Update : 11th November 2008
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Christmas deliveries ...
The last deliveries before Christmas will be Tues 23rd and Wed 24th December. We may transfer Wed 24th afternoon deliveries to Tuesday 23rd evening, so please let us know if this would be a problem for you! Please note, there will be no deliveries the following week (30th and 31st Dec).
Local food...
The statement made this week by Sainsbury CEO Justin King that the call for more British product in shops equates to protectionism is right – though not in the sense he means. Our food supply is much more fragile than the supermarkets would have us believe, and unless we re-develop, and protect, a mechanism by which more food produced locally can sensibly be distributed to the local population, then we are probably heading for trouble.
If the supermarket’s just-in-time deliveries stopped for any reason (temporary stoppage such as a haulier strike anywhere in the world or a fire at a regional depot; or a longer term breakdown of the global transport system due to high oil prices, or reduced exports from overseas due to declining productivity resulting from water shortage and soil degradation) where could you get your food? Of course you get your veg from us – but we are currently a very small business and can only supply a fraction (less than 1%) of the local population. So, who are the other food producers in Grampian from whom you might be able to buy - and by this I mean growers, or beef/lamb/pork/poultry finishers (rather than food processors, who take primary product, often from anywhere in the world, and make it into shortbread, whisky, and other food products for which Scotland is esteemed). It is a question that we recently asked the Council and Business Gateway, who between them hold a register of businesses in the area and have access to all the current databases. No-one could tell us the answer. They can produce a list of local businesses which provide internet services, those which repair cars, sell bathrooms or do almost anything you can think of, with the exception of those producing food. Food producers in Grampian are virtually invisible. Does that mean that there are none? Of course not – there are many farmers producing barley, wheat and oats for sale; there are some growing potatoes - though a high proportion of these are for seed not eating, and veg is generally in very short supply; and there are farmers finishing animals for meat, or producing eggs. But they are largely unknown to the public and much of their produce is sucked into the supermarket system, via large processors and packers, to be trucked for miles to a central depot, and then sent to anywhere in the UK; and some is exported - a key goal of the government’s food body, “ScotLand of Food and Drink”. A large amount of locally produced food is not consumed locally because the local infrastructure has been destroyed. The number of independent grocers in this area can be counted on one hand, and independent butchers are not much more numerous. Most farmers could not sell any significant quantity of produce to local people even if they wanted to, because there is virtually no mechanism in place for them to do so. Going it alone and setting up an independent sales system selling direct from the farm means that in addition to being a farmer (i.e. a grower/herdsman, soil scientist, mechanic, etc - at least in the early days - you also have to be salesperson, database manager, customer relationship manager, marketing manager, accounts manager, logistics & distribution manager and internet/web controller, because build costs, rates and staffing mean a physical shop is usually out of the question. A tall order, especially since the average age of a British farmer is 59, and learning new skills tends to get harder as you get older!
So it was a breath of fresh air this week to attend a meeting organised by the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (who support Farming co-ops) for farmers interested in forming a local food hub for this area. Albeit there were a relatively small number of participants – but it is a start! It will be an uphill task for sure, but we are hopeful it can work – watch this space!
