I don't know about everyone else but I for one have loved the two programmes with Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall this last couple of weeks. His War on Waste is very timely and very necessary.
(Episode One HERE (available for 20 more days) and Episode Two HERE (available for 27 days)
The amount of fruit, vegetables and good food that he and the 'skip divers' found outside some of the supermarkets was astonishing and quite frankly disturbing when there are so many hungry people around needing to use Foodbanks, and homeless shelters and charities that could use that food to make a warming evening meals for their soup runs for the homeless.
The 'wonky veg' that was refused by the supermarkets and in some cases ploughed back into the ground was terrible to watch, and to see the Hammond family driven out of a long standing family business supplying parsnips to Morrisons was heartbreaking.
I have had a few emails asking me why these farmers don't sell the produce themselves at their own gates or at Farmers Markets, and the simple answer is when you enter into a contract with a large supermarket you are tied legally to your contract to supply them and only them for as long as that contract lasts. While you may take a few parsnips or whatever you grow for your own immediate family use nothing else can be sold via any other means until your contract ends.
Sad, so very sad.
This is the main reason we decided to go down the self-sufficiency route and not a farming route, we couldn't hope to compete with with 'big boys' and if we have products to sell in the future WE will do the selling, and the only ploughing back will be the money we earn into things we need to continue what we are doing.
Although I doubt I could sell my little potato with the bulbous nose, I just couldn't resist taking out my marker pen and giving him a face .... he was popped into a pan of soup after his photo call .... so nothing wasted here :-)
Sue xx
