Local Food Trends
The move to eating more local produce has not been exactly a recent phenomenon, more the past revisited. Local markets, where you were able to buy food produced from the surrounding area, was the only way to buy your produce. Gradually over the last couple of decades, time seemed to go faster and we needed convenience, which came in the form of a supermarket. Price became a war and the British growers were squeezed out in favour of mass produced food from foreign countries.
| Another decade on, and slowly people are beginning to wonder where all the taste and flavour has gone, and food scares have encouraged us to find out where our food comes from. In answer to these concerns the farmer’s market was born (again) and you could speak to the producer and be reassured that the food you were buying and subsequently eating was ‘safe’. Delicatessens filled the ‘taste’ gap stocking wild and wonderful foods and then farm shops selling home grown produce, provided an outlet to buy good produce on a daily basis. |  |
Food Scares
Salmonella, BSE and Foot and Mouth disease did nothing to reassure the British public that our food was safe. Salmonella started the ball rolling as people become infected with the bacteria from eating eggs. The government swung into action and new legislation meant that chicken farmers had to test for salmonella on a regular basis and vaccinate against it. BSE was far more serious as massive problems within the feed industry came to light. The protein needed in animal feeds was in the form of other meat and bone meal, which, was not being rendered properly as the temperatures were not high enough during the processing. The government legislation had reduced the rendering temperature. The whole beef production system was reviewed to address the panic over British Beef. Other countries still had BSE, but Britain came off worse and beef was tarnished. Many new systems were developed to readdress the problem, the most important being the ban of any animal derived protein in animal feeds, which was followed by passports and the OTMS (Over Thirty Month Scheme) where animals over this age could not enter the food chain. Traceability became the new buzzword. The British agricultural industry had been exposed and it was time to become accountable for our actions, so unlike other countries, these radical changes were made and stuck to. Foot and Mouth was an entirely different story, a wretched disease leaked into the country, which wreaked havoc and caused so much misery. Many farmers were finished, and some felt they could never farm again after seeing their animals shot, and then burnt on massive pyres. The food industry did not suffer a loss of faith this time, as it was clear from the devastation that the farmers were not to blame.
The Rise of Farmers Markets
Farmers markets were part of the local eating and organic revolution sweeping the country in the 1990’s. A salmonella food scare in eggs and BSE in cattle made people nervous about what they were eating and more importantly where it was coming from. Organic food gained much positive publicity as this increasing paranoia pushed the public to food with a whiter than white image (or green).
In 1997, the first fledgling market started and spurned a thriving industry. These first markets did not totally rely on organic publicity and instead pivoted around local and traceable produce. This honesty has prevailed as the customers feel that they are making an informed choice when it comes to shopping, although the editor of the leading food industry magazine ‘The Grocer’ stated that “the public perceive all locally produced food to be organic unless otherwise stated”. ‘Taste of the Country’ aim to address this perception by offering well labelled local food for sale, which is supported by a producer Fact File. The NFU (National Farmers Union) have stated that farmers markets are now earning cash-strapped producers a total of £166million/year, two and a half times that of just two years ago when there were 200 markets compared with 450 in 2003. 60% of these markets are rapidly expanding, supported by 15 million visits to markets each year.
To introduce some kind of policing, the NAFM (National Association of Farmers Markets) was set up to provide some guidance and rules such as a limit on the radius from where a producer could travel from, to sell there wares. The NAFM now offer a certification scheme that rewards members with a distinctive logo, providing an assurance scheme for customers and producers.
British Agriculture
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UK farming contributes £6.6billion a year to our economy, uses around three quarters of the countries land area, and employs over half a million people. The future of this industry relies on the buying public. Supermarkets are still the main source of food for a high proportion of people, so it is important that somehow, the message to support British agriculture is spread. Shoppers are now very much aware of regional food and feel a sense of belonging through purchasing food from their surrounding area. Trust in the product is also increased with more open advertising, which leans towards a ‘home made’ feeling. |
There was and still is, a flood of foreign imports which drag down the prices in this country. Other countries have more land and can farm more extensively, the labour is cheaper and the transport systems appear to be in place to export their cheaper products into this country. Mass produced food has made us complacent and lazy to the detriment of the countryside. Farm incomes slide downwards and panic sets in. In 2002, the government launched its strategy for sustainable farming and food, backed by a £500million grant over the next three years. This strategy pledged to address a whole range of issues including better pricing structures, encouragement to grow non-food crops, skills training and support to increase farm incomes. Friends of the Earth felt that “the economic crisis in agriculture was not properly addressed because it did not tackle the inequity in the food chain between supermarkets and food manufacturers and the farmers. The unfair balance of power within the food industry will mean that more farmers are forced to leave the land, taking with them the skills needed to maintain the countryside”.
The future of the countryside stills seems to be unstable, but in some ways there does seem to be a tide of change. ‘Taste of the Country’ has seen that people like to buy products, which are sold in a transparent way. They know who makes or grows the product, where the product comes from and how it gets to the shelves in our shops through a ‘Fact File’ available for anyone to read. Each supplier is listed with a brief history about how they started up, a few facts, some ideas on how to cook the product and information about their production techniques. Many of the products were made in someone’s kitchen until they became so popular that they moved into bigger premises. These bigger premises are quite often located on a farm where the farmer has diversified and leased out his buildings, putting money back into the rural economy. The ‘Fact File’ documents the success of many of these producers who had a belief that their product was the best and strived to make it work. In our stores, all of these products are linked together, under the umbrella of British produce to provide flavour, traceability and integrity.