Some people are of the opinion that we have little control over how our food is produced, what a load of tosh?

Question

we are the final part of a long chain, and if we dont like the way a food is produced we shouldnt buy it. then they will have to change the way its produced. the press keep telling us to eat more fruit, but if you buy an apple from a suppermarket you have to peel it to get rid of all the c**p that they made the farmers spray it with to give it a longer shelf life in there shop.the skin is were most of the goodness is, so its not worth having.everything is the same, suppermarkets dictate what we eat. but we still have a choise, we are the end user and can buy from other sources. like local farms and farmers markets. i would rather pay a bit extra and get quality than bow to the suppermarket money machine..i grow all my own veg and if i had enough land would keep my own livestock..ps sorry for winging on but i feel its important..

Answer 1

well if ur lucky enuff you live in a place where they still have markets with fresh fish veg fruit ect :D

but if you dnt

or you dnt have a budget then you dnt realy have a chance and have 2 buy supermarket p**s

Answer 2

prove to me that organic is better, and the bit about the apple having to be peeled to get rid of the all the c**p, is a fool's errand, just don't buy the apple because if the "c**p" is in the skin it's in the apple!  In reality organic is more costly and acid rain still waters the "organic" plants just like every other plant.

Answer 3

well, if you have the budget and time to go around all those farms you're talking about ... not many people can afford such luxury

telling you the truth i dont care about the way chicken or cows live, i care about famine, war, torture, murder, rape, politics, dont really have time for that bollocks of protecting cows and chickens from being farmed

I dont even buy organic fruit and veg as its very expensive, and i cant really tell the difference [some people can, i cant]

Answer 4

Some of us are forced to buy food from a supermarket because there isn't an alternative available locally so think yourself lucky & get real!

Answer 5

You are lucky that you have the time and space to grow your own veg.  I live in a rural place and there is rarely a farmers market or any farm shops.  I can only buy my veg from the supermarket and sometime the market but this is imported too.  We do have little control over how our food is produced.  You are in the minority.  Also expense comes into the arguement here.  I can afford to buy better quality food, free range etc but a lot of my friends can't.  The supermarkets are the lords of control and unless everyone stops the demand things won't change.  The chicken market has changed since all the publicity of Jamie Oliver and gang.

Answer 6

I completely agree with you, and it IS important.  By the way, my tiny little town of 10,000 people has a farmers market every Saterday morning, and Thursday evenings.

I think most people would be really suprised to find out just how many farmers markets there are all over the U.S.A.  Call your local Chmber Of Commerce, or your Mayors Office.  Ask where and the times of your local farmers market are.  If they state their isn't one, ask why not!  If their is enough demand, there will be one!

New farmers markets in small towns are slow to start.  How can you help?  Show up every weekend, and buy!  The more people that consistantly show up, and buy, the more effort people will put into producing and showing up to sell at the farmers markets.  Last year we only had three people selling every weekend at our farmers market, plus one that showed up sometimes.  This year we will have nine (so far).

This probably means you will have to get out of be early on Saterday morning, but the difference in the quality of the food will be wonderful.  

People are completely correct....there is not taste difference between the organic food mass produced for grocery store chains, and the stuff grown with all the chemicals.  

However at a farmers market, if you find someone growing heriloom tomatoes with no chemicals, you are not going to believe the taste difference!  (Unless you are a smoker....then you cannot taste anything anyway)  

Small farmers often produce things you will never, ever see in a grocery store.  A lot of the things we grow do not trasport well.  The skins of the tomatoes are too thin, the apples have too short a shelf life, the peppers are too rare, ect.  Yet the flavors, varrieties, colors, smells....all so wonderful!

I'm growing Dragon's Blood carrots this year.  The outside of the carrots is nearly purple.  They have a sweet, spicey flavor.  So different from those orange cardboard things people buy in the grocery store!  (And that's just one of the veggies)

I grew up in Washington state, where many of the apples eaten in the U.S. are produced.  I dated a guy who's Dad owned an apple orchard.  I was completely floored when I found out all the chemicals they spray on apples for just one harvest season.  Insceticides, fungicides, and chemicals so the apples will all stay on the trees, instead of falling off as nature wants them to do.  Some of these chemicals are sprayed mutiple times before harvest.  Then of course the apples are all given the wax coating with insecticides and fungicides in it so they will store long term.  Mmmmm...just what I want to eat!

Most people are simply too lazy to buy directly from a farmer.  To buy meat would require buying one quarter to an entire beef cow, or half to a whole pig.  They don't want the hassel of having to have a freezer, and be mature enough to rotate meat through their feezer to make sure they were using the oldest up first.  So instead of buying a healthy, hormone, steroid, anitiobtic free beefer at 200-800 pounds at a whack, they would rather run to the grocery store, and buy the unhealthy beef filled with hormones, steroids, antibiotics simply because it's more convient for them.  Heck, they don't even have to defrost it!  (I took the two sirlion steaks we are having for dinner out of the freezer last night).

I think it's "funny" that people state how much more expensive it is to buy from a small farmer.  No, actually it's cheaper.  You are paying the REAL cost of what is cost to produce that healthy food.  There are no "hidden" costs you are actually paying for via your taxes.

How many BILLIONS (with a "B") of dollars do you supose the Governement pays in subsidies to put that corn, soy, milk on your plate?  How about how much they are spending to clean up mono crop, and factory farming pollution?  You're paying a LOT more for those cheap products at the grocery store than you know.

I challenge each and every one of you to read, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," by Michael Pollan.  It will really open your eyes to how food is produced here in America.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

P.S.  To BlueBerry, if you don't think pollitics, and agriculture are not very closely tied together, you are quiet mistaken.  What's going on with the Nations food supply is frankely quiet scarey.

Answer 7

Hi,your not whinging your telling the truth.I try to buy has much as i can from local shops.i would love to grow my own veg

have the back garden only have no idea where to start.I have what use to be a farm just up the road they are too old to

manage the land.They sell eggs chickens roam free & our farmers market most of the stuff they sell has been made by some one else so do not trust them.