In theory rules are put in place to to be useful to some party involved, whether this is to maintain order, morality, standards etc. If these rules are only useful to a tiny minority whilst the greater majority suffer from it then generally speaking the rule is a bad one. These rules should reflect what is reasonable. When a rule is deemed reasonable then the greater majority should in theory be happy to comply with it without too much complaint. Nod if you agree.
Why is it then that a huge percentage of the food that our farmers grow gets thrown away before it gets to our supermarkets? Let me clarify this. The food that is dumped is perfectly good to eat, the problem is that rules have been put in place either by the EU or by the supermarkets themselves on the size and shape of the items themselves. For example if a delicious apple is deemed slightly too big, even though it is still delicious and in perfect condtion it cannot get on the lorry and so will not be offered for sale making it a redundandant apple. Hands up anyone who, given a choice of eating a larger delicious apple and a smaller delicious apple would go for the former (assuming that no-one is watching as I don't want politeness to be a factor on this). So I am not the only one then. You can put your hands down now.
Obviously the production cost of the good food that gets thrown away unecessarily gets added to the cost that we pay for the standard size food that appears on the supermarket shelves. Imagine what would happen to the prices if supermarkets also sold the rejected good food at a reduced price as a choice for the customer. All the prices will be lowered because less wastage cost will need to be offset. Why not give customers the choice? If a standard large potato sells for 30p but on another shelf there are similarly tasty potatoes of the same variety from the same farm selling for 10p only because they are sub-standard because they are shaped like a bottom, why not give us the choice?
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| Bottom shelf potato |
Now I am not one of those politically correct activist type do-gooders but I do get a bit annoyed when organisations throw money away unecessarily, which is why I like my day job so much because I get the opportunity to fix things. The issue with this dilemma is that there are many, many organisations involved that appear to have all just given up and have accepted things as the way things are. It doesn't have to be this way.
So what can we do?
As voters we could influence the EU, this is unfortunately a little slow.
As customers we do have the power to influence the supermarkets which can be a little quicker. By asking for changes and having a choice of both standard and cheaper non standard items all costs will be lowered, the farmer's, the supermarket's and the customer's.
If the supermarkets don't want to do it then if you are a farmer that is tired of having to throw away good stock and production time whether it is because it is the wrong size, shape or variety for this season, then get in touch. I am sure if we can get enough suppliers interested we can set up a consortia run Odd Shape Food Company Shops in every town to sell this good quality food at the right price that customers will want. It will not involve very much investment from those taking part either, especially as you the farmer will be offsetting this against the cost of production that would have been lost. It doesn't have to be limited to fruit and veg either, what happens to the cuts of beef that aren't sirloin or rump? Bring it on.
