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Ierne said:
\"And – at least here in NYC – they\'re all bloody expensive\", in reference to organic/ethical foodstuffs.
Which chimes in with something I\'ve been thinking about alot recently.
How does the economics of feeding ourselves work?
Is there an assumption that organic food is a middle-class, middle-income concern... UK supermarkets at least are all patting themselves on the back alot for providing organic foods, but it\'s definitely a luxury to do your entire foodshop organically (and to add in fair trade products makes a bogstandard food shop astronomically expensive), so is it a token effort for a middle class consumer, which has no real impact on shopping habits at large?
The supermarkets don't seem to expect people on low incomes to these concerns. Have the feeling that organics are being marketed in a very 'rocket and sundried tomatoes salad, darling' way... (speaking as an utter victim of all this kind of thing.)
The whole tv chef/sundried tomato culture? Is it at last an attempt at some decent quality food in the UK (compared to a lot of contintental Europe, quality and price of food is appalling) or another way to pile the pennies on the prices?
Are cheap 'value' products packaged in order to make it embarrassing for people who aren't 'wacky students' to buy them?
How about the notion that people on lower incomes, and with less space in modern houses, are less able to do the cheapest forms of shopping possible, ie to bulk buy and store? And that with the trend away from local shopping parades and towards out of town supermarkets, people who don\'t live in urban/city centre areas (generally expensive) or don\'t have cars are unable to do larger scale ecnomical shopping and instead either have to manage kids and several bags of shopping on long bus journeys, take a taxi or buy food more reguarly? |
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