Food Miles

[OverWyreGrower]

Whilst we're on the topic of supermarkets...

In Tesco at the weekend, we were in the fruit and veg section and were picking up bananas (obviously not from this country) and some kiwi fruit...

We started looking at apples and there wasn't one variety from this country! Not one!

I hadn't really thought about this, as usually we get all our shopping from the village (individial butcher/bakery/veg shop), but we'd been so busy on Saturday, Tesco on Sunday was our only option...

We were then really careful for the rest of the shop, making sure meat etc was only British....

Was totally shocked that all the apples (of which we're pretty much in season for a lot of them) weren't British. I daren't look at any other stuff in there!

[mandyballantyne]

Hi,

I know exactly how you feel, If I am bying veg i want organic but it is never local So then I think by UK produced save on the miles, never a product to be had. Where does all our produce go

Mandy

[OverWyreGrower]

Probably there are European people going "British apples? I don't want those, I want [insert country of choice] apples..."

It's so frustrating when I know that out of our two little trees we've had loads of apples, (mostly in crumble/sauce/jam form though) - I just wasn't prepared to store that many!

Must remember to go to village for shopping next week! Our local butcher has a board up saying which (local) farm the beef/lamb/pork/chicken/eggs came from that week... I drive past most of the farms on my way to work - lovely!

[mandyballantyne]

Lucky you having such good shops/farms I don't have that around here.

I lived in Cheshire for 4 years and there were farm shops everywhere, all we get up here is a farmers market once a month in the summer!

[yoanbob]

lucky you indeed.
there was an article in new scientist recently that said that if we planted every availlable piece of land, in england wales and scotland, with food crops (including roundabouts, parks etc.) there wouldnt be enough british food to feed the population of london. might explain things.

[multiveg]

Lamb and beef from New Zealand and Argentina.
I took part in SupermarketWatch for GardenOrganic - was noting that the organic produce came often from abroad when there was non-organic alternatives in the next shelf - carrots from Scotland but organic ones came from Egypt.

[sewer rat]

Mandy
Have a look at this site - www.scottishfarmersmarkets.co.uk - gives details of all farmers markets that are near you, or close enough for you to get to should you feel the urge ! We have two up here - Inverness on 1st Saturday of the month, and Dingwall on the 2nd Sturday of the month. However, neither are members of the Farmers Markets Association and attendance can vary - have been to Dingwall when there has been 25 stalls, and the following month only 4 stalls !!! If you can find registered Farmers Markets, they do seem to be better organised and better attended.

[sewer rat]

And for everyone else in the UK, you should all check out www.bigbarn.co.uk - this site lists hundreds of local suppliers of food - describes itself as a "virtual farmers market" - really useful if you are planning a holiday in UK or are visiting friends in another part of the country.

[beefy]

Food miles dont get me started. Try this and see if you can make sense of this one . A salmon farm on the west coast of Ireland (Galway) MUST market all its produce through a company in Scotland .Lorry leaves Galway with a load of salmon to go to Glasgow takes ferry from Larne N.Ireland to Carnryan .On the same boat is an empty lorry from Derry/Londonderry going to Glasgow to lift a few pallets of salmon.Both lorries follow each other up the A77 to Glasgow and through Glasgow to Bellshill. They both drive into the same warehouse and back on to different bays .Salmon comes out of one lorry and into the other who then leaves to go back to the boat.
I kid you not .

[Earthbabe]

We are very lucky down here as the Winchester Farmer's market is huge and a lot of the suppliers can be reached directly as well. All organic meat in the Sunnyfields farm shop can be traced to its origin and I have a butcher neighbour who stocks orkney gold in his shop in Alresford, and through him I receive a weekly delivery of untreated milk from a farm in Surrey.

Add to that all the lovely stuff off the lottie and we do quite well even if we can't always buy organic. We are starting to turn this around again (we always used to get a box) and increasing the number of organic items we buy. It's a shame organic gluten free is so difficult to get regularly outside of a couple of items like rice cakes.

Oh and chocolate.

[skegblade]

Here in Lincolnshire we have field upon field of potatoes, Boston potatoes, but do any of the supermarkets here sell them. No; Cornish, yes; Egyptian, yes; Jersey Royals, yes. But the local Bostons, not one is sold here. My OH would love to know why.

[JennieAtkinson]

Here its grow your own or buy veg from the supermarket which has taken weeks to travel here from heaven knows where in the world and is decaying before you have left the shop.

That is why I started growing my own.

In some respects it was better here 25 years ago. We only had three boats a week (Tues Thurs and Sat) and we just went and queued for our veg on a Tues and Thurs afternoon at the one shop in the town. I'm sure it was fresher (not packed nicely in the plastic bags of today of course). There wasn't alot of choice though!

[multiveg]

Where did I read that salads in supermarkets could have been picked 30 days ago?

[Earthbabe]

Sounds about right. I heard (I think it was local radio - BBC must be true!) that some of the apples on the shelves now are up to a year old!

Doesn't sound "fresh" to me.

[MissyMoo]

Oooh this is a topic close to my heart.
At the start of the year we stopped shopping at supermarkets. We'd been weaning ourselves off them for a while but decided to be firmer about it. Have not looked back once.

The veg (what we don't grow ourselves) comes from a local farm shop and is better quality, keeps longer, is seasonal and is also organic in most cases.
We've had some of the best apples ever this year (all English)

The meat comes from a different farm shop and all of it is from Sussex. It's so nice to actually taste meat that tastes of meat!

A nice side effect of this change is that we actually enjoy shopping now.

Having said all that we are quite lucky in where we live. Surrounded by the best independent stores you could want and a market within walking distance.
So perhaps such a radical change is not within everyone’s grasp but I would recommend everyone at least thinking about it. (end of rant )