While ours looks tired before it even hits the shelf? My youngest son was in Paris this weekend and sent me a photo from the small store near their Airbnb. The produce looked fresh, colourful, vibrant — the sort of food that actually seems like it might nourish you. It’s a stark contrast to what we’re offered in most UK supermarkets. A big part of the problem is how heavily dominated our food retail is by just a handful of big players. When only a few companies control so much of the market, they set the rules. The supposed “free market” stops looking very free at all. Their priorities tend to be: Everything looks identical Everything stays cheap Everything lasts forever And the result? Food that fills us, but doesn’t feed us. Yes, the British climate is a challenge. We can’t grow everything locally. But we are also far too quick to outsource overseas the things we could do better ourselves. If we invested properly in large-scale glasshouses, we could cut down transit times for fragile produce and actually deliver: Better nutritional value Greater food security More interesting, skilled jobs We could raise the bar instead of lowering our expectations. And honestly, only the US might have it worse than we do – and they can’t even blame the weather...
My youngest son was in Paris this weekend and sent me a photo from the small store near their Airbnb.
The produce looked fresh, colourful, vibrant — the sort of food that actually seems like it might nourish you.
It’s a stark contrast to what we’re offered in most UK supermarkets.
A big part of the problem is how heavily dominated our food retail is by just a handful of big players. When only a few companies control so much of the market, they set the rules. The supposed “free market” stops looking very free at all.
Their priorities tend to be:
Everything looks identical
Everything stays cheap
Everything lasts forever
And the result?
Food that fills us, but doesn’t feed us.
Yes, the British climate is a challenge. We can’t grow everything locally. But we are also far too quick to outsource overseas the things we could do better ourselves.
If we invested properly in large-scale glasshouses, we could cut down transit times for fragile produce and actually deliver:
Better nutritional value
Greater food security
More interesting, skilled jobs
We could raise the bar instead of lowering our expectations.
And honestly, only the US might have it worse than we do – and they can’t even blame the weather...