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When we buy local, we are investing in the future of the British high street

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Details: Written April 2006, by Rachel Cummins...

Remember when people used to go to lots of different shops when they stocked up on groceries for the week? It was no a big deal then, but do you know that buying a piece of local beef from your butcher is now considered a political act? Rachel Cummins explains why choosing to buy local food is the informed consumer’s preferred way to do the shopping.

I am certainly no expert when it comes to local food; just a well-behaved little consumer who likes to think she makes informed decisions every once in a while. For me, buying local food (not exclusively I hasten to add) was originally about supporting my local businesses (I am fortunate enough to include award-winning cheesemongers, butchers and fishmongers in that happy group). The ethical implications behind the idea of local food are quite complex, intertwined intrinsically with economics and politics. But there is more to buying local food than simply knowing your butcher’s name. When I buy local food…

· I am supporting local businesses, protecting them somewhat from the strangulation of stiff supermarket competition.
· I am helping the environment, as the food has not travelled hundreds of miles to get to me.
· The food is fresher as a result of less time travelling.
· I am more likely to eat seasonally.
· I know more about what I am eating (particularly important in the case of meat).

Buying local food is one of the ‘hottest’ food topics around, and one that is increasingly, and rightly so, entering the consciousness of everyday consumers.

I refer to a quote printed last year in a BBC article in which Professor Jules Petty, from the University of Essex, remarks how consumers can make a difference:

“The most political act we do on a daily basis is to eat, as our actions affect farms, landscapes and food businesses… Food miles are more significant than we previously thought, and much now needs to be done to encourage local production and consumption of food."

That was a year ago, and now it seems the local food debate is fast turning into one about food miles. ‘Food miles’ describe the amount of miles a food travels from its origins to our dinner table. A long time ago, before the age of the supermarket, food was produced and distributed locally, but today food is sent back and forth, being picked in one place and packaged in another, a couple of hundred miles down the motorway or worse, only to be delivered to the original place to be distributed. Situations like this example result in an accruement of unnecessary food miles that are damaging our environment, causing congestion, and generally making the world a less happy place as supermarkets take advantage of the cheapest rates for services such packaging, processing, slaughter and distribution across UK and the world.

Of course, supermarkets want to be as competitive as possible, and market forces dictate their decisions when it comes to getting the food from the field to the table. That is to say, they will always choose cheap labour costs in packaging their carrots if it means they make more profit – even if it does mean 300 miles difference.

Eating seasonally is inseparable to the subject of local food: eat seasonal food grown fairly locally and cut out a lot of food miles - simple. Seasonal food is being actively encouraged now, but it is hard to fathom when it was exactly that we got so used to having all foods all year round. Of course this is at a huge environmental cost, and one we are all just beginning to consider. Supermarkets, again, are the most at fault when it comes to normalising the consumption of non-seasonal food (surely the worst of all food mileage culprits!).

A huge amount of responsibility must be also placed on the supermarkets for the decline of the local businesses on the British high street – and upon us for being so heavily reliant upon them. Of course, we all lead busy and increasingly stressful lives and supermarkets cater for our desire for convenience. Almost everyone, us included, uses supermarkets, and we are certainly not saying that there is something inherently wrong with using them. But, supermarkets do take us further and further away from an understanding of the seasonality and origins of our food, affecting the environment adversely and killing off plenty of small businesses in one fell swoop. Then there is the gradual monopolisation of the high street – not just food but other things too. Do we want one shop for everything? They already offer financial services, what next? Not a very healthy forecast for the consumer if you take this hypothesis to its natural conclusion, I’m sure you’ll agree.

So, aside from environmental and ethical issues, why should we shop at our local butcher’s, baker’s, fishmonger’s or greengrocer’s shop? Well, if nothing else, the quality is almost always better, you know about the origins of your food (just ask!) and you can have good old chat whilst your there. If you actually have a relationship with your local shopkeepers you will really reap the benefits, safe in the knowledge that you are doing the right thing all round. Sod the organic apples anyway, what could taste sweeter than the smugness of knowing you are now officially an informed consumer?


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