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UK Farmers' Markets Sell Supermarket Foods?

Posted by Lia Bulaong, April 10, 2007 at 5:32 PM

Not all farmers' markets in the UK are certified or monitored, and so if you're visiting one caveat emptor definitely applies—the produce you buy may not be any better than what you get at the supermarket:

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.

I'd be really upset if I was going to a farmers' market and buying what I thought were more expensive but locally-grown vegetables from a small farm and they turned out to be experimental stuff from a big supplier, especially if I was making the effort for the safety of children. I imagine there are thousands of people who will be thinking twice before visiting a UK farmers market again, and that's a damn shame. [via The Grinder]

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Tags: eating local, farmers' markets, produce, scandal, UK