I don’t know for sure, but I think many of the people who visit my web site and buy my books feel the same way as I do. We’re not consumers, we’re people! We reject the manipulation and control that the big organisations and especially the supermarkets want to impose.
Now in the UK, our biggest supermarket is Tesco. This multi-billion pound, international operation has it’s fingers in every pie (where it thinks it can make a buck) so naturally it’s the main enemy in the eyes of many of us.
Personally, I think Tesco are just an example of a capitalist structure that puts corporate profit before people and the problem is the system that encourages, in fact legally demands, that they pursue profits nearly above all.
I don’t think we can or should pull down the capitalist system, that’s the system that works and has provided the standard of living we enjoy. But like any system it needs checks and balances to ensure fairness to all.
Look at what the banks have done to us. Would that have happened if they’d been properly regulated, subject to limits?
Anyway, to the point of my confused political rant. A friend sent me this link to an article on the Telegraph web site. Tescos have applied for planning permission to create 30 allotments on land it owns. These will be available, if all goes well, next spring.
They’re also getting into selling chickens, hens and chicken coops! If you watched Hugh fighting his chicken out campaign, then the irony will not escape you.
According to the Telegraph article:
Tesco will sell allotment “starter kits” along with the allotments, giving customers all the products they need to sustain the patch of ground.
I suppose there had to be a catch and as their accountant no doubt says “Every Little Helps!”
You couldn’t make it up could you…
Only Tesco would have the front to market the anti-consumerist lifestyle as a lifestyle product.
I’m all for making food growing accessible to people from different walks of life, but I’ll stick to my old-fashioned kit-free allotment and home-grown chicks if that’s OK with the rest of you!
Liz
Couldn’t agree more, Liz. Imagine the board meeting.. “What shall we do with these grow your own nuts? They’re not buying enough”
Hmmmmmmmmm! Well, like many of the visitors to this site, I’m no fan of Tescos et al, and the cynic in me says this is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
On the other hand, with such a shortage of allotments here in the UK at present, it has to be good news if more are being made available.
For the Tescos board of directors, it seems like a case of “damned if we do, damned if we don’t!”
I remember when Bejams (roughly equating to Iceland in today’s terms) started selling seeds among their frozen food. There was a nicely written article by the Chairman who explained his passion for growing his own garden-fresh vegetables, but at the same time he explained that if the time spent was calculated they were the most expensive food that his family ate.
But it was a good marketing ploy because it was a ‘pre-Green’ expression of the company’s appreciation of the value of growing your own.