Recipe for happiness?

[tim]

After the Dispatches programmes (well done them!), how can anyone not seek out the food that is not only not poisonous, but also has flavour, has not been produced at the expense of animal suffering & has not caused farmers' suicides.

[tim]

[Svea]

yes we saw this too.
an eyeopener, for sure. though, many things they revealed didnt surprise me in the slightest.

i thought the worst bit was that the supermarket promotions (buy one get one free/half price etc etc) do not come out of the profit margin of the supermarket, but out of the farmers/suppliers pay cheque!!! that is awful, that they should have so much power over their suppliers that common laws of decency do no longer apply.....:(

[busy_lizzie]

Totally agree.  Although I knew a bit about supermarkets, didn't know the full extent of their power.  It is quite frightening, makes me wish I was totally self sufficient.  It is terrible they can get away with selling  this cosmetically goodlooking food which is tasteless, no wonder so much flavouring and salt has to be added to food nowadays. I despair some times.  Lets hope with this raised awareness the Consumer will rebel  against it eventually and want to belong to a kinder and more natural way of life.  It is the stuff of science fiction novels.  >:(  busy_lizzie

[Diana]

Sorry, not got TV. Can anyone bring me up to speed please?

D

[tim]

This is the only reference I can find. She must be a very hard-grained reporter to be so blasé about the report.  She hardly skimmed ye surface.

Makes me almost as sick as the report itself!

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1697002005

[BAGGY]

I couldn't believe that 50% of organic potatoes are chucked out because they are the wrong shape, wrong colour and such.  When they mentioned that the beans that are graded in Kenya were being thrown away because they didn't fit the bill.  I find that truly obscene.  I was talking to my OH and he said why don't they do buy one get one 'misfits' free.  Or sell the misfits for a cheaper price.  The reason the organic stuff is not uniform is precisely because they do not nuke it with chemicals and surely anyone with half a brain would expect the produce to not be identical.  If there was not so much waste the organic prices would be lower.

[Diana]

From what's been said here + the report (thanks Tim) it sounds like the same old story + it still makes my blood boil every time.

Unfortunately it'll never change as the masses never change - too  convenient to buy the meat at the same time/place as the veg and the washing up liquid!

There are alternatives (as we all know) - grow your own, buy in season from source (farmers' markets, farm shops). It doesn't have to be expensive, but if people look at it with the "well I can buy it from here for £1 per pound (sorry, half kilo!) or I can get it at Tesco for 50p + get one free" then it'll never happen.

Personally, I like fresh food that tastes. If it ends up costing me more then I'm prepared to go without something else.

I'm off the the farmers' market this weekend (if I don't drop into the farm shop first)

D

[wardy]

You only have to look in people's shopping trolleys to know that people will eat anything as long as it's cheap  :(

[Diana]

...and, right, and, why does organic produce need to have extra packaging??? ???

OK, so I know the answer to that, and why they don't over package the normal stuff...

Rant over (though I'm not promising!)