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| These unknown but colourful veggies can't be refused, can they? |
In a meeting I
visited recently, someone was explaining us about the difficulties of the
current food production system. It was actually a very obvious explanation, but
– like happens often – something I personally had never thought of. The speaker gave us a new perspective to the
things: if today all consumers decide to stop eating salads (just a random
example), the retailer can only react on this after a few weeks or maybe even
months. He namely already has contracts with suppliers (read: farmers) that he cannot
cancel. After a few months, the retailer cancelled his contract and solved his
problem. But there is still the producer who probably spent a lot of money to
make his farm completely fit for the cultivation of salad: he has specially
designed green-houses, a water installation only suited for watering this crop,
his staff is educated to grow the best salads, etc. He made investments he was
going to pay back in the coming years but suddenly it all turned out to be
worthless.
Off course
the scenario discussed is not about to happen overnight and especially so
drastic. But there definitely is a serious possibility that these problems
occur, think of the bird flu or the cucumber disease only a few years ago.
Suddenly people stopped buying these products, even when it was sure they were
not affected by the problems. It costs farmers and national governments
millions of euros to cover the insurances. And then I’m not even talking about
the waste it created.
Back to the
magazine I mentioned earlier. This supermarket is
proposing an agreement between farmer, retailer and costumer to buy whatever
the farmer has on offer. It does not matter whether it is a strange looking or
unknown product, the supermarket puts it in its shelves. It helps give the
farmer a more secure income (remember that he has to plan far more ahead than
our daily shopping decisions) and it gives the supermarket the security that
its clientele buy the products at a fair price for all groups concerned.
This method
seems the solutions for the schedule a farmer is working in. However, it is a
paradigm when talking about the call to ‘vote with your fork’. It gives the
power to the farmer and makes the consumer his servant.
This can be
solved. It actually is already solved by people who joined a community that purchases
directly from the supplier*. They
communicate with the farmer and agree beforehand on the products they are going
to buy. If you want a specific kind of tomatoes or zucchini he will grow it. Where
in Italy this phenomenon is already known for years, recently it is upcoming in
the rest of the western world as well.
So maybe,
unless the actual discussions about consumers influence, we should not forget
about the farmers’ role. It is about the balance between what we (the consumer)
want and what he (the farmer) can. If you go shopping tomorrow, choose those
products that are in season, local and have a fair price. You then probably
made the right choice.
*called
Community Supported Agriculture in the USA or Gruppo d’Acquisto Solidale in
Italy
