Shop Locally and Save Money
Is there anybody who isn't feeling the pinch these days? With food prices soaring, members of the local Friends of the Earth group recently conducted a price comparison on fresh food and vegetables between Asda on the one hand and Stokes greengrocers and Steve and June Phillips of Pandy, who sell on Abergavenny market, (01873 890301) on the other. On many items the local suppliers come out cheaper! Even some of the few organic items that were to be found in Asda were more expensive than the organic produce grown and sold by Beacons Organic Veggie boxes of Brecon (01874 636785) or Ty Mawr organic veg. who sells on the Farmers' Market. (01873 840247)
Price Comparison Tables: Vegetables Fruit Salad
Not only is locally-sourced fresh food often cheaper than the supermarkets, but it is invariably fresher than supermarket offerings. Here's a quote from Robert Elliot's The Food Maze (2008), where he says that much of the fresh food sold by supermarkets is "grown in monoculture fields in many other countries then air-freighted in, transported to distribution centres and then on to the outlets across the country, where it arrives cleaned up, chilled and lifeless." Even when supermarkets claim their food is local, this often hides the fact that it is sent from the local area for processing. For example, I know of a field of swedes grown near Abergavenny for Asda. These are then sent for processing to Exeter and maybe back to the Brynmawr Asda. Are these the same swedes that left Abergavenny - how can we tell? Even if they are the same, there is still the question of food miles and whether food described by supermarkets as local can ever live up to this claim.
By contrast, many of the fruits and vegetables sold by Mr. Philips are home grown or grown locally. He had six varieties of apples all grown at Llanfihangel Crucorney fruit farm when FoE checked, whereas all the apples sold in Asda at the same time were from the southern hemisphere. It is the same at the Farmers' Market where all the produce is either home grown or home produced on small farms without the spraying required by the supermarkets' monoculture methods. The fruit and vegetables sold in the Tues / Fri / Sat weekly markets in Abergavenny, the bi-monthly Farmers' Market in the market hall, and Stokes the greengrocers always look fresher and tastier than the often shrivelled, plastic wrapped food we can buy in the supermarkets. The supermarkets' operational methods simply don't allow them to treat fresh produce with the sensitivity it deserves and get it to the customer fast enough.
Supermarket shopping is often seen as 'convenient', but it is not generally appreciated that convenience costs us money directly, plus the indirect costs associated with socio-economic and environmental issues which are often hidden. Shopping locally can save pounds, especially at Christmas. As well as saving money, shopping locally for food reduces our carbon footprint, helps to keep the local economy thriving, which means more local jobs, and it puts fresher, tastier food on our table. Shopping locally is win, win, win. We are lucky to live in a beautiful market town with a wonderful market hall. So let's make full use of it, or we could lose it. Experience the friendly atmosphere of the Tuesday market, both in the main hall and on half of the cattle market, where we have the added interest of livestock sales on the adjacent half, and you can meet and speak to the people who produce the food themselves.