Going back to your ham sandwich, if you bought
the Danish ham one, then it’s British pig farmers
(and the factory-farmed Danish pigs) who’ll pay
the price. Welfare standards are higher in the UK
than anywhere else; the sow stalls used in factory
farm-style piggeries, for example, are banned
here. But higher welfare costs money, so if you
bought the UK-ham sandwich, it’ll be considerably
more expensive, especially if it was also hand
cured. Even then, you probably won’t be paying
the true cost, as pig farmers are now being hit by
soaring feed prices so are losing £10 on every pig
they sell. Many are quitting, and who can blame
them?
As part of a food supply system that’s global,
we’re also buffeted by fluctuating commodity
prices. Decimated cereal harvests in the US, for
instance, are sending the price of meat rocketing
as grain is used to feed our animals. Only if we
start producing more of our own food – we
currently produce less than two-thirds of what we
eat – will we become less vulnerable.
If you shop in a supermarket, paying more will not
in itself help producers or animal welfare. The key
is how our money is shared out between retailers,
processors and producers. What many found
shocking about the dairy crisis this summer was
that, when some farmers were having to produce
milk at a loss, the margin creamed off by some
supermarkets actually rose.
But there are ways of paying a price for our food
that’s fair and doesn’t abuse producers or the
planet. We’re buying increasing quantities of fair
trade products. We’ve also shown we’re willing to
pay more for our eggs so chickens don’t endure
atrocious conditions. A decade ago only a fifth of
the eggs we bought were free range. Now the
figure is half.
Part of the reason we’ve lost sight of the true cost
of food is that its pricing has been skewed by allpowerful supermarkets where we buy around 80%
of our food. Air-freighting asparagus from Peru
guzzles vast amounts of fossil fuels, but we
consumers don’t pay the environmental cost. If
‘Buy One, Get One Free’ offers seem too good to
be true, they are; such promotions are usually
funded not by supermarkets, but by their
Diet & Health Today
suppliers, who may be placed under huge
pressure as a result.
Another way is to buy local, which, as CPRE’s
recent From Field to Fork report on
www.cpre.org.uk highlighted, helps ensure that
the food we eat is fresh, healthy and seasonal
and connects us with the people and landscapes
producing our food. Buying food at local butchers
and greengrocers means vibrant pastures, we can
support their farmers by buying milk and meat
direct from them at farmers’ markets or farm
shops, or through box schemes. If shopping at
supermarkets, it’s worth asking questions about
where and how foods have been produced.
By readjusting some of our habits, by perhaps no
longer expecting to eat meat every day, by
wasting less food, or by redistributing our
household spending, it may not actually cost more
overall to pay a price for our food that’s just,
sustainable and doesn’t clock up debts that will
have to be settled by our grandchildren. Maybe
it’s time to behave not just as consumers, but as
citizens, too. We have the power to vote with our
purse strings for the sort of world we want to live
in. The choice is ours.
This article first appeared in Countryside Voice, the magazine
of CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England
(www.cpre.co.uk)
Food and farming writer Clare Hargreaves is the
author of four books and writes for the national
press, including BBC Good Food magazine and
The Independent.
Drawing on her contacts with many of the
country’s top chefs, Clare’s most recent venture is
running Feast with a Chef, offering fine dining in
village halls. She calls it ‘Fine dining without the
starch.’ To find out more about Clare, her writing,
and Feast with a Chef visit
www.clarehargreaves.co.uk or
www.feastwithachef.co.uk
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