Food miles

jos28

I was shopping in Superquinn and went to buy onions. I could not find Irish onions.The onions on display were from South Africa,New Zealand and France. So I decided to buy the organic ones presuming they would be home grown. The organic ones were from Argentina ! I know I should buy my veg locally, I usually buy from our local market and I presume the produce is Irish. I can understand the supermarkets importing more unusual produce, but onions..come on.

The Hill Billy

This seriously pìsses me off too. I live within an asses roar of farms that produce the most amazing peppers, scallions, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc & do you think that I can buy any of them in the local supermarkets? No.

And can someone please tell me why we are importing spuds (FFS!) from Cyprus, tomatoes, peppers - you name it & all of it fuçking tastless - from Spain, Holland, Israel, etc when the same veg (of better quality) are being grown here at home in abundance?




Roll on harvest time in my little veggie patch!

Mr Magnolia

Hill Billy wrote:

can someone please tell me why we are importing spuds (FFS!) from Cyprus, tomatoes, peppers - you name it & all of it fuçking tastless - from Spain, Holland, Israel, etc when the same veg (of better quality) are being grown here at home in abundance?

1. Price
2. Price
3. Price

The quality of our veg, in a large part is due to the great soil we have here IMO. I always buy my fruit and veg from a veg shop that source a lot of local produce.

bonkey

Its more about profit than price, although they're almost the same thing.

The supermarket will sell whatever is most profitable.

If the customer-base demands higher quality, then higher quality becomes more profitable, as you lose trade to someone who's offering it.

If the customer-base demands nicer appearance, then that becomes more profitable.

If they demand "all-year-round" availability, rather than seasonal, then that becomes more profitable.

In general, the customer demands something that looks top-dollar and is available all year round. They will buy it wherever it is cheapest.

Taste often is less important than appearance.
Cost and availability is less important then source.

End result...over the years, there has been a slow decline towards force-grown, tasteless products which have God-knows how many chemicals (although most wash off or are peeled away), and come from wherever can most cheaply produce it at this time of year.

Now...here's the kicker...

If you suggest to a lot of people that what they should do is what Mr.Magnolia here is saying - go to a local fruit-and-veg, or a market (if you're lucky enough to be near a place with one), buy seasonally and locally as much as possible - often times you'll get one of the following excuses :

- Not convenient
- More expensive
- I don't want my choice limited to seasonality
- the stuff looks second-rate

Or...put a different way, "my priorities are convenience / price / appearance / all-year-round availability".

No surprise that supermarkets do what they do.

The Hill Billy

My rant was rhetorical, but thanks for the replies nonetheless.

jos28

Hill Billy wrote:

This seriously pìsses me off too. I live within an asses roar of farms that produce the most amazing peppers, scallions, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc & do you think that I can buy any of them in the local supermarkets? No.

And can someone please tell me why we are importing spuds (FFS!) from Cyprus, tomatoes, peppers - you name it & all of it fuçking tastless - from Spain, Holland, Israel, etc when the same veg (of better quality) are being grown here at home in abundance?




Roll on harvest time in my little veggie patch!

Couldn't agree more. And don't get me started about strawberries....
I, for one have decided to leave this imported stuff on the shelves unless it is something that cannot be grown here.

Mr Magnolia

Hill Billy wrote:

My rant was rhetorical, but thanks for the replies nonetheless.

I was wondering alright, should have known better