AN ENGLISH APPLE A DAY KEEPS ASDA AWAY

A couple of weeks ago I read a wonderful article on English apples, with ten varieties receiving a “review”, and a staggering further twenty highlighted. With taste buds flowing I toddled of to my local supermarket (my local fruit shop was closed for his holiday) only to find they didn’t have one native apple for sale! (It was Asda Boldon). I was however, amazed at the quantity of foreign fruit and veg which stood piled high in the isles; rocket from Israel, broccoli from Italy, onions from Egypt, but for some reason not one English apple. The other issue which troubled me was the amount of organic fresh food stuffs which had been flown thousands of miles to hit our shelves. Today’s “Telegraph” article on such items then, came as no surprise to me. Here’s a small but telling selections of organic veg sold in two supermarkets;

SAINSBURY’S: MANGETOUT: ZAMBIA: FLOWN 4900 MILES

SAINSBURY’S: DWARF BEANS: EGYPT: FLOWN 2200 MILES

TESCO’S BABY CORN: THAILAND: FLOWN 3900 MILES

TESCO’S GREEN BEANS: EGYPT: FLOWN 2200 MILES

Now I’m no expert on green matters, but the “carbon foot print” of all these flights must be horrific (perhaps Rossinisbird can supply the figures). With the carbon omissions of these flights falling to earth via rainfall, surely we are contributing to more and more polluted land and hence the demise of the organic tag. Anybody who has been to “Brockbushes Farm Shop” outside of Hexham or indeed any local farmers market is well aware that we don’t need to fly our veg half way across the world, we are quite capable of producing the quality and quantity ourselves! Especially apples!

Perhaps David Miliband should stop playing around with coloured rubbish bins and stop paying lip service to corporate business. By insisting that supermarkets buy locally or nationally whenever possible, he can not only protect the environment, but sustain farms and arable land into the bargain.