Supermarkets, Prince Charles and Food Miles

It seems Prince Charles’s carrots aren’t pretty enough for the supermarket. British supermarket chain Sainsbury have stopped stocking organic produce from his farm. Another producer to fall victim to the supermarket chains cull is Patrick Holden, the head of the soil association. Read more here. It seems that the major problem with the produce was one caused by food miles.

I think it is fantastic that organic produce is readily available in our supermarkets and on an island the size of Ireland any food grown here can be considered local, this means that food miles within our country are kept to a minimum. And let's not forget that Ireland had a tradition of buying locally even before it became trendy.

Unfortunately this isn't the case in the UK. A couple of years ago I visited an organic farm shop near Perth in Scotland. As I arrived the farmer (and shopkeeper) was coming in from the fields with a basket of freshly picked parsnips. I was delighted to be able to buy such fresh organic produce. We talked a bit about our joint love of everything organic. I was in the midst of setting up my hamper company at the time and soon our conversation turned to my frustration at not being able to source Irish organic gourmet foods. I told her that I felt that stocking local products would be very important to my customers. The farmer was envious of the Irish loyalty to local produce. She hoped that people in Scotland would soon become more aware that buying local and organic was important not only for environmental and health reasons, but also for the economy. Two years on I hope her dream is coming true. Food miles seem to be talked about everywhere now. They were even the topic for a row between Ken and Deirdrie on Coronation Street recently. Thanks to television programmes like 'River Cottage' and 'The F Word' the popularity of local food seems to be growing.

So what was the problem with Charlies local carrots? Well apparently he shared the same issues as Patrick Holdon who explained his story on BBC Radio Five Live. Apparently Mr. Holdon's carrots were being sent by truck from his farm in Wales to a packing plant in Peterborough. Once wrapped, they were then delivered back to eight Sainsbury's stores local to his farm via a depot in Bristol. All the handling, washing, polishing and packing meant that the produce was arriving at the store battered and, according to Sainsbury's, sub standard.

I am sure this rejection by a major supermarket is a blow to the farms in question, but think about which carrot you would prefer to eat. One that since it had been picked had travelled the length and breadth of the country over a period of a few days, or one that has been plucked from the ground by a local organic farmer in the last 24 hours?