I want food suppliers who care

My last post hasn’t raised any comments here, but I know it has been read. In the last couple of days, I have been lectured twice in person. Once by a friend who explained to me how “organic” was all a con, and it had been “proved scientifically” that it was no better than non-organic. Another friend spoke to me as if I was a child, explaining (or rather parroting) that the horsemeat scandal was not a food safety issue, but simply a question of food labelling fraud.

Frankly, they are both totally missing the point.

I am not at all concerned whether I have eaten horse. I have eaten it knowingly while in France and quite enjoyed it. My anger at the affair is that if someone is prepared to substitute horse for beef (and, in some cases, pork for beef), they have blatently shown that they don’t give a fuck. They could equally be serving up any old crap, as long as it turns them a profit. They can’t be trusted, and I have no wish to do business with them.

If the supermarkets can’t keep a hold on their suppliers – they seem to have been as surprised as we all were – then they can’t be trusted either.

On the other hand, I buy organic produce not because I believe it is a lot healthier than non-organic. I buy it because the producer has shown a willingness and commitment to taking an effort over what they are producing. I buy it because the supplier believes in what they are doing, and stands by their produce. I buy it because the organic ethos means that I can be assured of what is *not* in my food. And I buy it because the majority of it is from local farms, and is picked to order, which means it is generally only 2 days out of the ground when it arrives on my doorstep.

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