Sunday 22 April 2012

The Cheap Food Divide

One of the great benefits of the internet is we can all discover a different view or approach to obtaining a similar goal. The talking Trees comment on my previous posting shows that we are all trying to achieve the same thing. While also highlighting a different set of problems.

The neighbour who sees anyone selling any food as unfair competition, although I might suggest that hot-dogs etc, might not be real food. Although perhaps that is the real problem as selling real food highlights the problem that far to often it is cheap “Junk” food that is what is most often sold.

It is this often the low cost of the cheap junk that distorts the market. Making real food appear more expensive. In the convenience shop in the large village close to my village, there are no shops in my village, it is possible to buy a pack of sausages for £1.00 that’s about $1.60 us, for eight of these things. I call them things as they should not be called sausages as they only contain 9% meat the minimum the law allows. Often if you eat in a café it will be this type of sausage that is served. So even if folks make a contentious choice to avoid this type of food in their shopping basket, you can get caught out when eating out.

However, when there are sausages like this, the high quality products that are sold at Farmers Markets and Food Festivals, will look expensive. But the point I was trying to make in the previous post, was that many Producers and Farmers are often reliant upon the advice of a small group of advisor’s that will say “charge more for your product”. While they do need a fair reward for their time, effort and product, far to often the prices are just to high. I have seen Sausages at £6-7 per pound ($10-$11.50) at Farmers Markets. Yet I have also found a couple of local butchers who are using local animals, making their own sausages and selling them at a reasonable cost. They are still getting a premium, but they understand their customers and that folks do not have unlimited funds.

Further, I would love to see the diversity that the talking tree has at her small market. There is nothing wrong with having several Farmers selling similar products, but so often it ends up being the premium products. Such as Venison, Game, or premium cuts of meat that are fine for restaurants, but most people can not afford to buy that often.

Apart from one or two exceptions, there are very few of the farmers that will bring along any part of the fifth quarter, the offal. I know that here there is a cultural divide between the US and the UK, but offal can and does make some wonderful dishes. In fact it has just occurred to me as I write, I did not see any liver pate. Something that can be a great product and one that earns a decent premium especially if done well.

Yet the main point is that most of the farmers at the Food Festival were not really selling everyday food, nor at prices that will garner them regular sales. While Farm Shops can be a great Tourist Destination where you can also do a bit of shopping, they have very little to do with the real food shopping that we all have to do. Most of the Farm Shops also have a Café, and are frequently away from the places where people normally go shopping. Thus the Farmers are often turning their farms into a visitors centres, rather than a place where people would want to go food shopping. It is this disconnection of Farming, Food and the Consumer that is being perpetuated by ignoring the vast majority of the population.



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