Surely, surely, there is somewhere to source raspberries closer to the south of England than this:
I cannot believe that it's economically viable nor can I understand how Tesco considers it to be acceptable to fly raspberries from the USA, considering all that has been said about the environment. And they are, after all, grown in this country. We haven't all be under water.
When I absolutely HAVE to shop in any supermarket (and Tesco are by no means unique) I always check the country of origin and will absolutely not buy that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteSounds strange in my ears too. We're very aware of the environment issues here in Sweden, so it's a big no, no!
ReplyDeleteCare for a peek at the almost secret island? *giggles*
Nowadays fruits come from everywhere, I saw cherries from Turkey and we have cherry trees here (Belgium) too the problem is they are very expensive so supermarkets buy it there were it's the cheapest. I have seen local cherries for 8 € a kg !! Or grapes for 5 ! while those from India only cost 1.50 €. I have to admit I bought the once from India !I compared the Tesco prices with ours here at Carrefour when I was in Eastbourne and I can tell you it's very much the same. And they are also coming from all kind of countries.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we got cars from Japan, deer from New Zealand, Wine from Australia,beef from Argentina, textiles from China etc etc etc
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm confused. I understand about wanting to buy locally grown produce (or nationally grown produce even if not local). I'm missing the part about the environment.
ReplyDeletewell... humm. I'm without words.
ReplyDeleteElaine, yes normally I do check - this slipped my notice.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Lifecruiser, I suspect Sweden is way ahead on all environmental issues.
Gattina, I understand that fruit from Turkey or India could be less expensive to produce than in Belgium where I expect wages and other costs are high. But the USA?
Janeway, I was thinking about the carbon emissions produced by air freighting fruit all that way. There have been discussions here about producers selling to supermarkets who then transport the produce to their depots, only to redistribute them, sometimes back where they came from. Carbon
emissions have become very newsworthy recently.
I can cope with the idea of buying in things we don't grow here eg bananas, avocados, and I would like to support developing nations, but neither seems to apply in this particular case.
And I have my doubts about buying green haricot beans from Kenya when they can be found almost knee deep in France. Would they not be better growing food crops for themselves? But then of course it's probably more profitable to sell the green beans.
When you start considering it properly, as Tor says, you have to start thinking about cars and everything else. It is a hugely complex question.
Shelby, sorry to render you speechless!! :)