Posted on 05/19/2008 7:37:47 PM PDT by blam
Shoppers to 'abandon organic food to cut bills'
By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:29AM BST 20/05/2008
Middle-class shoppers will be forced to abandon organic and fair trade food as inflation continues to climb, a new report warns.
Retailers have not yet reported any fall off in organic food sales
Shoppers who have previously been willing to pay up to 50 per cent more for organic meat, or fair trade coffee, could soon ignore ethical concerns in favour of keeping their shopping bills down.
The prediction comes from the influential forecasting group, the Ernst & Young ITEM club, which warns food inflation – running at 6.6 per cent, according to Government data – could get worse.
Joel Segal, the head of consumer products at the accountancy firm, said: "We are in a perfect economic storm and we are still seeing plenty of dark clouds ahead.
"Higher-end consumers will have to make a trade off. Either they stick to their principles, or – as they batten down the hatches – they may decide that they can live without fair trade or organic in order to avoid cutting back in other areas."
No retailer has reported any fall off in organic food, so far. Indeed, sales of free-range eggs and organic chickens rose earlier this year, following a series of television programmes presented by Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef, highlighting poultry welfare.
However, Mr Segal points out that both organic and fair trade food commands a considerable premium over standard food lines.
Organic chicken at Asda, for instance, costs £14.49 a kilo, compared with £9.98 for a standard chicken, or £6.89 for Asda's value range chickens.
Trading figures suggest that many households are trying to cut down on their food bills by shopping at cheaper supermarkets.
Sales at Aldi, Netto and Lidl, known for their pile-them-high-sell-them-cheap approach to retailing, enjoyed sales growth of 13 per cent on average over the past three months.
Ernst & Young also warns that people at the bottom end of the economic scale will be faced with a far bleaker choice than that facing middle-class shoppers.
"Some will be faced with a tough choice of eating or heating their home," said Mr Segal.
"For some pensioners it will be very tough, but they will either have to rein in their consumption levels or they will have to reduce spending elsewhere."
The Ernst & Young forecast is part of an in-depth report into inflation, which says that 60,000 jobs could be lost in Britain if the Bank of England raises interest rates to keep inflation within the Government's target of two per cent. Last week Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, warned that the official inflation rate, already at three per cent, will probably hit 3.7 per cent later this year.
A spokesman for the Soil Association, the organic food certifying body, said shoppers could save money without ditching their organic favourites by choosing seasonal and local food. Riverfood Organic, which runs one of the largest vegetable box schemes, has found that supermarket organic food, on some lines, is 70 per cent more expensive than the same produce at farmers' markets or local shops.
This month, the Duke of Edinburgh challenged the benefits of organic farming, one of the Prince of Wales's greatest passions. In an interview with Sir Trevor McDonald, the Duke said: "It is not an absolute certainty that it (organic farming) is as useful as it sounds.
"You have got to be emotionally committed to it – but if you stand back and be open minded about it, it is quite difficult to really find where it has been a real benefit.''
Now that's what I call a scheme!
A lady who had come here from Eastern Europe once said to me: “Carrot cake? We had to eat that during the German Occupation!”
I avoid buying anything with an “organic” label on it. Highpriced malarky and in the end no real guarantee that it’s “organic”.
I like the old guy. He might be rude sometimes...but then, so am I.
Same here. The whole "organic" thing is crazy anyway. I mean, if it is grown in or on the ground (vegies, chickens, beef), no matter how, it's still organic.
Living in the country in Vermont, we get plenty of local produce. I just bought a 5 pound jar of local honey yesterday for $13.95, which I thought was a pretty good deal. And from time to time we buy half a pig or a quarter of a cow.
I tend to stand with the Duke on this.
I seriously doubt that most people buy organic because of ethical considerations. Yes, there are fanatical extremists who think that way, but a more likely reason would be the health aspect. I've bought organic before, when it was cheaper that non-organic, or when the difference in quality was extreme. But for the most part, I consider organic to be a passing fad.
Wild dandelions are also great for salad.
Care to elaborate on that? I’ve heard that they’re edible and I’m curious about dandelions as food. Do you use the flower, leaves, stem? Are they bitter, sweet, bland?
Organic food is one of the all-time great scams. There’s not the slightest evidence that it is better for you than food treated with fertilizers and pesticides.
In fact, many vegetables such as broccoli produce their own “natural” pesticides that experiments show to be far more likely to cause cancer than what farmers are allowed to spray on their crops.
Just the leaves. Pick them early before they flower. Make sure you get them from a place that is free of pet droppings. Wash them well. Make a salad from them and use an olive oil and vinegar dressing that is a little heavy in vinegar. Salt them lightly before you dress them.
The taste will be on the bitter side but not as bitter as mature arugala.
Make sure that you know what you are picking.
Yeah, that’s some expensive chicken. Here in GA, chicken is practically free by comparison.
The very last time we shopped at Whole Foods, about 3-4 years ago, we watched at the meat counter (featuring $45/lb veal, BTW), as the butcher weighed out chicken breasts for a customer.I think I recall it being $8/lb. The total was over $40 and she simply said:”I can’t afford that” and walked away.
I am fairly certain that most people in the organic shops are buying a small bit of this and that and loading up on homeopathic remedies and bulk grains. Unless one is wealthy with a guaranteed income and can live without driving,heat or electricity, I do not understand how they can feed a family on organics.
The 2 non-organic grocery stores in my closest town have organic departments. Heavy on grains, nuts, teas and packaged foods. The packaged foods always seem to still be on the shelves and the organic produce looks old and tired and is 2x the price of regular. Organic meat is always frozen.
OTOH, the organic co-op store is packed and seems to be doing well.
Thanks for the tips.
I drive Subarus (the weather here sucks and they are good in the snow) and I am usually flipped off by the unshaven pit skanks that are my fellow Subaru drivers. My stickers are W-04 and Bush-Cheney. When they flip me off I point to my crotch and lick my lips. They leave me alone now.
It would have to be a big f’n chicken to cost $40, even at those prices.
You look like a fellow traveler to other Subaru drivers until they get close, then they realize that you play for the other team.
You then turn into an adversary and traitor to the cause.
I would consider getting some other vehicle. This sort of thing compounds their anger, and they are vicious.
Won’t save us anything since we won’t buy or eat it!
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