Читать книгу The Savvy Shopper - Rose Prince - Страница 8

If organic has created the biggest buzz in food over the last five years, ‘local food’ will be seen as the latest remedy to treat the ills of the food supply chain. Local means traceable, which in turn means easy access for consumers to information about what they buy. Local means short journeys, so that’s good for fuel consumption. Local means the freshest food. Local is welfare friendly – livestock are notoriously stressed by long road journeys.

Local means less dependence on a centralised food supply. So when the food chain is hit by a crisis, such as foot and mouth or another animal disease, the movement of food around the UK is minimal and easier to track.

A culture of local marketing boosts local economies. According to the New Economics Foundation (NEF), every £10 spent with a local food business, employing local people and buying ingredients locally, generates £25 for the local economy, compared with just £14 spent with a non-local food business. The NEF, among other environmental organisations, believes that if the major supermarket chains adopted local buying policies it would save the future of farming and fishing in the UK.

Local is good for regional identity, and for society. How much more distinctive for roadside cafés and motorway service stations to offer each region’s favourite pie, gooey cake, curry or apple juice? Motorway meals would for once be worth some discussion, some analysis – you can’t exactly discuss the excitement of finding yet another KFC meal deal while travelling, or yet another reheated sausage roll and can of Coke. Regional distinctiveness is also good for tourism – so that’s more cash in the tin.

Local can fall flat on its face in big cities especially, where hectic lifestyles can distract from ethical shopping, and enormous rents prevent all but the richest food chains getting a look-in on high streets – or staying on them if they are already there. But the success of farmers’ markets and food co-operatives speaks for itself, and the concept of local food is an earnest but not unusual subject for city shoppers frustrated by the dullness of food shopping.