Shopper's angst...

lamplady

When I remember back to my childhood (1970's) I remember we didn't eat much meat and it was relatively far more expensive than supermarket meat is today - I actually saw an old tv programme recently where a scene was in a shop and the beef prices displayed were far more than modern tesco prices. I don't really see it therefore as a luxury middle class fad, but rather that in the 1990's we had a fad of cheap, mass, cruelly produced food, which will hopefully - for the sake of farmers as well as our health- die out. Over the past few years it's become commonplace to have roast chicken as an evening meal, whereas when I was a child this was a definite Sunday treat.

I really don't believe in the 'I can only afford cheap meat' line - I would prefer, for health and ethical reasons to buy real meat and pad it out (we often have 1/2 mince and 1/2 lentils, or chopped chicken and chopped potatoes etc), or just cook more veggie food - A thick homemade soup and bread is an excellent evening meal and satisfies my teenage boys. We really don't need so much meat in our diets.

I think it does get complicated when we get into fairtrade/local etc though. Is it better to buy imported or home grown under artificial lights? We could go on forever - I think what's important is that we are more aware though, I have long rolled my eyes at celebrations/apologies over 19th C.slavery, when the reality is it still goes on, just over there rather than over here.

My own contribution has been to focus on my children's things- I try avoid other children suffering in order to give pleasure to my children, so I try to source fairtrade (or at least non sweatshop made) school uniform and clothing, and avoid happy meals and cheap plastic toys as much as possible.

rosieben

peb wrote: »

.... I have been told that food miles can be more haeming with local lorries on roads than flown in food! Meat - free range yes; organic I cannot afford.

Food flown in still has to be taken by lorry to the depot/store though

RHYSDAD

We only buy free range eggs as well as meat. My mate is also a butcher so we are very lucky to get free range, properly reared and matured, meat at 'mates' rates so i thank him for that. I work in and around Agriculture and so i am fortunate enough to get veggies etc direct from farm. As for the egg thing, Tesco et al do 6 free range eggs, medium size for around, what, £1.40? I can buy a dozen from a local person who has a few birds for £1.50 a dozen that taste about 50 times better. Just look at the yolk colour. Pale, wishy washy from supermarkets. Deep golden sunset from the local guy, much better.
I do believe that the supermarkets have recognised this demand for 'ethical' food and load prices and rub their hands with glee!!!

Mrs_A_4

Interesting points. Seems I'm not the only one struggling to find a balance. I like Ceridwen's three categories - I have been abroad once in the last ten years (!) and thanks to a £377 MOT:mad: couldn't even manage a dirty weekend away at Easter, but I guess I take a certain amount of pleasure (and even smugness, perhaps) in spending a bit extra on the posher stuff. I'll admit that for me at least there is an element of selective snobbery involved. I get some of the buzz buying organic-free-range-Fair-Trade stuff as rich people must do buying Jimmy Choos or Armani... Sad, innit!:rolleyes:

I suppose we should be grateful that people are becoming a bit more aware of issues around their food nowadays, even if they financially aren't always able to make the choices they would like to make.

Phatmouse

i think its all marketing and it really winds me up, whats so fair about fair trade, the farmer gets paid more because we pay more not because the company behind it makes less profit from passing some of their money on and the products are not better quality and in my opinion are no where near as nice as non fairtrade, eg coffee, chocolate.

and organic is the biggest con of the century, wine only has to contain 10% organic grapes to claim to be organic and eve then they still use pesticies they just don't routinley use them. if polar bears contain chemicals only found in non stick teflon when they haven't been near the manufacturing plant what chance does a field of tomatoes have when its near a field on non organic, if it doesn't come into contact due to wind then it will in the supermarket.

its intensive advertising makeing you feel like you have half a chance of saving the earth if you spend more dollars on food, and anyone that says they taste any different is not only being taken for a ride by the companies but also themselves.

champys

I agree it is a minefield! But it seems everyone here is trying to do their bit according to their means and circumstances. For me it means following:

- eat home-grown fruit & veg whenever possible.
- eat meat sparingly: beef & veal from a local organic farm, FR chicken, eggs from a neighbour (will start keeping own ducks/chickens/sheep in due course)
- try to buy food that has undergone only minimal or no processing, avoid buying from supermarkets if there is an alternative.

My greatest dilemma is fish, though: either the fish is an endangered species, or if not it has been flown in from far away, or has been farmed using lots of antibiotics, or is oily fish with PCBs stored in its fat layers etc etc.... is there any OK fish left? I love the taste of fish, but end up buying hardly any at all apart from tinned sardines and tins of dolphin-friendly tuna.

soappie

My view is similar to that of Phatmouse's but perhaps a tad more extreme.

I am seriously wary of the term 'fair trade'. What does it mean? In my view, it means a company has gone out to some third world country and is paying their workers an itsy bitsy bit more of a wage than they were perhaps getting before and have put down some rules about working hours and procedures. BUT it means the profit margins are greater (even with the air fare to ship it over here) and our traditional workforces in the UK are losing out because there are less jobs. But, the fat cat share holders are getting fatter daily on their so-called 'fair trade' image.

Oooh, I realise that's a tad radical so I'll crawl back under my stone...

Pooky

My budget is such that I can't be fussy - but to be honest I don't think I'd change my shopping much anyway.

I'll quite happily buy a cheap chicken, it get's boned and padded out into several meals, an organic freerange one won't go any further and if the money isn't there - it isn't there.

A friend of mines DH has refused to eat anything other than freerange organic chicken and eggs since watching the HFW programme but will still happily eat pasta, cakes and other shop brought items that contain eggs......why do those not count?

Each to their own on this one - I don't think anyones opinion is right or wrong - just best suited to the individual.

seraphina

Soappie - I totally agree. Of course I'm happy to pay a bit extra to ensure that the producer gets a fair deal - but at the moment that seems to be tied up with paying a hefty premium to the supermarket/importer as well! :mad:

Lemon_Tree

hi it's a tricky and emotive subject. I'm lucky i'm near farm shops or stands outside people's homes who sell chicken & eggs which are free range etc for a snip. I do get annoyed withe the fair trade things, if you see how much they give to the farmer compaired to the amount they add on to the price it's them that are making the most money from it being fair trade. I'd much rather buy sme goats on the goat scheme or some such thing and try and do my bit that way. I'm also trying to grow my own veggies to at least get some which are organic, i just can't afford to buy them anywhere so go for what's the cheapest.