borofergie said:
noblehead said:
I love the BOGOF offers but you do have to be careful as they often put the prices up in the weeks leading up to the offer, I would love (in an ideal world) to buy more local food but unfortunately prices does influence my decision to do so, local shops in my area cannot compete with the prices on offer at Lild/ Aldi for essentials like fruit and vegetables. I do buy my meat from the local butchers as the quality is far superior.
That's the other side of the nasty supermarkets though, isn't it Nigel? They've forced most of the butchers and fishmongers and milkmen out of business. I'm quite lucky, living in cosmopolitan North London, that we have a nice fishmonger, and a recently opened butchers, but they disappeared from most high-streets many years ago.
Also the "all season round" fruit and veg is vastly inferior to the stuff we used to get from the market. I'm sure Phoenix's French buddies wouldn't put up with our tasteless produce.
I so wish we had a fishmonger close by, but unless I travel to one of the major cities near me then it has to be Sainsbury's fresh fish, and as I love fish it is something I have quite often.
Supermarkets do sell organic meat and I did try it when I first changed my diet to what it is now (I hate to say which diet I follow as it seems to have people jump on me from a great height, even though I don't advocate it, I just follow it). I found that the supermarkets organic meat which is grass fed, was superior to their standard fare, but when I tasted organic meat from the butcher, then you realise the real difference.
Stephen, you have raised a point here, I have mentioned before, by being able to have the food you want all year around, is nice, but it's pretty tasteless. I didn't know this until I began to get seasonal veg from the farm or greengrocer. Of course that means I can't have all foods all year, but it does mean I have tasteful food all year round. I know what I prefer.
Nigel, you also raise a very good point - cost! Unfortunately local organic produce is more expensive than regular supermarket food, and there is no way to say it any other way. I could support my milkman, but the milk and dairy produce he supplies is local, but it isn't organic. I don't ever drink milk, the rest of my family do, but I do eat other dairy. I get organic dairy from the farm. One liter of organic milk from the farm costs 99p, as has been said before, large cartons can be purchased for that amount of money, and with budgets and as Nigel says a family to feed we can't always have what we would prefer to eat.
Supermarkets are well aware of this, and so drive down prices, great for the family, of course it is, not so good for the farmer. It's a very difficult situation. I do buy organic milk for my family, Sainsbury's do sell it, cheaper than the farm where I buy mine. Again, driving down the price for organic producers as well. I can't blame families for their concern in feeding their family as top priority, just as I can't forgive the supermarkets for forcing the price on fresh produce down so low, farmers are living on the breadline, or going bust. This is part of why I actually buy very little from the supermarket, I buy personal care items, shampoo, shower gel etc from specialist 'beauty stores' and as Paul mentioned certain things come from the internet, and I buy almost all of my whole foods from Holland and Barrett and the like. So in effect, Sainsbury's gets quite a small amount of money from me, and really only things that I find hard to find anywhere else in my small town.
Local stores were mentioned. I live in a very small rural village, and we have a couple of stores in the village. Only one sells fresh produce, and unfortunately I think the store owners must buy things that are likely to be soon of date, so is very poor quality. I find supporting my local stores very, very difficult now, as I eat absolutely no processed foods what-so-ever and that is really all these small stores sell.