Shopper's angst...

Mrs_A_4

Does anyone else feel that the organic-free-range-Fair-Trade movement is impacting on their shopping?

Not long ago I was practically destitute and had times when I had to feed two people for a week on a tenner. I couldn't care less how happy my food was, I just wanted enough for a full belly!

Now I'm sorting out the bigger picture financially, and can afford to shop more comfortably, I feel that ethical choices have become more important when I'm filling my trolley. More often than not, if an organic or ethical alternative is available for not much more, I'll buy it. The result is shopping that probably costs 10-15% more than non-organic-free-range-Fairly-Traded stuff.

I just bought free range turkey pieces for £4, physically forcing myself away from the same stuff at £1.50 cheaper, by thinking of Hugh F-W's overstuffed poultry sheds and the poor bloated chickens sitting apathetically in their own mess...

Am I succumbing to middle-class marketing manipulation, or do people think this stuff is actually better for us in the end?:o

mrsmortenharket

I buy organic pork & chicken. I don't buy anything with pork or chicken in like pasties or nuggets either. If I can help it.

I don;t bother with the fruit or veg though.

With fish I make sure it's properly fished. If that makes sense!

I am veggie, it's all for the benefit of the animals, my DH & kids eat it.

thriftlady_2

Food shopping is definitely becoming more and more complex, i said something similar on here the other day. There is so much to consider these days. I also think about how locally the food has been produced.

Sometimes however, I just want to ignore it all and buy what I fancy.

I think though, that it isn't a question of things being 'good for us' but 'good for the producers and produced'. I do agree that it is a middle class luxury to find yourself in a position to take all these issues into account. Maybe those of us who can afford to should be more concerned about poverty in this country than fair-trade-free-range-organic. Or maybe we should be concerned about both.

Interesting question, thanks for bringing it up;)

Mellika

As much as I try to buy Fairtrade products, I often feel it should be the big retailer companies taking on the extra cost, not us struggling consumers... just MHO

mrsmortenharket

Oh & I buy organic eggs & fairtrade tea/coffee & sometimes chocolate. It's hard with the chocolate though cos it's hard to get fairtrade everywhere & I eat A LOT of chocolate!

I am looking at fairtrade clothes but they are so expensive & hard to get. Also I am short so need petite trousers/shirts.

Lisa

Softstuff

I don't have the luxury of being too worried if my food is organic/happy/whatever. The budget I have is what I have, and I feed us, clothe us, entertain us as best I can on that.

I could have spent the past month buying only good organic produce.... but then I wouldn't be able to go to the dentist in a week or so.

I think there's a lot of hype about organic food in general though. A new store opened close to me touting itself as all things organic... they sell many things people don't need at overinflated prices, have faux leather seating, baskets produced in a third world country which were shipped in with so much packaging you'd cry (I know since they came from my previous job), they have so much flat pack shelving in there and everything was bought new. All in all by operating as they are, the only people they are helping is those shoppers who get the feeling they're being ethical, when in reality the practices of the store are far from it.

The label organic often is an excuse for a price hike. We'd all do better to shop less, eat less, recycle more (including buying from charity shops) and spend any extra cash on helping others who can't even do that.

lindadykes

I agree wholeheartedly with MrsA and im in the same position myself. As she says there was a time when my only concern was to feed my family on my meagre budget and I couldn't afford the luxury of "happy" meat and organic veg. The animal welfare issue did concern me but at the time organic food was just far too expensive for me to consider.

Since I have become able to afford the organic food however I do have to say the flavour is far superior. I have a vegatable box and a fruit box delivered every week (£19 per week), and although I will sometimes need to buy extra potatoes and some salad leaves these do last the whole week and more. I now buy my meat from a local farm that rears all the meat themselves to organic standards and make sure their beef is hung for 21 days. Whenever people come for a meal now they comment on the flavour of the food, older people such as my MIL saying that my meat tastes like meat used to years ago. I do sometimes buy organic meat from the supermarkets but I have to say this meat just doesn't have the same flavour as that from the farm.

I do think that maybe the supermarkets are happily jumping on the bandwagon and rubbing their hands in glee that some of us are willing to pay a premium for that "organic" label.

I wouldn't like to go back to eating intensively reared meat and the flavour of my veg is so good that my daughters veg hating boyfriend actually says he loves eating veg at my house, but if supermarket organic produce was my only option I'm not so sure that I would be as keen.

maypole

I only buy free range poultry now and free range eggs. Don't buy supermarket meat now. I use a farm shop butcher.

Not bothered if the vegetables are organic though, so I just buy ordinary ones.

Churchmouse

lindadykes wrote: »

I do think that maybe the supermarkets are happily jumping on the bandwagon and rubbing their hands in glee that some of us are willing to pay a premium for that "organic" label.

Oh how I agree with this!! I wish there was a sensible alternative. I use the farmer's market that comes to my town once a month. The game stall seems very well priced, wild rabbit for example at £3.50 each, but the cheese stall:eek: :eek: The veg and fruit stall was last time selling tired veg at a premium price, so I'm afraid I didn't buy any.

Sainsbury, like all the supermarkets just take the mickey. Put organic on the label, and you can add loads:rolleyes: I can buy Fairtrade products through a friend at my Church for less than Sainsbury want!! Now she has a few of each item, Sainsbury buy thousands, go figure.

I try very hard to buy meat that is humanely farmed, and appreciate I am lucky to be able to afford this. I thank God that when I had 4 young sons I didn't know about happy chickens and their miserable counterparts:o Then I'd never have afforded *happy meat*. I would like to say I only ever buy *happy meat* and organic fruit and veg ( I think both are better for the environment) but I try not to lie, so I won't:rotfl:

I will only buy line-caught fresh tuna, and as far as I know do only buy *ethical* fish:D

SUESMITH_2

Softstuff wrote: »

I don't have the luxury of being too worried if my food is organic/happy/whatever. The budget I have is what I have, and I feed us, clothe us, entertain us as best I can on that.

I could have spent the past month buying only good organic produce.... but then I wouldn't be able to go to the dentist in a week or so.

I think there's a lot of hype about organic food in general though. A new store opened close to me touting itself as all things organic... they sell many things people don't need at overinflated prices, have faux leather seating, baskets produced in a third world country which were shipped in with so much packaging you'd cry (I know since they came from my previous job), they have so much flat pack shelving in there and everything was bought new. All in all by operating as they are, the only people they are helping is those shoppers who get the feeling they're being ethical, when in reality the practices of the store are far from it.

The label organic often is an excuse for a price hike. We'd all do better to shop less, eat less, recycle more (including buying from charity shops) and spend any extra cash on helping others who can't even do that.

we had one of those in york, only lasted a few months.

for the person who likes chocolate all co-op own brand choc is fair trade

sammy_kaye18

As much as I would love to feed my family fairtrade, organic, free range foods we jsut simply do not have the budget that allows for it.

The only things we dont compromise on is whole chickens and eggs - these both have to be free range. ( I too watched Hughs programme adn it made me feel physically sick to the point of wanting to become a veggie thinking about if thats how chickens are reared badly what about the other lesser cuts of meat like beef and pork) thankfully we rarely eat these but i will admit we do use the cheap beef mince because it is the biggest pack adn fits in our budget.

Veggies and fruit we just eat the normal stuff - whatever we can get basically.

I do think alot of things are being influenced by programmes we see - its not nice and i think chefs are prehaps starting to use shock tactics to get their opinions and POV across and it maybe startles us enough to buying 'what they'd recommend' - like jamie olivier and that live post mortem :lipsrseal :lipsrseal :lipsrseal :lipsrseal :lipsrseal :lipsrseal :lipsrseal or hugh and his chickens.

And all this from someone who spends her working hours in a coop! doh! i do support all the fairtrade selling though but budget wise the tesco value is more affordable to us, although at christmas we do make a point of using my extra discount (20%) and my free money and we get fair trade christmas bits and bobs