Not with a bang but with a kerching!

For various reasons I have recently been staying in the Lincolnshire town of Louth. In some ways Lincolnshire is about twenty years behind the rest of the UK.  It’s a rural county with no major cities but many, widely scattered market towns.  The main road and rail transport routes bypass the county entirely.

For these reasons Louth retains its character as a farming centre, rustic and unhurried. In 2012 the town was voted Britain’s Favourite Market Town by viewers of the BBC’s Countryfile, beating celebrated beauty spots including Ludlow, Perth and Stamford.  Markets are held in the town three days a week.  Many of the town’s buildings clearly show signs of their agricultural origins as wool merchants, seed dealers, maltings or the old corn exchange.  There is a working cattle market in the town and many of the town pubs have good rustic names: The Brown Cow, The Golden Fleece or The Miller’s Daughter.

The town centre is noted for the large number of independent retailers.  There are several family businesses including bakers, green grocers, a large number of butchers, and a specialist cheese shop. The lobby group, Keep Louth Special, attributes this to the absence of a major supermarket in the town.  There is a small branch of Morrisons and a similarly sized Co-Op, but the town is extremely unusual these days in not having a large supermarket either in the town or on an edge-of-town site.

That state of equilibrium is about to be challenged.  This week, East Lindsey District Council, which owns the cattle market, has announced its intention to close the existing facility and move to an out-of-town location.  They have invited sealed bids for the multi-acre site, and all of the big four food retailers have declared an interest in acquiring the property.

 Keep Louth Special, and many of the town’s existing traders are girding their loins for battle and preparing to fight any application to build a new supermarket.  They claim that a major supermarket in the town would be a disaster, forcing many local businesses to close and irreversibly altering the character of the town.

But not everyone feels the same way.  Many people would welcome a major retailer in the town.  They point out that most of the town’s residents already travel the 25km to Grimsby to do their main food shopping.  They want to see the same choice and low prices available closer to home.  The scene is set for a major planning battle.

My guess is the cattle market site will be sold and it will be bought by one of the big four supermarkets.  Money talks, and the funds raised will allow the council to keep council tax rises down.  In a couple of years there will be a supermarket on the site and most of the townsfolk will use it.  And what will be the impact on Louth’s  small retailers?

 I would like to believe that the changes will only be positive.  Perhaps the presence of a large supermarket will enhance the town as a retail destination.  Maybe there will be a win win and the local retailers will share in the increased size of the pie.  But I doubt it.

I fear that many small businesses will be tilted into deficit.  I suspect that several existing businesses will turn out to be surprisingly fragile and the arrival of a new major competitor will prove to be the difference between survival and closure.  They will be replaced by charity shops and discount stores and some will be boarded up for years.  Shoppers will actually see choice and service decline.  There will be a net loss of wealth to the town.  Research shows that a shockingly small percentage of money spent in a national supermarket stays within the local economy.  There will be a loss of vigour in the town centre.  Even the district council will notice the difference in receipts from business rates. It has already happened all over the county.

I am tempted to remember the words of Paul Weller.  “The public gets what the public wants.”  But I doubt if many people would actually choose the future that I have foretold.   The trouble s that most people will take a short term view.  They will look forward to lower prices, two-for-one offers and extra club card points. Probably it’s more accurate to say simply that as a society we get the towns we deserve!

Reflections on the (Possible) Revolution

On May 5^th the state of Karnataka held elections to vote in a new state government. It was quite a significant affair with many street closures in the month long run up to election day to allow political rallies. Posters, and political slogans daubed on walls sprang up everywhere.  Cars with loud speakers patrolled residential areas exhorting people to vote and at least one bomb exploded in Bangalore.  Even worse, for three days around the vote sales of alcohol were banned across the state!

 In the event, as widely tipped, the ruling BJP party was kicked out of office and Congress, the traditional ruling party in this part of India, resumed power.

Participation in Indian politics is relatively high in international terms.  Turnout in the World’s Biggest Democracy is usually around 60% and is generally higher for state elections than for the distant national Parliament.  Tip O’Neill coined the phrase that ‘all politics is local’.  Well that is never truer anywhere than it is in India.  People here vote with the expectation that the winning party will make good promises on delivering local infrastructure projects: roads, schools and water supply.

I met several people who were passionately involved and very partisan.  The irony is that so few of the people I mix with socially seemed to care.  It was easy to get drivers or waiters to discuss the forthcoming election, but the professional classes and the urban middle class genuinely seemed to have little interest or involvement.

The reason is that the rich in this country largely opt out of politics.  They pay for private education and medical care, employ private security firms to police their gated compounds, and remain largely indifferent to corruption and inefficiency in state offices.  Consequently they see no reason to pay tax. India has a shockingly low tax base.  In December, India’s finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, announced that only about 36 million people filed income taxes last year. That’s 2.89 percent of the population. If it means that they have to drive their SUVs on rutted roads past piles of accumulated garbage and emaciated people dressed in rags sleeping on the verge, well so be it.

I do not profess any faith or religious beliefs.  But I think it is not a coincidence that Christianity teaches charity and responsibility for ones fellow man, and European politics pretty much across the continent boils down to various flavours of social democracy.  In the USA, where there is a tradition of philanthropic giving, they do it differently.  Hinduism by contrast is essentially fatalistic and focuses on personal behaviour and the self.  To my mind that attitude permeates much of Indian society and culture.

So what has any of this got to do with food or sustainability?  Those are after all the purported subjects of this blog.  Well yesterday, tucked away on the inside pages of the Times of India, I read a small article that said that the new Karnataka government was about to effect a change in policy to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the state’s retail sector.  This is yet another step in the long march towards economic liberalisation begun in 1991.  However, many small producers and traders are deeply unhappy about the prospect of Karnataka’s retail industry being opened to foreign competition.

In the west the arguments for liberal economics are so dominant it seems strange to think that this could be such a contentious issue here.  So complete is our belief in free trade, deregulation, competition and the power of market forces that we forget that alternatives do exist.  Since the reforms were introduced foreign inwards investment in India has skyrocketed.  Annual GDP growth has accelerated from just 1¼ % in the three decades after Independence to today’s 7½ %.  The city where I am living, Bangalore, has become a global IT hub, and India sits proudly as a BRIC nation second only to China in the pace of economic development.

Yet, as elsewhere in the world, the fruits of economic development have not been shared equitably.  Rising prosperity has been accompanied by a massive growth in inequality.  There is a record number of super rich Indians but the lowest tiers of Indian society have been left behind.  The reforms have brought virtually no change in incomes or average consumption for people at the bottom of the pile.  Economic growth has not been translated into employment growth or a significant change in educational standards for the masses.  Basic nutrition remains a fundamental concern for millions of the poor.

I enjoy food shopping in Bangalore.  There are several small independent supermarkets where, by shopping around, I can buy pretty much everything I need.  They are not stylish and choice is limited. The expat telegraph buzzes with news that such and such a place has got a delivery of French Brie or Danish butter.  But most things are available if you know where to look.  Certainly it’s a lot better than China in that regard.

It is also quite chastening to take a stroll in to the local village, Nagenahalli, and see how the locals live.  I frequently visit a local green grocer.  At first, the presence of a white face caused some consternation, but now they are used to me.  For my part I have got over my fixation with perfectly formed vegetables and uniform, smooth skinned fruit.  Here you get produce just as nature creates it, in all shapes and sizes and with blemishes.  It doesn’t alter the taste one jot!   Potatoes, garlic, onions, chilies, capsicums, bitter gourd and okra are always available.  Cauliflowers, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, carrots and string beans are usually to be had.  After that? Well don’t hold your breath.  It’s not that other things aren’t available, but they come and go as they should.

Agricultural produce is locally grown and available when in season.  The mango season has just ended, but when they were available they were amazing.

Potentially FDI means that this time next year Nagenahalli could have a Wal-Mart, a Carrefour or a Tesco Express.  I will be able to push my trolley around in luxurious airconditioned aisles groaning with wondrous, foreign imported foods.  Perhaps this village will disappear under piles of superfluous packaging, local farmers will be driven out of business and my village shop will be demolished to make way for a hundred car parking lot.  Perhaps that’s progress.  No doubt there would be a tiny uptick in India’s GDP associated with the retail revolution in Nagenahalli.

Is it patronising and hypocritical of me to want to deny the pleasures of the first world to people here.  Why should they be denied the right to buy South African apples or Dutch lettuces?  And can anyone really hold back the tide of development anyway?

But here’s another irony.  The people who would benefit from a retail revolution are the same middle classes who eschewed the elections.  The poor people of Nagenahalli don’t want to buy taramasalata or Californian wines.  They don’t need loyalty cards or two-for-one offers on shampoo.  Most toiletries are sold here in single use sachets.  I bet, if anybody were to ask them, they just want jobs, a community and somewhere to sell their meager farm produce.  Now that would be worth voting for!

My Favourite Shop

Orford General Store - Nominated for National Village Shop of the Year

The beating heart of any village is the village shop.  In Orford we are privileged to have one of the best.  That’s not just my opinion; The Orford General Store has been shortlisted for the Countryside Alliance’s Village Shop of the Year award.  This week I caught up with the owner, Penny Teale to find out what her formula was.

DSFH: “You took over the Orford village shop a year ago.  But 600 rural shops close in England every year, so my first question has to be, are you mad?”

PT: “I don’t think so.  I gave up a lucrative career in corporate retailing to take on this business.  This isn’t a hobby, it’s a livelihood. You don’t make that kind of decision without doing a huge amount of research and being pretty sure that you can make a go of it.  Many of those failing shops may not have been run very well or with a keen eye on costs and the customer offer, but I realized that it was possible to take the things that supermarkets do well and apply them to a small business.  I used my retail experience to put in solid processes and apply up to date technology.  I try to keep on top of my stock control and my market as Tesco or Sainsburys would, but I am able to combine that with a business that has great local product and personality.”

As if to back this up she starts to spout a range of facts and figures.

“My catchment area is 5 or 6 miles.  People come from 5 villages and those villages contain 2000 people”

DSFH: “But what about that market?  You’ve actually got a number of very different constituencies within a village like this?”

PT: “Three. (She nods her head) There are the local people who rely on the village shop for everyday provisions.  They buy little and often.  They are very price conscious and quite conservative.  They are really important because they are here all year round.  I actually keep a close watch on supermarket prices.  We can’t afford to be too far out of sync.  Even though a trip to Woodbridge or Saxmundham is likely to cost £5 or £6 when you add up the fuel and total cost of running a car, people don’t look at it that way.  Also supermarkets aren’t as cheap as you think.  They use a variety of tricks such as hi-lo pricing.  They put things on the shelf at a high price so they can then discount them later.”

“Then there’s the ‘second homers’ and visitors  or what I call the ‘four and threes’, people who call Orford home but in reality they spend half the week in London.  They are almost the exact opposite.  Price is less important to them but they demand quality and they want to be delighted by the range, local product and high quality veggies.  The third group are die-hard Tesco or Waitrose shoppers, who dip in and out around their weekly shop.

DSFH: “So is there a conflict in serving such different needs?  After all you have to decide what you give shelf space to?”

PT: “Not really.  I use the ‘good, better, best’ rule to all of the ranges.  For instance I re-jigged the wine section.  Now you can buy a bottle of wine for as little as £3, £5, or up to £15 depending on your budget.  Take canned produce like beans; we’ve got Happy Shopper in the ‘good’ range, Heinz in the ‘better’ range and Epicure in the ‘best’, for people who want something different.  So everyone can find something suitable.”

DSFH: “So what are your best sellers?”

PT: “We do sell an awful lot of pies!  Locally made homemade pies just seem to fly off the shelves.  But the Deli section generally does ever so well”

DSFH:  “You touched on it briefly but a village shop in a place like Orford can almost be regarded as a social service as much as a business.  Is that a double edged sword?”

PT: “Not at all.  You are right, we are often the first to notice if an elderly customer doesn’t pop in, and you get some people who just come in for a chat, but that makes us a sort of communications hub.  From a business perspective it’s a privileged position.  Customers do expect you to remember their names though.  Everyone knows who I am, so it can be a real challenge remembering theirs!”

DSFH:  “You carry a lot of local produce. How important is that?”

PT: “Absolutely crucial! As a retailer I want to know the provenance of the food I sell.  If a bag of potatoes were harvested from the field in Leiston yesterday afternoon I can be pretty sure that they will be fresh and the customer will be happy.  But it’s more than that.  I’ve now got over 20 suppliers within a fifteen mile radius (and growing).  30% of my shelf space is allocated to local products.  Being local is part of the brand that differentiates us from the supermarket chains.  But Suffolk is a great food-producing county with some wonderful local products.  As a retailer of course I want to tap in to that.”

DSFH: “So did you find local suppliers were ready and prepared to supply a local, small business?”

PT: “Most of them were very enthusiastic but with some we have had to work together on things like packaging or branding.”

DSFH: “You actually run a portfolio of businesses in the village don’t you?  Is that part of a strategy?”

PT: “Absolutely.  There’s The General Store, The Suffolk Butcher and Penny’s Café.  They are all distinct brands that will allow us to do different things with them.  But it’s also about making Orford into a ‘destination food village’.  After all, we don’t get any passing trade out here.  But the other businesses in Orford: the smokehouses, the bakery, pubs, hotel and the craft shop all contribute to make it somewhere people will consciously come to.  We get customers now who regularly come from a wider catchment area to visit us."

Penny's Cafe - Helping to make Orford into a Destination Food Village

DSFH: “But how much can you really expand the market? Ultimately you are restricted by demographics aren’t you?”

PT: “A lot of people do come in to the area: second homers, day trippers and so on. Trade in a place like Orford is very seasonal, but the thing is to extend the season.  We are working with the Orford Business Association to do just that.  I’ve held ‘tasting events’ for wine and local products and we have a Carol singing planned for the 22^nd of December.  There’s a lot more events planned for next year.”

DSFH:  “So the future of the village shop is bright is it?”

PT: “Well I am ahead of schedule according to my business plan.  Year one was all about getting the basics sorted out, but this year will be about growth: more tastings, expanding the range, building a website.”

DSFH:  “And is Orford a unique location or would your treatment work in other village shops?”

PT:  “The model will work in other locations, if the timing and opportunities come up.  But that’s in the future, Christmas is the immediate focus.”

Open the Box

If you like the idea of buying ethically but don’t have the time to visit a farmers market, why not get the food to come to you?  The first vegetable box scheme was set up in 1992.  There are now over 500 box schemes in the UK delivering fresh fruit and veg, and sometimes meat and dairy products too.


These schemes are usually operated by the growers or small co-operatives of growers.  They are designed to add value and support the local food economy by giving the farmer a greater share of the money spent on food. Many schemes are run on a local or regional basis, delivering food direct from the producer to the consumer. Other schemes operate nationwide by linking a network of growers under a single marketing banner

Produce is sourced locally, greatly reducing the need for packaging, storage and transportation and most is farmed organically – without the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides.

Typically the contents are not selected by the customer, but are chosen by the box scheme provider on the basis of seasonality and availability.  In the past this led to criticism that producers used the schemes to dump poor quality or hard to sell produce, but with increased competition the quality these days is generally excellent.

Patrick and Caroline Cooper of Greenwich are typical box scheme customers.  I asked them about their experience.

Which scheme do you belong to?

CC: We get a Fruit&Veg Box every week from RiverfordOrganic Veg.  That contains seven different vegetables, not including potatoes, and three fruits depending on the season.   It costs £16.35 per week and delivery is free.

Does that cover all your fruit and veg needs?

CC: No. I think that box size is supposed to feed 3 people and we are a family of six.  It probably provides about 60% of what we eat and I top up from the Co-op.

PC: Our kids just love cucumbers!  We get through several cucumbers a week and no scheme could cater for that.

 How important is it to you that’s it’s organic?

CC: If I could I would buy only organic food.  For me it’s just common sense.  You want the food you eat to be natural and not have any nagging doubts about what it might be doing to your body.

What’s the best thing about the scheme?

PC:  You get to discover all kinds of vegetables that you wouldn’t normally buy.  I think everyone gets into a routine about shopping; they just buy the same things every week.  But we’ve had vegetables like Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi, black salsify.  I had to Google these things before I could cook them!  I love that it expands your horizons.

CC:  It’s great that there’s an alternative to shopping in supermarkets.  There are hardly any green grocers left in Greenwich but box schemes allow us to buy ethically produced, local produce without thousands of food miles.  Also I love the fact that the box comes midweek.  If stocks are running low from the wekend food-shop I know I can always knock up a meal based on fresh veg.

What are the drawbacks?

PC: You really notice the ‘hungry gap’.  There are long weeks through the winter when the box seems to be full of nothing but root vegetables .

But then there’s the sheer joy in the spring when you start getting new season vegetables.  You can really understand why medieval people had all those food festivals to celebrate the arrival of certain produce. 

The Soil Association provides a list of certified organicbox scheme providers broken down by region.

Local Food for Local People

One way to guarantee that your food is fresh is to buy it straight from the producer.  I buy as much as I can this way.  It not only tastes great, but also makes me feel good, because buying direct is about so much more than freshness.

There are many different ways to buy direct ranging from: farm shops, farmers’ markets, CSA schemes, box schemes, PYO etc.  They all form part of the local-food economy.

Localism is one of the guiding principles of this blog. So why does it matter?

Economic benefits

In the last fifty years food and farming has become a global industry dominated by big food companies and retailers.  Just after World War II farmers in Europe and North America received between 45% and 60% of the money spent by consumers on food.  Today that figure stands at just 7% in the UK and only 3.5% in the USA, although it is still 18% in France.  For example a US wheat farmer receives about 6 cents from each dollar spent on bread.  That is about the same as the packaging.  The real profits from food go to the processing companies and supermarkets.  That represents a huge drain from the rural economy, which unsurprisingly has been in steady long term decline

Buying food directly cuts out the middle man and puts more money in to the pocket of the producer.  Also, the evidence is that money spent directly on food has a greater stickiness within the local community and circulates for longer within the local economy. In text book terms, money spent on food has a high multiplier value. One study looking at an organic veggie box scheme in Cornwall calculated that every £10 spent on the scheme generated £25 for the local economy compared with £14 when the same £10 was spent in supermarkets.

Another study in Devon found that 38% of food producers engaging in direct selling activities created new jobs as a result.

In North America many farmers now sell 100% of their produce through framers markets.  In Britain direct outlets are vital to support the emergence of small scale producers, often specializing in rare breeds, organic production or heritage varieties, who would otherwise be unable to break into the national distribution chain, which is only interested in volume producers.

Social benefits

While farmers have felt the pinch, (or is it more like a crunch?) from supermarket buyers, they have had to adopt industrial methods of food production to drive down their own costs, and become more efficient just to survive.  The results have been catastrophic. As factory farms and associated monocultures bring about the despoliation of the environment, they employ fewer and fewer people and of course they are implicated in successive food scandals from BSE to salmonella in eggs.  Two opposing views have developed.  In the wider public there is an image of farmers as ecologically destructive, subsidy junkies who will produce toxic food if it turns a profit.  Farmers view the public as ignorant townies who interfere in the rural way of life while demanding cheaper and cheaper food.  “Don’t criticise farmers with your mouth full!” they snarl.

Direct outlets reconnect the producers to consumers and allow a two way engagement.  The farmer can hear, and even feel at first hand, the concerns of consumers, and customers can learn about the realities of food production in the twenty first century.

The public needs farmers to be custodians of the countryside and to act in a responsible and sustainable way.  Farmers need to be able to make a living with dignity and respect from their communities. We all need healthy food.

Environmental benefits

The other big benefit of local food is its environmental impact.  In the USA it has been estimated that a typical food item travels 2000 miles from the field to the plate causing damage to the environment and generating unnecessary carbon emissions.  Processed food uses more packaging: plastics, cellophane and polystyrene, which of course all have their own environmental impact.

Food from a farm shop comes relatively naked, and the only food miles are the ones you use getting the food home.

Love the food

Of course the best reason for buying local food is that it really does taste better.  At my local farmers market I get homemade pies, jams and pickles that never make it to any shops.  I get more choice and it’s fun, a real social occasion. Many stalls let you sample sausages, cheeses, wines etc. and several will be offering hot food to take away.  Ostrich burgers, wild boar sausages, delicious farm-made lamb curries bring a whole new dimension to fast food. Above all I enjoy the experience of seeing fresh food displayed at its best.

Is it also economical?  In North America I think it is. Various studies have found that in the USA farmers markets are between 10%  and 18% cheaper than supermarkets for comparable items. In the UK it is not so clear.  Ten years ago, one study by the University of the West of England found that prices of organic meat and poultry were 37% higher at supermarkets, with organic vegetables being 33% cheaper at farmers’ markets. However since then the organic sector has grown and prices have fallen.  But this research reflects a key fact, that the quality of food at a farmers market is usually higher.  If you are used to buying factory farmed meat and battery eggs then yeah the prices at your local farmers market could be a shock.  Maybe some day I will blog about the high cost of cheap food. 

My suspicion, based on personal experience, is that farmers markets in the UK do still appeal mainly to middle class shoppers, who are not so price sensitive.  In other words they could be cheaper and the farmer would still get a healthy profit while expanding the overall market.  But that’s free enterprise for you. 

I am fortunate that in my area there are many small holders who regularly sell surpluses from their back gardens or allotments.  The prices are great and vegetables are dug up freshly each day.  I wouldn't buy eggs in any other way.

Obviously I have no control over what is available, and you have to lose the supermarket obsession with uniformity and ‘perfection’.  I don’t mind a few spots on my courgettes, and I have eaten turnips that would have had Baldrick sniggering for a month.  But they taste great!

I need to acknowledge my debt to two papers in preparing this article:

Some Benefits and Drawbacks of Local Food Systems, Jules Pretty, Professor of Environment & Society, University of Essex, November 2001

The Economic Benefits of Farmers' Markets, Simon Bullock et al, Friends of the Earth, August 2000