Why I don't like Supermarkets.

I really dislike supermarkets. I recognise they are a fact of modern economic life. They now account for 85p of every £ that we spend on food. the figure goes up every year.

Supermarkets have huge power over the food we eat at every step between the farm and the factory to our tables. Tesco is now dominating food retail in Eastern Europe and is making its way into India, China and the U.S.

I know you will say that there is a lot to like about supermarkets such as convenience - you can whizz round with your trolley, you can compare prices, you can shop at all hours including Sundays. You can buy products out of season from all over the world.

The giant leap in supermarket popularity came in the 1980s. They drained the little shops of business. Gone are most of the butcher's shops and the small bakeries. My father-in-law used to have a butcher's shop. His customers came several times a week and if they had to wait he would include them in the conversation he was having with his current customer so that everyone got to know everyone else and this help build a community in its own small way. He knew just what sort of meat they would like and how much they could afford to pay.

An uncle had a small bakery. He, too, knew his customers individually and delivered bread and cakes out to them. All that is gone now, even the milkman is struggling to make a living because of supermarket competition.

For suppliers, 2/3 have been asked to enter into an exclusive supply arrangement where they are not allowed to supply any one else. So that all their eggs are in one basket. Most suppliers feel they have little or no control over the price they are paid. Most suppliers have seen their profits go down because of competition from overseas suppliers. They are also often asked to contribute to the supermarkets marketing costs and feel they have to agree. Sometimes they have to pay to keep the product on the shelf or offer rebates for unsold stock. Sometimes they are told the price the supermarket would pay was to be reduced but were not told this until the goods were about to be delivered.

What about food waste? The Soil Association estimate that supermarkets reject 40% of fruit and vegetables just on cosmetic grounds. What a waste! Apples, for instance, are scanned by a computer and checked for natural blemishes before they can go on sale. produced is bagged and barcoded before being put on sale because it is easier to track them then. For all this, though, you will often see tired-looking vegetables and fruit in supermarkets. Incidently, don't believe the offers you see about discounts on fruit and vegetables in supermarkets. Because they are perishable, they are exempt from the 28 day legislation that other products have to abide by and it often means that the price was inflated the previous day so that it could be lowered and shown as an "offer".

Much of the fish in supermarkets is a bit tired. Supermarkets introduced fresh fish counters as (in the words of Sir Ken Morrison" a) a little bit of theatre. This led to fishmongers shops closing all over the country. Let's look at meat. Supermarkets think that the public want bright red meat. Any real butcher will tell you that hanging and ageing meat will enhance the flavour and is crucial to the taste but in supermarkets this is kept to a minimum. Many supermarkets import meat from South America!

So-called supermarket in-store bakeries are simply reheating dough. The bread is stuffed with preservatives.

The supermarkets' use of road transport is huge and you just have to look at any motorway to see how many supermarket trucks and lorries are on the roads.

I haven't even mentioned the "best before" date con or the "use by" sell by " fiasco and the devastating effect on the farming industry.

Staying in the Lake District we came upon Booths which is a supermarket chain based in Preston. It doesn't attempt to copy the big supermarkets and doesn't compete on price but it uses local suppliers for everything from local beers to dairy products, vegetables and bread.

If only all supermarkets were like this we wouldn't really need to worry quite as much.