Hugh's War on Waste

mumps

MallyGirl wrote: »

same here - I would love to buy from local suppliers but the prices just prevent it

Wasn't sure if it was just me. The farm shops near me seem to be trendy places for posh people, coffee shops and expensive arts and crafts stuff as well as food. I just want a basic shop with reasonably priced, good quality food that I can pay a fair price for and the farmer gets alot more than supermarkets pay.

Ah well, dream on mumps.

I don't mind ugly either.

dreaming

I throw very little food away (have just been making soup from the odds and sods of veg. in the fridge) and try to only buy what I need by meal planning. Leftovers are used the next day, or incorporated into a "new" dish.
I would like to break away from the big supermarkets but distance from other outlets (markets/independent shops) also play a part in my decisions, as well as price. It seems very difficult to work out what to do for the best sometimes.

wishus

Loved this programme. Hopefully I can step up a bit more. Very angry for the poor farmers who lost their business.

[Deleted User]

Our local farm shops aren't cheap by any means and I buy less meat/good veg/fruit for my money but the meat is so much better quality than anything I can get even from W8rose and it's reared and butchered on the farm where the meat outlet is, so no carbon footprint beyond being alive, it's properly hung and is 'dry' not slopping with blood like pre packed. The thing I like about this type of shopping is that I can buy just what I need not a 500g pack. The farm shop for veg and fruit try to stock mostly local grown produce again because it hasn't travelled far it's in better condition and fresher if you eat with the seasons. The egg farm, the chickens are in the field, in the car park and occasionally in the shop, that's really fresh free range eggs, his meat IS very expensive but the beef is grass fed on the farm and the goat is also bred and sold on the farm. I'd rather pay more and eat less for humanely produced and local produce than green beans from Kenya and strawberries from Spain and asparagus from Peru any day, that's just me!

Gigervamp

Regarding farm shops (and farmer's markets), the reason that they're more expensive is that they are small producers, not the large farms the supermarkets use. Therefore their costs are more.

Often the stock is free range, pasture fed. The egg sellers may only have a flock of a hundred chickens, unlike the thousands that the likes of Happy Egg company have. The meat may be from a farm with only 50 cows etc. Economies of scale applies.

Morrisons. I agree with everyone else, they deliberately used older veg, and to set it at the same price as the class 1 veg was ridiculous. It's like paying the same price as 1st class air travel, but traveling in economy. Of course the customer is going to choose the class 1 veg!

And that stack of order cancellations and reductions is absolutely disgusting and Morrisons should hang their heads in shame (as should the other supermarkets that do this). If they order a set amount, they either take it all, or pay the farmer the cost of the waste.

It's a shame Hugh didn't mention if the contracts have an exclusivity clause. I suspect they do.

As for the waste in the supermarkets, they need to get on with giving it to charities like Fareshare.
When I worked for Tesco back in the 90s, at the end of the night (I did the twilight shift, finishing at 10.30pm), all the reduced stuff that hadn't sold went to the staff reception and we could buy it for pennies.
It was great and most of it got bought by us, leaving little to be wasted.
But then they stopped it. We pleaded with them to change their minds, even offering to sign a waiver to say that if we got food poisoning we wouldn't sue them! But nope. Everything that hadn't sold was wasted.
You can imagine how gutted we were to see so much going to waste. It was usually a cage-full, if not more.

[Deleted User]

Towser wrote: »

So I think Hugh is putting pressure on the customer who votes with it's feet. Once people realise what is going on they will put pressure on the managers to change the systems of this wholesale waste.

I think that the supermarkets know damned well that the customers are wasting just as much, and rejecting just as many mis-shapes as they do. They also know which way people vote with their wallets, as opposed to what they say they'll do when a celeb pokes a TV camera in their face, and that if waste is reduced there will be even more farmers going out of business.

fuddle

I think it goes deeper than a documentary jack_pott. I think people are individuals and cottoning rather quickly that they are pawns in a big game. From where I sit there is no respect for producers and there's no respect for consumers.

If there's a misshapen carrot left that misshapen carrot will be bought... if it's needed.

Nonnadiluca

What really annoyed me about the courgette thing was the way the veg that wasn't cosmetically perfect was labelled as 'ugly courgettes' and 'class 2' and for sale at the same price as those labelled 'class 1'. It was like an airline advertising 'first class, luxury' seats at the same price as 'economy, basic' seats, charging the same and then saying, 'Look, nobody wants to fly economy!'
Also, I think Hugh should have asked if Morrison's paid the same to the supplier for both types: no reason why they shouldn't have because the cosmetic difference doesn't affect the nutritional quality, but I wouldn't mind betting that they didn't!

LaineyT

My nearest farm shop is only a couple of miles away and yes whilst some things are more expensive these tend to be stuff that I am happy to make myself like jams, chutneys and cakes. However, the meat is extremely reasonable and with a proper meat counter you can request just the amount you need, it's all locally produced and it even has details of where the animal was slaughtered. This might be a bit squeamish for some but personally I think that more people should be aware of exactly how their food is produced.
We also have several people in the village who regularly sell their allotment produce and I would much rather buy that than the pre-packed, perfect samples in any SM.
Guess it's all about changing people's habits and making them think about where all this stuff comes from and goes to, did make me wonder if all those people clambering over that clothing mountain and pulling out "bargains" would even think to look in a CS for pre-loved clothes, suspect not.

mumps

LaineyT wrote: »

My nearest farm shop is only a couple of miles away and yes whilst some things are more expensive these tend to be stuff that I am happy to make myself like jams, chutneys and cakes. However, the meat is extremely reasonable and with a proper meat counter you can request just the amount you need, it's all locally produced and it even has details of where the animal was slaughtered. This might be a bit squeamish for some but personally I think that more people should be aware of exactly how their food is produced.
We also have several people in the village who regularly sell their allotment produce and I would much rather buy that than the pre-packed, perfect samples in any SM.
Guess it's all about changing people's habits and making them think about where all this stuff comes from and goes to, did make me wonder if all those people clambering over that clothing mountain and pulling out "bargains" would even think to look in a CS for pre-loved clothes, suspect not.

My local supermarket has a proper butcher counter where they will cut what you want. A local butcher always displays details of where his meat comes from with photos of the farms concerned. The local farm shop is a trendy hang out for "yummy mummies" and a total rip off as far as I'm concerned.

My local supermarket also sells loose fruit and veg and some of it is ugly and cheaper than the perfect stuff.

I guess farm shops vary as much as supermarkets do.