World Cafι Should We Shop At Supermarkets?
The Cafι took place on Wednesday 27th August 08 and was arranged into four tables each of which had a discussion topic.
The topics were as follows:
1. Pros and cons
2. Alternatives
3. Environment
4. Suppliers
To begin, a role play discussion was held between Karen and Clare in order to provide background information for the ensuing discussions.
Should you wish to have sight of this information, please contact Clare gillottclare@gmail.com
Highly recommended reading:
(1) Not on the Label - What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate by Felicity Lawrence (Penguin Books, 2004. ISBN 0-141-01566-7 £8.99)
(2) Shopped The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets by Joanna Blythman (Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN 0-00-715804-1 £7.99)
(3) The Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Bloomsbury, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7475-8683-8 £7.99)
1. Pros and cons
CONS
Over packaged foods
Highly processed foods
Food additives and preservatives used frequently to make sub-standard food taste and look better than it otherwise would.
Supermarkets are not accountable to the local communities in which they are located.
Destruction of the high street
Hyperactivity link to food additives
Food security issues centralised distribution systems create vulnerability to rising fuel prices and conflicts
Convenience foods such as pre-washed bagged salads may have been through several processes such as frequent treatment with pesticides, irradiation and chlorine washes
Global markets hurt small scale suppliers
Food miles vastly increased by importing exotic and/or out-of-season fruit and vegetables
(Many more! See especially Not on the Label... and Shopped
for easy-to-read further information).
PROS
Loyalty cards
1% cash back
Money saving vouchers
Loyalty cards contribute to supermarkets awareness of your tastes and preferences and thus lead to more appropriate provisions
Economies of scale
Market differentiation
Open more hours of the day
Range of prices cheap, medium and luxury
Standard sizes
Good quality
Market dominance leads to reduced prices
2. Alternatives
Farmers markets
Food co-operatives bulk orders for local people and get local growers involved
Grow your own
Local shops
Dont import/encourage importing unnecessarily
Community supported agriculture
Bartering
Sharing produce
Growing in the city
Seasonal food
Less packaging
Greater regulation of supermarkets
Teach cooking
Education of children
Growing food in school grounds
Inclusion of parents in children-centred addressing of the issue
Allotment Act 1929 use it! (Find online)
Build relationships with local suppliers
Planting orchards
A lady on Avondale Road bakes and sells to local corner shops
Windmill Wholefoods use them!
Kinseys bakers on Aigburth Road use them too! The business is actually for sale any takers? Unsocial hours but good money, apparently.
Community shared meals similar to internet dating but for matching those who want to eat similar meals at similar times
Vegetarian cooking skills taught at school
System of locally produced convenience meals which are almost ready-to-cook. This idea would involve taking locally grown, seasonal produce to create dishes and/or meal kits which could be supplemented by food items one may already have at home. Using specially designed software, the service would take into account your available items (if any) and seasonal availability before devising a meal suggestion and a subsequent meal kit. The kit could then be delivered to your door in a reusable (non-plastic?) container whereupon you would complete minor final preparation before cooking and eating.
Information, menu ideas and recipe cards at veg box schemes or community centres, for example, which make meal suggestions based on current availability and seasonality.
Sadly, it can be very difficult to completely avoid using supermarkets!
3. Environment
Supermarkets have a massive environmental impact in terms of energy use, waste, ecologically detrimental distribution systems etc.
Building on Greenfield sites
Energy wastage of 24 hr stores
Encourage monoculture which has an adverse effect on biodiversity
Excessive use of packaging
Excessive use of pesticides to meet quality standards
Organic produce may be grown abroad. Local produce may be a better option than supermarket organic?
Local, small scale organic produce is best for the environment
Monoculture supported by artificial fertilisers (usually synthesised from oil) which impoverish the soil
Supermarkets divorce us from where our food comes from
Encourage local milk production delivered by low emission vehicles
Supermarkets promote excessive car use and car dependency
4. Suppliers
Suppliers are squeezed to the limit by supermarkets who have the clout to make increasing demands and dictate exacting terms
Suppliers in developing countries usually get a raw deal. They should be feeding themselves instead of exporting food to richer nations
Farmers bear the loss for produce which fails to meet exacting standards or late deliveries etc
Exclusive contracts
Distribution systems, for example, make it much more of a hassle for supermarkets to deal with small scale suppliers
Farmers co-ops may be a possibility to give them some control back and a better return for their produce
Centralisation small producers have little choice but to grow bigger or face having no buyer for their produce
Unrealistic margins for farmers
Unseasonable food
Unrealistic standardisation
Separation of consumers from producers