We have just returned from a more-extensive-than-usual shopping trip at our local Morrisons supermarket where there appeared to have been convened an international tomato convention. I was somewhat stunned to see, amongst the various shaped and sized delegates (cherry, plum, salad, vine-ripened, etc), representatives from no fewer than six countries:
- Holland;
- Poland;
- Italy;
- Belgium;
- Morocco;
- Britain.
What an intriguing collection of food miles.
I’ll leave it to the reader to guess which were the most expensive, given the clue that all their competitors must have been trucked or flown around various portions of the planet using exorbitantly priced diesel or aviation fuel, in addition to having paid associated shipping and/or landing fees, of course. It’s summer for Lord’s sake; tomatoes are in season. Can’t we get our own in-season produce at a reasonable rate?
All this tomato confusion comes in addition to one of my favourite bugbears:
- New Zealand lamb – £4.99 per kg (having been shipped 12,000 miles half way around the planet);
- British lamb – £7.99 per kg (having been raised “just down the road”).
Buy British – get ripped off!
Technorati Tags: food prices,food miles
This is all sadly true! I did go one better – in Tesco today there was a cucumber proudly labelled “Berkshire GB”. “Where’s BURKshire” (note pronunciation) asked one child. “Dunno. Maybe Europe.” said its parent. I felt like saying yes it was Europe, but not continental. But I felt shades of smart-arse Blasdale coming out in me, so shut up.
I’m afraid I could not have resisted.