Food for thought on our modern shopping habits
The convenience of getting everything from under one roof had turned us into a nation of lazy shoppers. We had ‘sacked off ’ butchers, bakers and greengrocers in favour of the one big trolley shop.
THERE ARE many weeks and months of hardship and grief before coronavirus is, to quote our Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “sent packing”.
It sounds glib to preach about any positives that may emerge out of the current crisis. However, a kick-up-thebackside to the population’s reliance on supermarkets is something worth reflecting on in a week that saw this year’s Great Yorkshire Show cancelled.
The convenience of getting everything from under one roof had turned us into a nation of lazy shoppers. To use a modern phrase, we had sacked off butchers, bakers and greengrocers in favour of the one big trolley shop. Likewise chemists, pet shops, dry cleaners, banks – we had been lured off the High Street and into these beacons of conspicuous consumerism.
Many readers will, like me, remember their grandmothers going to the market for most of their shopping. Now we have pensioners having to face being knocked over in the madness of the supermarket. No friendly banter, no “how are you this week love?”
Another point of interest is the public’s previous lack of awareness about where their food comes from. Finally, the British farmer and grower will be appreciated. What joy to see yummy mummies discover the humble spud now the shelves are sold out of pasta.
The potato harvest just gone was one of the hardest in recent memory, with the wet weather making it almost impossible to lift them from the ground. Machinery got stuck, some fields were abandoned and the crop left to rot in the ground.
Growers struggled on, worrying about paying staff and balancing the books. Did any of us care at the time? No, because we have, as a nation, become so distanced from the seasons. When this writer was a girl, the October half-term was known as tatty-picking holiday. It’s interesting, or maybe rather frightening, to wonder how many people could answer correctly if they were asked when potatoes and other crops are harvested?
There’s a wonderful shop in our neighbouring village and it’s never been without bread, meat, eggs, veg, milk, baked beans or toilet roll for that matter.
The reason is the fact it’s supplied by a small network of independent local businesses. Just the other day the owner was organising a complimentary delivery service for elderly customers. Have the supermarkets, however many thousands you put through the tills every year, ever looked out for you like this?
One of the reasons this correspondent likes this particular village shop is that it has no pretensions. There is a certain pretentious artisan food movement that has been at risk of alienating the larger working population from locally produced food. There is a farm shop nearby where the sausages work out about £1 each which is ridiculous and bears no relation to the price farmers are actually getting for pork.
Good basic UK-produced food should be within the budgets of every household. It is a basic human right and so important, going forward, that there isn’t a chorizo-and-stuffed-olive size barrier between families and decent local food. The post-pandemic future must put more value – not monetary – on British food.
The agricultural industry needs more people pointing out the obvious. As the year goes on, the drum needs banging about lettuces that are from Lincolnshire and strawberries from Suffolk. Apples from the orchards of Kent rather than Italy or Spain. Lamb from the fields of Yorkshire rather than flown over from the other side of the world in New Zealand.
Producers have for years been telling shoppers to look for the little red tractor logo (British produce) and hopefully now, with a strong and consistent message from those who represent farmers and growers, they will finally listen.
Another image of my late grandmother has just popped into mind; the way she used to flit between places. My farmer grandfather would go to the livestock market in York on a Thursday and drop her in town to get the shopping. She would bob about so many different places, the market for fish and fruit and vegetables, the butcher for meat, the bakers for bread and so-on. She wouldn’t have expected to get everything in one fell swoop like our generation. She would also find time to meet her sister for a cup of tea in a café. If we do anything, let’s go back to shopping like this.
Pubs and others offering take-away menus is an excellent idea. A nearby country house hotel is running a little shop on a few mornings a week, selling essentials like bread, toilet roll, milk, eggs and potatoes at cost price. Here’s hoping such community spirit lasts long after this virus is beaten.
Finally, mention must go to the milkman. No need for fighting it out in the dairy produce aisle of the supermarket when this early incarnation of delivery service drops the white stuff off on the doorstep. Ours also leaves a copy of