On ‘cheap’ supermarket veg

This week, in a local WhatsApp group an image was shared. “Cheap Christmas Veg’ was listed by supermarket and by the dates it was available. Some proudly touting British, some unmarked. A kilo of carrots for as low as 8p (and as high as 15p!), 500g sprouts oscillating between 8-15p – you get the jist. The consensus from the group was good; sharing it with other groups for those that need it, those that will struggle this year to put fresh food on their festive table.

I then saw a post from an organic grower I follow on socials – ‘Should Christmas veg be this cheap?’ And the comments below vehemently suggested not. ‘Devaluing farmers’, ‘absolutely shocking’, ‘will cause huge food waste because people will buy too much’. To be honest, it got me thinking. Usually I would fall into the latter camp; but this year I’ve worked closer with different groups on the true meaning of what ‘good’ food is – and I don’t believe it’s as simple as cheap or expensive veg – though the Christmas headlines would make us think as much.

To grow a bunch of carrots, from seed to harvest you’re looking at 10-16 weeks of work. If you’re a farmer seeing your carrots being sold for 8p a kilo, vs. the usual 69p per kilo in one of the big four supermarkets (industrially produced, not organic), I’m sure this must feel hugely devaluing; that’s an 88% reduction on the shelves. And this really is the crux of it – yes, discounts can be hugely helpful for those on low budgets, but by the supermarkets buying this veg at their standard price per kilo from farmers and slashing the prices so dramatically for headlines the real loser is our farmers and our food system. If we can walk into a supermarket and buy all our Christmas veg for less than a pound, but a box of Christmas chocolates still costs a fiver, we have a distorted view of the cost of real food and what it takes to put it on the table. If we keep devaluing the work that our growers do, there comes a point (as we’ve seen over the past few years) where many decide it’s just not worth it and can’t afford to keep going (some huge losses to UK growing have been new potato growers and glasshouse growers producing cucumbers and UK grown tomatoes for instance). Now I do believe food should be accessible to all of course, and prices should reflect that, but arguably fruit and vegetables (conventionally grown) are affordable; with a little knowledge a kilo bag of carrots can make 12 serves of soup – less than 0.6p worth of carrots in each portion.

Slashing pricing on Christmas veg might grab headlines, but it sends a signal to us, as the customer that vegetables aren’t valuable. And surely something that takes 3 months to grow, the right weather conditions and a knowing eye of a grower should be treated as incredibly valuable – to our health, our plate and our festivities.