Saturday, March 16, 2013

Where Did Your Corn Grow?

It's no secret that Woolworths and Coles together hold a duopoly over the Australian Grocery market. Whether you are discussing the wine market, the devastating effect it is currently having on our dairy farmers, or the consequences of their sheer market power due to their ~80% share, it's all bad news.

Except of course for you the consumer, you get a great deal, in fact it's a steal. Because your savings are coming straight out of the pockets of our local farmers and if we don't start taking care of them, pretty soon we won't have any. Not to mention the true cost to the environment doing crazy things like transporting oranges from California to Australia aren't even considered in the monetary equation.

What's the solution? Farmers markets are becoming more and more popular, which is great, but they are typically only on once a week, with a 3-6 hour window.

On my recent 6500 km drive across Australia, I stayed a few days with my sister in Canberra. Her local shops contained one of the coolest shops I've ever visited! Choku Bai Jo sells produce from local farmers. The goal for the shop was to give farmers another outlet for their fresh produce making it easier for the public to access it.


What a great idea!
 
 
The farmers name, growing region and distance from Canberra are listed whenever possible.
 
 
In case you can't read the blue sign in this photo it says
 
 EVERYTHING WITH A COLOURED LABEL
IS FROM A LOCAL GROWER WE KNOW AND TRUST.
 
I don't expect supermarkets to do this, they operate with such big volumes. These days woolies have maps with little green dots of growing regions, but you don't know WHERE exactly your particular cucumber came from in this wide land of ours.
 
 
My sister grabbing some grapes.

The corn in this photo was from Mona Park in Queensland, some 2215 km from Canberra. I don't think even Australians appreciate the true expanse of our country. It makes the argument for buying locally grown tricky. But shouldn't we be making an informed choice regardless?

Its a complicated problem, with no simple solution, but I know every carrot you buy at a farmers market is a win for local growers. Support them!

 
Buy local honey!
 
 
.... blue signs all round, would you care for some local cabbage?
 

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