Ok, this scandal is an old one. But I've finally had time to read through my pile of New Scientist magazines and came across an article on DNA testing to help identify what animal is actually in the food we're eating. And then, of course, the news came out this week that the fish we think we're eating, due to the labelling, isn't actually the fish we're eating. So it got me thinking, again, about false advertising and cheap food......really cheap food!
Now, there's not actually any health risk with eating horse instead of cow (as long as they don't contain any of the compounds not usually allowed to be given to animals intended for consumption) or pollock instead of cod. And there's definitely nothing wrong with us opening up the number of animals we're prepared to eat for environmental reasons. (I also find it a little odd that, as a nation, we're happy to eat cows and pigs, but are horrified by the idea of eating a horse. An animal most of us will spend no actual time with, and certainly no more than we would with the other animals we've marked for the pot.) But, as consumers, we should be able to trust the information given to us on the label so that we can then make an informed decision about the food that we eat. How can you choose the most environmentally friendly and health friendly product if you don't actually know what in the product actually is?
But the big question is, can we really completely blame the supermarkets and only supermarkets? Yes, we should be able to trust the information they give us. Yes, we should be able to trust that the people we're giving our hard earned money to are providing us with what we're expecting to get. But can we really be so suprised that the people we have trusted implicity, without double checking, have behaved in the same manner with their suppliers, who they give their money too. We expect our superarkets to check everything that they supply to us so that we don't have to, but they expect their suppliers to do exactly the same.
For me, the people who are really to blame is us, the consumer, and our want of cheap food. I say want and not need as, for many of us, we can afford to spend more on our food. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that in 2012 16.1% of families in the UK were living in poverty. This is a terrible number for a developed country with the wealth that we have, and we need to ensure that this is dealt with. But it also means that 83.9% of us can afford to pay the price that food actually costs, we just choose not to. Afterall the truth still holds 'You get what you pay for', and when you pay only £1.50 for an entire meal you can't be too suprised that the quality isn't great, the product not as nutrious as it should be, and the meat isn't exactly what you thought it.
Of course, we never used to be like this. Information collected the Office of National Statistics on household spending over the last sixty odd years has shown that in 1957 33% of the household expenditure was spent on food. In 2011 it was down to 11%. But our spending on other items, such as electrical equipment, and travelling has doubled. As consumers we are choosing to spend money on TVs and CDs over good quality food, and then we're suprised that this has turned out to be a bit of disaster. We don't even know, or really care, where the food we're getting comes from or how the animals who provide this substance are treated. To us it's of no importance, as long as its cheap.
I could go on, but there is a blog that says it much better: 'Horse meat - the hardest thing to digest is that it's your fault.' My favourite part is one of the comments that states that it entirely the supermarkets fault, and only their fault, because they 'persuaded' the public to buy cheap food. Yes, because we were so against it, really didn't want the cheapest we could get, were dubious about this cheap food, said no repeated........but slowly and surely the supermarkets worked at us until we gave in to the cheapness. Did they f**k. We've always gone for the cheapest, complained that even that was too expensive, and shopped somewhere else if we thought we could get in cheaper. As consumers we control the products and the prices. Its time we did so more responsibly.
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