Cheap veg this week

food not good

The reality is that if you are struggling to feed your family, the farmers are the last thing you would be thinking of.

Yes in Lidl 75%off so 15p...and a male pushing a trolley load of carrots stacked high. was struggling to push trolley ! I wanted to say ...you have a lot of rabbits[ grin] and take a pic but thought that would be rude...maybe he was buying for a food bank or very large family ?

Good grief! On threads about benefits we are told that it is just fecklessness that prevents people from making means for 30p out of bargains fruit and veg available from handy local markets (handy if you live in a trendy area or city centre).

When supermarkets which are likely to be on bus routes or near housing estates have similarly cheap vegetables, however, those buying them are 'greedy' and responsible for suicide rates in farmers!

As for 'needing to pay so little', how many people add a bit extra to their food bill because they consider themselves overpaid or that the price of fish is too low this week?

If fresh food is cheap, isn't that better than Turkey Twizzlers on BOGOF - people complain about that, too, as there are those who can't help looking down on everyone else. Let people choose their own shopping and who knows? There might be a bit left over at the end of the week that they can put towards a 'massive telly' or a 'latest iPhone'?

When supermarkets which are likely to be on bus routes or near housing estates have similarly cheap vegetables, however, those buying them are 'greedy' and responsible for suicide rates in farmers!

If you're implying I said that you are very wrong.

It is supermarkets, which are making good profits, which should bear the cost of these 'loss leaders'.

All too often, supermarkets force farmers to dispose of perfectly good food which they reject abpnd when there is a special deal like this, supermarkets force farmers to bear the loss.
Many just can't continue like this.

Supermarkets helping hard-up customers?? They're not going to take a loss, it is all too often the producers who lose money.

If fresh food is cheap, isn't that better than Turkey Twizzlers on BOGOF

Not so cheap to put British farmers out of business.
It is a balance, as with most things.

Kate1949

The reality is that if you are struggling to feed your family, the farmers are the last thing you would be thinking of.

Well, if they don't ever think of farmers, where does anyone think the food is going to come from?

So much food is wasted, there is plenty to feed all, it just needs some thought put into redistribution and stopping waste.

Exactly, Callistemon. My late father in law was a farmer who sold vegetables to supermarkets. The near frenzy about the availability of cheap vegetables makes me feel ill because I know how he suffered.

I don't think it was you Cal. It was the jump to 'suicides of farmers' and 'greed' making people buy vegetables that annoyed me. That and the question of who 'can afford' to pay more, as though that logic is applied to other expenditure. People are criticised for extravagance when it comes to paying more than they 'can afford' for things like tech, but somehow that's different?

I know it's often the producers who lose - both farmers and food manufacturers who are threatened with losing contracts if they don't produce at a loss. (Mr D has worked in the food industry). That is wrong, and I think it should be stopped. I suggested government subsidy of fruit and veg on another thread, and was told I was naive and unrealistic, however - ironically by people who preached on the same thread about how easy it used to be when women 'could cook' and always had a pan of soup on the go. Presumably made out of cheap vegetables.

My point is that it must be better to feed a family on fresh veg than the usual cheap food (which also attracts brickbats), yet still people are criticised for their choices.

Are people really going to over-buy fresh fruit and veg? It goes off. You could fill the freezer with chopped veg or soup, which used to be called good housekeeping, make chutney or wine (although spring onion wine might be grim) but there aren't many other options other than to eat it while its fresh. What's greedy about that?

I apologise if my post has offended you, Doodledog. There is a difference between needing to buy at these prices because you are poor, and taking advantage by buying a trolleyful to stick in your fridge.

I not only know of my father in law’s truly soul destroying experience with supermarket buyers, in my working life I have been hit with the suicides of two local farmers and that experience will never leave me.

Doodledog

Good grief! On threads about benefits we are told that it is just fecklessness that prevents people from making means for 30p out of bargains fruit and veg available from handy local markets (handy if you live in a trendy area or city centre).

When supermarkets which are likely to be on bus routes or near housing estates have similarly cheap vegetables, however, those buying them are 'greedy' and responsible for suicide rates in farmers!

As for 'needing to pay so little', how many people add a bit extra to their food bill because they consider themselves overpaid or that the price of fish is too low this week?

If fresh food is cheap, isn't that better than Turkey Twizzlers on BOGOF - people complain about that, too, as there are those who can't help looking down on everyone else. Let people choose their own shopping and who knows? There might be a bit left over at the end of the week that they can put towards a 'massive telly' or a 'latest iPhone'?

I was very tempted to pay £15 taxi fares to buy those cheap veg, since our lidl is too far away from where the second bus would drop me

Germanshepherdsmum

I apologise if my post has offended you, Doodledog. There is a difference between needing to buy at these prices because you are poor, and taking advantage by buying a trolleyful to stick in your fridge.

I not only know of my father in law’s truly soul destroying experience with supermarket buyers, in my working life I have been hit with the suicides of two local farmers and that experience will never leave me.

Fair enough. There are always many sides to a story.

Some people will always be greedy. There was a man in Aldi this week putting about 12 bags of the 15p potatoes in his trolley. I try to be charitable and think he may be buying them for family members. More likely he runs a restaurant or something and was taking advantage.

Or a soup kitchen?

How is deciding that he is more likely to be 'taking advantage' being charitable? It really is the opposite, surely?

If these were in a box with a notice saying 'take these if you are hungry and cannot afford full price' then yes - anyone taking them who had money to pay for more expensive ones would be taking advantage. But they are on public sale at that price, so there is no advantage being taken, other than possibly over the farmers or suppliers, who should be protected by law from the supermarkets' greed.

It is not customers who are being greedy, IMO. It is the likes of Tesco (and the others) who take full advantage of the lack of regulation over business practices and are encouraged to put profit and shareholders over decency.

I shopped on Thurs and bought the 15p swede, potatoes and carrots, all of which I needed and buy every week.

Or a soup kitchen? exactly. Emmaus street souls near me run drop in centres where anyone can access a meal and hot drink, clothing, advice, support and friendship. Buying cheap vegetables frees up funds to be used for other needs. The ethics of farmers being paid fairly is another matter. If these vegetables aren't bought then they could finish up in landfill, a terrible waste and farmers not a penny richer.

I expect the "greedy" people are batch cooking.

MissAdventure

I expect the "greedy" people are batch cooking.

Indeed. As so often advised on here, they could be making soup to freeze. There is no point in having a fridge full of carrots, is there? They'd just go off, and anyway there'd be no room for the Extra Strong lager.

I said I tried to be charitable thinking he was buying it for family.

Germanshepherdsmum

I apologise if my post has offended you, Doodledog. There is a difference between needing to buy at these prices because you are poor, and taking advantage by buying a trolleyful to stick in your fridge.

I not only know of my father in law’s truly soul destroying experience with supermarket buyers, in my working life I have been hit with the suicides of two local farmers and that experience will never leave me.

I know how the supermarkets treat farmers. Some of my family are farmers.
I know how costs have risen recently and how narrow the margins are. Some years are better than others. If there is a glut prices are driven right down , sometimes supermarkets offer deals which they expect farmers to fund, consequently some years they barely make enough to pay themselves a salary.
Governments seem to think food arrives on supermarket shelves by magic.
They should be giving more encouragement to young people to go into farming. Years ago a route into farming was to rent a County farm, now few and far between.

Why do people think farmers are protesting here, in Europe, in Australia?

Kate1949

I said I tried to be charitable thinking he was buying it for family.

Perhaps he was helping to run a Community fridge.

People may think that people going round with trolleys loaded with reduced cakes, pastries, bread, vegetables and/or fruit are being greedy but they may be volunteers collecting for a local Community Fridge, offering free fresh food near its sell-by date, available for all.

Perhaps he was yes.

Kate1949

Perhaps he was yes.

Or the Church or making soup for a drop-in Warm Space.

A local church has drop-in mornings with cakes, pastries donated by a nearby supermarket.

There are all sorts of possibilities, but leaping to the judgement that it was more likely to be taking advantage is deeply uncharitable. Taking advantage of whom? The government could regulate the supermarkets if they wanted to, but that would go against the small state market economy that people seem to vote for, so they don't. The supermarkets could lower their profits, but as soon as anyone suggests this they are ridiculed and told that doing so would lead to ruination as there would be less investment from shareholders who would take their money elsewhere.

Blaming a bloke with a basket full of carrots is entirely missing the point, really.

At my local Sainsbury this morning, a large notice stated that
All 15p veg monies would be donated to Comic Reluef.