Yateley, October 13 (One World) The Great British class divide is becoming all the more transparent as food and fuel prices rise.
The poor continue to support the relatively new Continental food warehouses Aldi and Lidl. Their shelves are stacked with unfamiliar brands from mainland Europe.The question of provenance and animal welfare is quickly forgotten in favour of tinned food costing a fraction of that sold in British supermarkets. Few can afford to worry about the emotional cost of a sow's sanity when Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Freedom Foods are almost twice the financial price.
The working and the lower middle classes are perpetually stocking up for a rainy day from the cheap and cheerful Asda, Morrisons and Tescos. Some shoppers' trolleys are stacked so high you could be forgiven for thinking shops were shutting for two weeks instead of overnight.
People are clearly buying whilst they can still afford to do so, which is a pity in some respects because many are in dire need of the diet that forced economising provides. It has occurred to me that increasing food and fuel prices are excellent ways to reduce the number of citizens suffering obesity and associated illnesses. One can't help but wonder if this is a deliberate government ploy to relieve our ailing National Health Service!
Meanwhile the middle and upper middleclass are discreetly reducing the number of out-of-season strawberries and asparagus they purchase at Waitrose or Sainsburys and organising a few less dinner parties.They still have their quarterly ready-for-the-freezer meat deliveries from local farmers, although they are talking of reducing orders to half a side of lamb. In these stores you see less obesity as people are slightly more discerning, choosing flavour over fat, variety over volume and fish instead of flesh.
The affluent upper classes are steadfastly supporting the most expensive supermarket - Marks & Spencers (M&S). This store indulges the idle and incompetent to the point of adding grated cheese to partially cooked baked potatoes, pre-chopping vegetables and pre-washing salad leaves. Customers are already greedily eying up the Christmas Hamper brochures and contemplating what size of fresh turkey to order. The concept of frugality is yet to dawn on them.When it does you can be sure they'll use the internet to shop rather than walk around one of those other ghastly supermarkets!
I've been taking a particular interest in local shopping habits recently as I was contemplating opening a local produce shop or organising a farmers' market.The best markets are Certified British Farmers' Markets, which are for local traders only. Local is defined as traders who grow, raise, bake or produce their wares within a 30 - 100 mile radius of the market. Bearing in mind our island is barely 900 miles long the maximum qualifying distance doesn't reflect well on the health of our national agricultural industry.
Last month's Guildford Farmers' Market in Surrey was well attended but it was apparent that the more expensive organic meats were being purchased as occasional treats rather than staple meals. The farmers offering home-raised but non-organic meat were selling more, especially as they were offering cheaper cuts and a wider range of offal than the typical high street butcher provides.
My observations were confirmed in BBC Countryfile Magazine (September 2008) where the readers' panel were asked how the credit crunch is affecting their shopping habits. Panellist Sarah Tarmaster said 'Meat is used as more of a garnish than an integral part of the meal. We have been discovering cheaper cuts of meat as well as more economical types of fish and veggie food''.
I noticed one disconsolate looking trader at the farmers' market in Wokingham, Berkshire. He was trying to sell local game such as pheasant, rabbit and muntjack steaks. Times may be hard but the townsfolk are clearly not ready to eat quite so closely off the land, as our grandparents had done. I remember my late grandmother talking of neighbours who ate squirrel pie, roast hedgehog and badger stew during the 1930's recession and of her own family eating poached pheasant and rabbit. Poached being the means of acquisition as opposed to a cooking method!
Whilst poor man's meat is yet to gain popularity the appeal of growing your own vegetables is enjoying a huge revival. Sandhurst in Berkshire has a three year waiting list for allotments located unappealingly between the sewage river and the railway. My home town council in Yateley, Hampshire are negotiating with a neighbouring council to acquire land for over forty people who'd like to grow their own food. Whether the people who need the land the most will be able to afford to drive out of town is questionable.
Whilst it's encouraging to see the renewed enthusiasm for traditional food production it is a worry that housing and town planners continually neglect to give homeowners the space to be even partially self-sufficient. According to Home Farmers magazine (August 2008) the Town & Country Planning Act makes the provision of allotment sites a condition of some planning applications. However, I cannot find any local examples of this being implemented despite many thousands of new homes having gardens barely big enough to spread a picnic rug in, much less sustain a family all year. It is little wonder we have become a nation of obese shopaholics.
//ENDS//
LINKS
www.homefarmer.co.uk
www.bbc countryfile.com
www.rspca.org.uk
www.farmersmarket.net .uk
http://www.nsalg.org.uk/
http://www.gethampshire.c o.uk/news/s/2034068_fresh_hope_for_allotment_campaig ners