for years though. I guess it was a tiny step in the right direction even though there was an underlying message I think that the 'ugly' fruit wasn't good enough to eat on its own - what would visitors think of your fruit bowl?!! :eek:

Along the same lines there could be an 'ugly veg' range for soups etc (as has already been suggested).

Anyway, in 2011 the economic situation is very different so I'm sure there would be a huge following for wonky stuff. Off to write letters now...

foxblade

We have been doing the down-grade challenge and now 99% of what we buy is "white label" but I was shocked the other day to come back from my honeymoon (one week in the UK!...tight? Maybe..but we enjoyed ourselves..hehe) to find that in a week absence Mr Sainsbobs had changed their white label mince from 87p a pack to £1.20! I walked away in disgust(it was alright and I was willing to put up with bits of grissle for 87p but not for over a pound), and have yet to decided what I am going to do, or look for an alternative.

As you can see it was a week ago now and I am still annoyed! I agree with others though that the supermarkets are catching on that more and more are moving towards the basics so they are putting the prices up.

anguk

Reverbe wrote: »

I am always fascinated by the supermarkets rejecting fruit and veg... does anyone here or has anyone here seen anyone say ooh I'm not buying that delicious looking apple cos it's not round enough?NO course we havent cos those ppl dont exist..

I couldn't care less what shape my fruit and veg are as long as they're edible. I've long since come to the conclusion that the major supermarkets dictate what the majority of people eat, consumers may think they're making the choices but clever marketing and control over farmers has ensured that shoppers only buy what the supermarkets want them to buy.

Supermarkets decided consumers no longer wanted milk with a layer of cream on the top so dairies had to change how they produced milk, supermarkets decided that consumers no longer wanted wonky or dirty fruit and veg so now farmers are chucking tonnes of the stuff away. It wouldn't be as bad if the farmers could sell the supermarket "rejects" but it's normally in their contract that the supermarket is the exclusive buyer so they can't sell.

Potatoes are another thing that boils my pee. Once upon a time you'd buy a bag of spuds and they'd be various sizes so you could use them for a variety of dishes. Not any more, now they're all just medium sized and if you want big potatoes you have to buy the ones specially marketed as "jacket potatoes". And of course they are much more expensive than "normal" potatoes. :mad:

notatvstar

Reverbe wrote: »

I am always fascinated by the supermarkets rejecting fruit and veg... does anyone here or has anyone here seen anyone say ooh I'm not buying that delicious looking apple cos it's not round enough?NO course we havent cos those ppl dont exist..

Unfortunately I have. I suppose the likes of those ppl are very unlikely to ever post on an 'OS' money saving forum - nor would they even acknowledge what they're doing is wrong. I know this for a fact. The reason being is my OH is/was one... I'm trying to retrain him. I got him into bulk buying (now he thinks it's all his idea), also I got him into free range meat and eggs (likewise). He's nearly got there with the recycling - but I do have to go through the kitchen bin sometimes - he has no concept of compost either. It's been hard trying to get him to change his ways and it has taken 5 years to get to where we have now. He's riddled with bad debt from a previous marriage and I think the ex was just woefully wasteful. I think (unfortunately) that he's not rare and is representative of the majority of the nation. Hence nearly everyone being up to their eyeballs in debt and beyond.

The OH still won't buy anything if it's slightly damaged or reduced... very, very frustrating.