In the spring sunshine a short walk from London’s Sloane Square, affluent
mothers in their cashmere throws were yesterday strolling happily through a
rustic tableau. Around them were stalls heaving with fresh produce and an
array of cheeses, meats and juices pressed from Kent fruit.
A similar scene was being played out across London, from Ealing to Notting
Hill; and the rest of the country, from Windsor in Berkshire to Midsomer
Norton in Somerset. Farmers in corduroy trousers, checked jacket and
wellingtons, selling their produce on stalls in towns and cities throughout
Britain.
These “farmers’ markets” are seen by many as the vanguard of Britain’s food
revolution, giving consumers the chance to cut out the supermarkets and
their industrial methods and buy direct from the farmers themselves. To many
rural smallhold-ers, the burgeoning markets are a lifeline, and to city
residents and politicians they are widely hyped as a mechanism for bringing
back quality, integrity and accountability into Britain’s food chain.
But despite the nostalgic scenes yesterday, a Sunday Times investigation has
found evidence that farmers’ markets — motto: “we grow it, we sell it” — are
not all they seem.
Consider, for example, Isle of Wight Tomatoes, one of the most established
stallholders at London’s numerous farmers’ markets. It looks like a small,
traditional enterprise and claims to sell its own homegrown produce. Think
again. Its tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers are bought from a separate
company, Wight Salads, the bulk of whose £60m turnover comes from supplying
supermarket chains.
Worse, as far as many green consumers may be concerned, many of the tomatoes
are actually experimental genetic crossbreeds that Wight Salads is
engineering to try to find the “next best thing” for the supermarkets. In
short, these tomatoes are a far cry from traditional British produce
homegrown in a smallholding.
“They [Wight Salads] crossbreed to increase the flavour a little, increase the
colour, increase the yield,” explained Jeff MacDonald, a director of Isle of
Wight Tomatoes, the company that sells them on farmers’ market stalls. “That
trial produce comes to farmers’ markets.”
It’s a very good business. Nonorganic cherry tomatoes bought from Isle of
Wight Tomatoes and weighing 455g (16oz) fetch £3.50 at the Pimlico farmers’
market stall. At Tesco you can pick up the equivalent weight of organic
cherry tomatoes for £1.78. Ordinary tomatoes like the ones The Sunday Times
bought from the market cost even less and the equivalent weight can be
bought at Tesco for £1.26.
Isle of Wight Tomatoes is not the only stallholder jeopardising the reputation
and integrity of farmers’ markets. The markets are only supposed to stock
“local produce”, but last week we discovered spinach from Portugal and Spain
— produced by another supermarket supplier — being sold at a farmers’ market
in Kent.
We also found evidence that even legitimate stallholders are “topping up”
their locally grown produce with vegetables bought from Britain’s wholesale
markets.
One undercover reporter was told that city folk would not know the difference,
especially if the produce came with “a bit of dirt on”.
So who is making up the rules for farmers’ markets? Are they being properly
enforced? And how can the customer be certain they are not being duped? IN
the summer of 1997, Bath became the first city in the country to have a
farmers’ market, hoping to emulate the French tradition of farmers
congregating in the town square to sell their produce. It was an instant
success, with more than 3,000 people attending.
There are now 550 farmers’ markets across the country with an estimated income
of more than £220m a year.
While the key principle of local produce sold by the farmer or principal
producer is clear, regulation is piecemeal and confused. The National
Farmers’ Retail & Markets Association (Farma) certifies about 170
of the farmers’ markets and uses an independent inspection body to check its
markets.
Under Farma’s rules, produce must typically be sourced from within a 30-mile
radius, although this can be extended up to 100 miles for markets in London.
A principal producer or someone directly involved in production must be on
the stall.
Other farmers’ markets are, however, not certified and rely largely on
consumer trust. Many in the wholesale trade view some of the market stalls
as a means of selling wholesale vegetables at premium prices to gullible
urbanites.
An undercover Sunday Times reporter who visited New Covent Garden market in
Vauxhall, south London, at 4am was told that farmers’ market stallholders
and farm shop owners were among regular customers.
Posing as someone wishing to set up a farmers’ market stall, the reporter was
told to sell vegetables that looked as if they had just been pulled from the
ground. “[You need] a bit of dirt on it . . . you shouldn’t buy anything
that’s washed,” said one of the market workers.
Another market worker, Danny Jenkins, who works for Lodge Wholesale, said
farmers’ market stallholders and farm shop owners bought from the market if
they ran out of their own produce. When it was put to him that this was
misleading customers, he said: “Nothing is as it seems. There is always a
sleight of hand.”
One of the regular customers at New Covent Garden wholesale market is Bill
Kelsey, who has a farm shop in Sidcup, Kent, and who occasionally attends
farmers’ markets. When he was approached by the undercover reporter, he
explained how some farmers sold wholesale produce to unsuspecting customers.
He said: “If you’ve got to buy it from the market, then just stick it in your
own boxes before you go to the [farmers’] market. You’ve got to dress it up
how you want it.
“Don’t take it in the Spanish black box or take it in a box that says
‘Lincolnshire Produce’. It’s common sense. You can work it out. There are
times of the year [the customer] knows you can’t get it, so you have to be a
bit shrewd.”
When approached by The Sunday Times last week, Kelsey said he had never sold
wholesale produce at a farmers’ mark et and had been explaining to the
reporter how some people break the rules. He admitted selling wholesale
produce in his farm shop, but said it was made clear which was grown
locally.
Even the most established stallholders in reputable farmers’ markets suggested
to The Sunday Times last week that “topping up” produce from other farms did
take place. As one stallholder said: “Your next-door neighbour has got
cauliflowers and your next lot wouldn’t be ready until Mon-day? What would
you do? Is that breaking rules or is just bending them?”
Farma says there have been “less than half a dozen” farms who have been asked
to stop selling because of suspicions over whether they are really growing
the produce. The vast majority of producers, Farma says, complied with the
rules.
Isle of Wight Tomatoes last week admitted it was not growing its own produce,
but said stallholders regularly visited the farm where the fruit and
vegetables were grown to learn about production. The operation was now under
review to ensure it complies with farmers’ market rules.
A spokesman for Wight Salads said the company was not involved in the farmers’
markets. “Isle of Wight Tomatoes is selling produce purchased from us.”
Cheryl Cohen, of London Farmers’ Markets, said that while some stallholders
might occasionally fail to comply with the rules, it was the noncertified
farmers’ markets that should raise the most concerns.
She said: “There are fish stalls on some markets where the sellers are told
they can bring in prawns from Malaysia. It makes a mockery of the whole
thing.”
Gareth Jones, managing agent of Farma, said the best way to safeguard the
integrity of the markets was for them all to be properly certified. Farma
was considering new procedures that would certify stallholders.
“If customers have suspicions about the origin of the produce, they should
walk away from the stall and report it,” he said. “It is also best to visit
certified markets that are subject to independent checks.”
Additional reporting: Tom Baird
Modern food is a complicated business
Organic food
Sales of organic food rose by 30% last year, with the industry now worth £1.6
billion. The Soil Association, which regulates organic food, argues that
meat, vegetables and dairy produced without pesticides are likely to be
healthier.
But David Miliband, the environment secretary, dealt the organic food industry
a blow when he recently called it “a lifestyle choice” and said there was no
evidence that it was healthier for consumers.
Producers have also been accused of compromising standards in the face of
growing demand. A Sunday Times investigation found that organic chickens —
sold in supermarkets at more than twice the price of conventional poultry —
are being bred from parent flocks kept in windowless sheds and fed on a diet
that includes nonorganic soya and fishmeal.
Free range eggs
To gain free range status, chickens must have had continuous daytime access to
open-air runs during for at least half their lifetime. Free range eggs cost
90p to £1 for six eggs, compared with 40p to 50p for factory farm eggs.
GM food
When genetically modified (GM) food was first introduced to Britain a decade
ago, it was heralded as a revolution in food technology. It promised to
deliver new crops that could be grown using fewer pesticides, less water and
giving a higher yield on less land. It was, however, dubbed “Frankenstein
food” by opponents and British supermarkets removed GM ingredients from
their products.
Labelling
The Food Standards Agency has introduced “traffic light” style warnings to
alert shoppers to unhealthy foods. The voluntary front-of-pack scheme has
won the backing of Sainsbury, Waitrose, Asda, Marks & Spencer, the Coop
and McCain.
The agency is also pressing the EU to revise rules on food labelling after
discovering consumers were being misled by the country of origin
regulations. It was confirmed during the avian flu outbreak this year that
Bernard Matthews can import turkey carcasses from Hungary, process the
breast meat in the UK and then label it “product of Britain”.
Old food
Food is sometimes stored for months before it is sold. Apples are treated with
1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) so they can by kept in cold storage for up to a
year.
Advertising
Junk foods are being banned from television advertisements targeted at
children. The criteria for the ban has, however, been criticised as confused
and unfair: cheese and Marmite are banned, while oven chips and Diet Coke
can still be advertised.
Supermarket power
Dairy farmers have held regular protests for years over the price supermarkets
pay for milk. This week, Tesco announced it would source milk direct from
the farmer and increase the price paid for a litre of milk to 22p without
passing the cost onto the consumer.
Fairtrade
The Fairtrade mark was introduced as a guarantee that producers in the
developing world would get a better deal, with fair wages and working
conditions. But Nestlé recently announced it was launching its own “fair
trade” instant coffee. One lobby group, the World Development Movement, said
the launch of the coffee was more likely to be an attempt “to cash in a
growing market” rather than a “fundamental shift in Nestlé’s business
model”.
Farm bluffer’s guide
- Roll your vegetables around in the mud to give them an authentic farmers’
market look and you mark up your prices accordingly. Islington folk also
like to see a couple of bruises
- Tear off any labels saying Spanish or Grown in Argentina or “gassed and
stored for the best part of a year by Tesco”. Replace sticker giving the
name of a quaint sounding farm or Locally Grown
- Never overestimate city folk. If you say the figs, avocados and pomegranates
you are selling have been grown at your farm in Aberdeen they’ll almost
certainly believe you
- Learn the lingo: “heifers” are female cows, not overweight people. Also give
yourself and your (Polish) stallholders names like Tess and Gabriel —
anything out of a Thomas Hardy novel works a treat
- Remember to arrive early at your local wholesale market to “top up” your
stall. As one farmer said last week: “You’ve watched those vegetables grow
up as if they were your own kids . . . so is [adding a few extra] breaking
the rules or just bending them?”
- Ditch your normal weekend clothes and get wellies, a smock and a cap or
scarf on your head. If someone starts asking too many questions, chew some
straw
- Don’t worry too much about getting a real farmer to work on your stalls.
Polish workers will do the trick, but it’s better if they speak a bit of
English and look a bit rustic
- Get a CD of farmyard noises and make sure it plays in the background for
added credibility. Most city folk will find the presence of cows on an
arable farm reassuring, however unlikely
- Don’t get confused with the seasons: remember, you grew the vegetables
during the summer and harvested them in the early autumn. Don’t slip up in
the winter months by saying you need to slip out and pick a few more spuds
when supplies on the trestle tables are low
- Drink a bottle of cider before opening for business so that your breath has
“authenticity”. Sprinkle your conversation with the word “scrumpy”. It
doesn’t matter that you live in Hull
- Have a rant about modern pesticides. Make it clear to customers that you
only use the countryside’s natural fertilisers. You will win their undying
loyalty
