An economical truth .
. .
Roger Hicks
RAH@spaceship-earth.org
18 November 2002
Sir - I admire the
Prince of Wales's noble intentions when he invited the heads of the major
supermarkets to a meeting at Highgrove for talks on their treatment of farmers,
but his naivete in thinking that it might change anything suggests to me that
he has never been shopping in any of their stores [Prince's
farm price talks, 16 November 2002].
We have got used to, and now take for granted, the pushy and grotesquely
seductive sales culture that pervades Britain's large supermarkets. Within, and
without, the supermarket everything is geared to getting customers to buy as
much as possible, appealing to our deep-rooted desire for a bargain. Advertised
reductions, buy one get one free offers, a percentage of a product more free,
the list of strategies designed to ensnare us is endless and added to the mix
is the potent lure of loyalty points and vouchers, all with the single purpose
of increasing turnover.
Customers are encouraged to want and expect as much as possible for as little
as possible. With shareholders to satisfy and the competition from other
supermarket chains, how can they possibly avoid turning the screws on the farmers,
who in turn screw their employees, their animals and the land that they work?
What is needed is a reversal of attitude to one that prepares us to pay more
for our food, not begrudgingly, but thankful that farmers can be paid a fair
price, that agricultural workers receive a fair wage, that farm animals are
kept humanely and the countryside protected, its productivity, beauty and
diversity conserved for the generations to come after us.
Modern economics has given divine status to the roles of competition and
rationalisation in its worship of the bottom line, profit. This is prevalent
not only in agriculture, but it is here that the effects carry the most
grotesque consequences for us all. Organic farming, when conducted in the
deeply moral spirit in which it was conceived and not having the amoral laws of
the market forced upon it, is the way ahead and provides a template for the way
we conduct humane and sustainable economic activity in general.