I noticed a week or two ago that the organic fruit&veg shop in Carnegie has shut-down. I'm kinda sad that they're gone. They didn't have a fantastic location/visibility (side-alley, not on the main street), and I suppose I'm partly to blame since I didn't shop there regularly. That made me wonder why I didn't go there often, and I think it's because of entrenched shopping habits -- I prefer to shop at a major supermarket and get most of my weekly stuff there. Or, I'll walk to the local grocer (5 mins walk versus 25-30 mins walk to Carnegie). The catch is that even if the grocer stocked organic food, they wouldn't fit my habits since only time they're open outside normal working hours is Saturday morning. Supermarkets are a different story. With their massive buying power and logistics/distribution networks, they should be able to support a thriving organic food industry. Yet, for the most part, they don't. They deal only with large-scale producers/importers. So, it seems that smaller organic farms are locked-out and are at a massive competitive disadvantage.
As I see it, there's two good/workable solutions (and a bunch of others that I'm unaware of or are less doable). Firstly, as demonstrated by the egg industry, it is possible to make incremental changes to production methods. Thanks to consumer pressure, there's a lot more organic and free-range eggs on shelves, which has reduced the number/range of eggs produced by the more intensive and cruel farming practises. I'd like to see this spread to other sectors of the meat and fruit&veg and industries. The egg issue also highlights the need for adequate descriptions (what do they mean by "free range"?) and a trustworthy way of certifying what goes on (sadly, the RSPCA's tick can be bought and they don't regularly check chook-farms to see that standards are being maintained). The second, which is very nifty, is the rise of online merchants that do home/business delivery. Generally, they offer a random mix of whatever's seasonal. Most offer a variety is plans (one-off, weekly, fortnightly), different box-sizes, and some have special options such as "No tomatoes please, extra apples instead". Presumably, they deal with local farms to keep things fresh and minimise freight, and can deal with organic farms/collectives of any size. A couple of places I've worked at would get a regular delivery of a box of fruit...bribing nerds to eat healthy food has never been so easy. :)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-09-05 08:03 am (UTC)Gets me thinking.
I noticed a week or two ago that the organic fruit&veg shop in Carnegie has shut-down. I'm kinda sad that they're gone. They didn't have a fantastic location/visibility (side-alley, not on the main street), and I suppose I'm partly to blame since I didn't shop there regularly.
That made me wonder why I didn't go there often, and I think it's because of entrenched shopping habits -- I prefer to shop at a major supermarket and get most of my weekly stuff there. Or, I'll walk to the local grocer (5 mins walk versus 25-30 mins walk to Carnegie). The catch is that even if the grocer stocked organic food, they wouldn't fit my habits since only time they're open outside normal working hours is Saturday morning.
Supermarkets are a different story.
With their massive buying power and logistics/distribution networks, they should be able to support a thriving organic food industry. Yet, for the most part, they don't. They deal only with large-scale producers/importers. So, it seems that smaller organic farms are locked-out and are at a massive competitive disadvantage.
As I see it, there's two good/workable solutions (and a bunch of others that I'm unaware of or are less doable).
Firstly, as demonstrated by the egg industry, it is possible to make incremental changes to production methods. Thanks to consumer pressure, there's a lot more organic and free-range eggs on shelves, which has reduced the number/range of eggs produced by the more intensive and cruel farming practises. I'd like to see this spread to other sectors of the meat and fruit&veg and industries. The egg issue also highlights the need for adequate descriptions (what do they mean by "free range"?) and a trustworthy way of certifying what goes on (sadly, the RSPCA's tick can be bought and they don't regularly check chook-farms to see that standards are being maintained).
The second, which is very nifty, is the rise of online merchants that do home/business delivery. Generally, they offer a random mix of whatever's seasonal. Most offer a variety is plans (one-off, weekly, fortnightly), different box-sizes, and some have special options such as "No tomatoes please, extra apples instead". Presumably, they deal with local farms to keep things fresh and minimise freight, and can deal with organic farms/collectives of any size. A couple of places I've worked at would get a regular delivery of a box of fruit...bribing nerds to eat healthy food has never been so easy. :)