The Savvy Shopper. Rose Prince
UK. Food manufacturers do not always have to state the country of origin for fresh or processed foods, except in the case of controversial foods such as beef. The rule of thumb is this: if the country of origin is not stated, the food is probably not British. This is particularly so with fresh fruit and vegetables. Apples are plastered with Union Jacks when British are in season: otherwise they tend to be sold just as ‘apples’.
The free market and fair trade
Love it or hate it, the Western world is more or less open to trade, although the term free trade is an interesting two-way street, with different rules in each carriageway. Whether free trade is right or wrong, one thing is certain: aspects of it are grossly unfair both to us and to exporting countries. We import what are, in our terms, cheap goods with abandon; the exporting countries pay through the nose to do so via export levies.
Aid agencies campaign for trade barriers to be lifted between the West and developing or ‘third’ countries as a cure for poverty. If barriers were lifted on both sides, however, all hell would break loose. Under our current system, the West could ‘get there first’, meaning it would flood the poorer countries’ food supply chains with dumped goods grown under our subsidy system – it already does to an extent – negating the developing countries’ need to grow their own. It would also move in and set up business for export, which would likely make the few, rather than the many, rich.
But if, as aid agencies want, the trade barrier is lifted to favour only the developing countries, then – in terms of food – we may find ourselves unwittingly buying goods made to a standard that would not be permitted in the UK. This is already happening, between the UK and other EU member states, which are permitted to use production methods denied to us for food safety and animal welfare reasons.
British farmers operate under the most stringent food production rules in the world, and yet we are importing food that could not legally be sold if it had been made here. Because the majority of shoppers buy purely on price, lifting trade barriers to allow more cheap imports could spell the end of British farming and food production. Close the free market? No, we would put an end to centuries of culinary curiosity.
This is a case for shoppers to be circumspect about what they buy – and when they buy it. The sensible choice is to support British food production where standards are higher, as with meat; buy into our gluts of fruits and vegetables when they are in – avoiding the cheaper Spanish equivalent sitting beside it; and always buy with a mind to support small food businesses.
The worldwide commodity exchange has been held responsible for some of the appalling poverty among farmers in the developing world. When oversupply pushes prices down, farmers fall quickly into debt. In 1992 the Fairtrade Foundation was formed by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, New Consumer, Traidcraft and the World Development Movement. They were later joined by the Women’s Institute. The idea of fair trade is for retailers to deal directly with farmers’ co-operatives or producer groups, committing to a minimum price in spite of supply. The stories emerging about fairly traded foods are encouraging – a case where changing shopping habits has had a positive effect on the lives of Windward Island banana farmers, Rwandan coffee growers and Palestinian olive oil producers. Beware, however, the attempts currently being made by giant food conglomerates to jump on the Fairtrade bandwagon and gain certification for one product while they continue to trade less ethically with the producers of all their other foods.
It’s not wholly offensive to mention in the same breath that it would be nice if some fair trading went on at home. Dairy and other livestock farms will become extinct in the UK unless a fair price is paid for milk by the main dairies and the supermarkets that buy from them. If there were no livestock farms in the UK, we would end up with a landscape that was a mixture between a national park and a weed-infested wilderness, and a diet of 100 per cent imported meat.
The workforce and other people
When travelling around fruit and vegetable farms in the UK, it is impossible to miss the flexible workforce – the pickers and labourers without whom weeding and hand harvesting would be impossible. But it is also clear that the farms that are happy for a journalist to tour their premises and talk to their staff are unlikely to have much to be ashamed of. There are some excellent schemes for students, and in Jersey the relationship between the Madeira workers and the potato growers is good: living conditions are warm, in substantially built cottages, and the families earn enough from January to June to sustain their lives on the island of Madeira during the rest of the year.
But there are gangmasters who break every rule, exploiting the desperation of workers who want a life in Britain. They pay below the minimum wage and operate no limits to working hours. As a shopper, it is difficult to know who picked your carrots. Supermarkets say they try to keep track, but in practice this is hard to do. The new gangmaster laws that came in after the drowning of the cockle pickers at Morecambe Bay in 2004 are yet to be properly tested.
The tragic reality is that the children of today’s farmers are less and less likely to follow their parents into the business; indeed many are actively discouraged by their parents, and the workforce of the future is likely to be more and more made up of immigrant workers who will work for lower wages. The same workers are employed in processing plants and abattoirs, and as usual they are doing the filthy, tedious jobs. So we have a conundrum. We want to buy British, but buying British may encourage poor practice. If there is a solution, it is to seek out the vegetable box scheme or the farm that opens its doors to scrutiny. Food from such places will cost more, so it is a case of eating the cheaper-to-grow produce, choosing seasonally to get the best value from gluts, and perhaps deciding that pulses are going to play a greater part in your diet.
In exporting countries, the workforce question is also a serious matter, along with the wider impact of food production on populations. Poor monitoring of pesticide use is a much greater problem outside the UK and large numbers of people can be affected, including children – and child labour. Water supplies can be hijacked or polluted by unscrupulous industries; land is acquired from tribal populations who have only a few historical rights to it, their natural habitat subsequently flattened to make way for industrial farming. Information about such practice does filter back, however, and shoppers have a chance to boycott foods whose production causes people suffering.
Additives
Artificial additives do not turn up in food because shoppers need them but because the food industry needs them for economic reasons. While it is understandable that manufacturers should want to profit from their business, the liberal use of colourings, flavourings and preservatives has gone too far. Additives are in much of the food targeted at children. They warp the concept of natural taste, inducing ignorance of the real thing. They have been proven to alter behaviour, and some are known allergens.
Additives are divided into various categories. The largest groups are colours, preservatives, antioxidants, sweeteners, emulsifiers, gelling agents, stabilisers and thickeners. Then there is a smaller number each of acids, acidity regulators, anti-caking agents, anti-foaming agents, bulking agents, carriers and carrier solvents, emulsifying salts, firming agents, flavour enhancers, flour treatment agents, glazing agents, humectants, modified starches, packaging gases, propellants, raising agents and sequestrants.
The food industry is preoccupied with using appearance to attract customers, and also with the stability of food and its shelf life. It is unfair to blame only the manufacturers when retailers are after the same thing. Shoppers do not ask, however, for the plethora of innovations that appear on shelves on a daily basis. The food industry will always say it is supplying demand, identifying what shoppers want. I think this is rubbish. Supermarkets in particular have created a demand, identifying a weakness for novelty in bored supermarket shoppers (and especially their children), and have risen to it with some alarming imaginings. ‘Meal solutions’, they call them – but have you ever heard someone say, ‘What I really need is a Thai spiced shepherd’s pie topped with a feta cheese and ginger parsnip mash’?
Ready-made food can be great – if it is made with good-quality ingredients and nothing else. Even a sausage needs no more