Forum Topic

Organic food

I was watching a TV report on organic food in Austria. The farmers like it as the supermarkets pay the farmer much more, milk being a particular case. They showed SPAR supermarkets which carry a 1000 different organic lines. I have looked in several supermarkets here and there are nowhere near a thousand lines. Why dont our farmers do more organic, especially post Brexit as it would increase their income.

Nicholas Beard ● 2391d10 Comments

I guess because so few British people are prepared to pay more for decent food. You only have to look at the 'four frozen burgers for a pound' crap that the supermarkets shift so much of.

Susan Kelly ● 2391d

In Austria people try to keep healthy and demand quality produce. Brits will happily eat crap.

Steve Taylor ● 2391d

Not this one.

Keith Iddon ● 2391d

Grocery prices are, on average, 17% higher in Austria.
I am sure that if we were all prepared/ could afford to pay this then supermarkets would carry more organic lines.
Some very interesting figures here:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=United+Kingdom&country2=Austria

N V Brooks ● 2391d

I really try to buy organic food, particularly meat, dairy and eggs.  Would prefer to buy less but buy good!  Generally organic veg taste better, particularly carrots and tomatoes.  Don't mind washing off a bit of mud either.  If only youngsters were taught at school how to properly prepare and cook raw food, especially cheaper cuts of meat and offal, they'd be able to make delicious meals.  Who watches all the cookery programmes on TV - do they just watch mindlessly and never try to put into practice what they've just seen - the Hairy Bikers for example and Jamie Oliver's recipes don't look too hard.  All the males in my family from 70 yr olds down to 14yr teenagers are really good cooks.

Jennifer Selig ● 2391d

I am a decent cook and always get a haou apply yourself and always get handed back an empty plate when I cook for anyone.I suppose you have to enjoy cooking, but if you apply yourself to the task and enjoy eating tasty, healthy food it ain't difficult.

Keith Iddon ● 2391d

Not sure all this talk of organic foods being better for you is actually true. I cook as much as possible from scratch but I'm damned if I'm going to pay through the nose just for veg./meat etc.labelled 'organic'.

Vanessa Smith ● 2389d

Well it looks like we will have chlorinated chicken soon. So that will be cheap and not organic.

Nicholas Beard ● 2389d

I regularly stay on a friends farm which went organic about 17 years ago.We love it there. But we get to come home and don't endure the all year round issues they have running it.Big problems are now manifesting and they may have to revert to modern conventional practices.Growing organic produces lower yields that diminish each year. This is the basic problem of 'soil clean' arable land needing to fallow for much longer leaving large areas unproductive for increasing periods of time.The produce is also far more short seasonal and does not keep fresh for long enough for wide distribution reducing the market options.Organic produce is very vulnerable to disease, wildlife and weather patterns, which in these islands is never constant one year to the next.At the end of the day, farming is a business, it's easy to look at it as idyllic but it is extremely hard work and could fail in a very short time from the force of mother nature.  They have some hard decisions to make having been committed to organic farming for a long time now, but it is a reminder of how population demand is outstripping the ability to produce without having to resort to chemicals and other growing means of questionable provenance.

Raymond Havelock ● 2388d

S l o w  d o w n  and choose one carrot at a time!

Philippa Bond ● 2388d