A penny cabbage - it's a growing scandal!
I've just bought an 89p cabbage in my local supermarket. It's green, it's fresh and it is unblemished. Actually this is a lie! I would rather poke my eyes out with a sharpened stick of celery than buy a cabbage in any supermarket. Why, because I have a good idea how much the farmer who grew that cabbage got paid for it...just 1p! No I haven't missed off a digit, farmers producing cabbages by the millions for our supermarkets are likely to be paid just 1 penny per cabbage and when their contract comes to an end and it is renegotiated, it is more than likely they will be told the new price is half a penny per cabbage.
This is what happened to Ruth and Richard Kelsey who grew 5 million cabbages a year for 2 of our leading supermarkets. When their contract came to an end there was an auction and the result was the price dropped, the contract went to a Lincolnshire farmer, already growing 20 million cabbages, and Ruth and Richard lost £250,000 of business, literally overnight.
This is the real face of our demand as consumers for cheaper and cheaper food, food without blemishes, sprayed with chemicals to make it look perfect, food that creates a climate of fear amongst producers, bullying by buyers and large profits for the supermarkets.
Not surprising then that Ruth and Richard have left this world behind. Tucked in a Devon valley, Hallwood Veg Farm has 200 customers instead of 2, they grow 35 different types of vegetables rather than 3 and they spray only if they are about to lose a whole crop. They farm to organic principles and with a passion that a supermarket cabbage just doesn't generate.
They left Kent 13 years ago and from their farm at Petrockstowe now run a successful box scheme supplying private customers, chefs and businesses. Place an order with Richard at 11am and you can be sure Sally will be picking by 11.30am; it will go into the cold store and be on its' way to you by 8.30am the next morning. Your delivery driver might even be the professor who works for them part-time.
Spend £1 with the supermarket and it leaves in the first Brinksmat collection. Spend £1 locally and experts estimate that three quarters of it will stay in the local economy, spent in the local pub, the corner shop, with the garage and the agricultural supplier. Visit RHS Rosemoor and their cafe will proudly boast that they are using Hallwood beetroot or Hallwood kale. Local stays local, a great food miles advantage too.
So are we going to wake up anytime soon to the benefits of local food? TV chefs extolling the virtues of local produce have never been more popular, we are avidly glued, but maybe we are somehow getting our fix by watching rather than doing.
So the next time you put a supermarket cabbage into your trolley just remind yourself that somewhere, someone is being paid just 1p to grow that for you. A penny cabbage - someone is taking the piss!
