Comments on: Power & Responsibility – Chickens & Supermarkets

By: John

John — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:40:00 +0000

At least for vegetables – Larry gave me an old fashioned look when I suggested a cow on the plot!

By: Tracy

Tracy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:03:52 +0000

Or, even better make the allotment your supermarket so you never have to go shopping again!

By: John

John — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:30:50 +0000

Well it’s nice you’re emotionally engaged, but please try to keep the language moderate. Of course I was listening and paying close attention, although there were few surprises to me. I’ve visited a battery farm.
We’ve built a system of institutional corporate greed that utilises our greed. Why can’t people spare the time? Too busy earning to buy another playstation or the latest mobile built by Chinese labourers earning less in a month than they do in a day. Stopping for a coffee that costs more than a south American family get for a days hard work harvesting coffee.
Of course the supermarkets milk the market for every penny – that’s the capitalist system we have. Unless you have a better system, and revolution hasn’t really worked elsewhere, then the only thing to do is vote with your purse.
Do think though, if people haven’t got time to shop then they’ll continue to go to convenient one stop shops, further killing the independant sector – the butcher, the greengrocer and all small shops are very endangered species.

By: caroline

caroline — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:11:48 +0000

I disagree. The consumer is a just a slightly less hapless victim of the power-crazed supermarkets than the suppliers. To wit: the price-fixing of the supermarket milk prices as investigated at snails pace by the competition commission; the fact that the supermarkets in a price war never bring the prices down to anything like that which they pay the supplier; the fact that most families in todays busy society cannot spare the effort to do the shopping around necessary to unseat these monsters from their thrones and, most of all, the fact that the average payment earned by a farmer per chicken is 3 bloody p, werent you listening? It’s profiteering and when we all go over to free range eggs they’ll all have the same price in every supermarket and the egg farmers will still get bugger all per egg. Pardon the french.