Saturday 27th March ..... Politics and Potatoes.....

Posted Sat, 27/03/2010 - 7:35pm by Jobag

We had another bumper day today, the weather was lovely despite the oft mentioned rumours of impending snow (heading our way on Tuesday apparently!) and on the whole a good day was had by all!!

I had an interesting start to my working day by volunteering to collect the fresh fish order from our suppliers Sailbrand; this meant I was able to see the wholesalers for myself and also ask a few pertinent questions regarding the sourcing of the fish we stock in the shop!  In future we should be able to offer more information regarding fishing methods, origin etc.  All good stuff!!

After another bonkers morning, trade slowed in the early afternoon allowing Heather and I to discuss the technical merits of mangos and their position in the shop - does display position directly effect the number of mangos available to purchase at any said time - discuss!!  Maybe you had to be there!!!  Maybe we need to get out more often too!!

Another very interesting discussion took place this afternoon, raising the ethical dilemma between political, financial and environmental concerns ... all very thought provoking; we have a good choice in the shop at present for those amongst us wanting new potatoes - ranging from the wonderfully patriotic Jersey Royal, to some very nice Maris Pipers.  However it isn't such a simple choice - the Jerseys are, at present selling for almost 5 times the cost of the maris pipers, BUT the Maris pipers are imported from Israel, and thirdly as someone quite rightly pointed out - should we actually be eating new potatoes at this time of year anyway????  Food for thought??  I thought so!!

 

Comments

 

by ange dews - 29/03/2010 - 22:17

 

Potatoes and politics

by ange dews - 28/03/2010 - 16:06

Our earlier batch of 'new potatoes' was from Egypt and several customers commented on having seen the programme 'Crop to Shop - Jimmy's Supermarket Secrets' (BBC) in February. I didn't see it, as I don't have a telly, but a blogger in Leicestershire summarises the contents here www.pect.org.uk/blog/viewpost/348 and many of our regulars agreed. Shortly after, the authentic Jersey Royals appeared on the market at the extortionate price you see in shop. We have continued to offer a choice at the GVG, but we are looking forward to the new season when growers around us can bring in their wares and a spankingly fresh product can be provided, with minimal food miles, and with real Colne Valley soil still on!

This is not the first time

by Jim Dooher - 29/03/2010 - 18:39

This is not the first time such discussions have taken place in the shop. Whoever orders fish, fruit, veg, and dry good for the shop, and that is most of the staff from time to time, will be faced with a dilemma - rigorously limit orders to ‘ethical’ local, organic, seasonal, environmentally friendly and fair trade options or respond to specific requests and popular demand from customers for contentious items such as baby sweet corn from the far east, Chilean blueberries, Zambian sugarsnap peas or Israeli potatoes, dates and garlic etc.

The working policy at present is for staff to source the most local produce first, when available, and only go further afield as demand and availability dictate. So, first local regional, and national, European and then only Turkish Egyptian and Caribbean, for example, last. It appears that any blanket policy will always be practically problematic. Perhaps one way through this would be to progressively develop a policy towards each product line in turn. We could for example begin by insisting on only fair trade produce from our suppliers when we know it is available. Bananas are a good example here, although we have had some poorer quality fair trade bananas in the past, we may decide that that is an inconvenience we are prepared to live with occasionally? Ditto for other fair trade fruits such as apples, avocado, citrus, mango, plum and pear etc.

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