South East Forum For Sustainability

Shopping Healthily and Cheaply

FAQs

1)       Aren’t supermarkets cheap, convenient and full of choice?

Try to avoid shopping in supermarkets if you can help it. Why? Some people avoid them because they love food and care about where it comes from. It can help to know who grew it and especially if you want to support local farmers, and local greengrocers, butchers and bakers. It also really helps if you want to cook and eat the best and freshest food possible.

2)      Isn’t it more time consuming, having to shop in a variety of local shops? 

Changing the way you shop doesn’t have to be time consuming. Try using shops on the way to other places, only buy the things you need by buying a few things at a time and have a list.

You may find it easier in smaller shops because you’re not surrounded by vast isles of things you don’t need so you’re less likely to buy on impulse.  You can ask the butcher, baker or farmer, where the food comes from, is it organic and whether is it local? And you may find on getting to know them that you feel you can influence your local shopkeepers.

3)      What about big and  heavy stuff?

You don’t have to carry heavy foods like rice, tinned tomatoes, and pulses home from the shops. Try buying in bulk with a group of friends from a local organic wholesaler such as Suma. Food buying co-ops makes things cheaper, more convenient and it’s sociable.

4)      The Supermarket sells a big range of fruit and vegetables?

Vegetables from supermarkets especially if they are out of season may have travelled many thousands of miles to get there, taste and quality can suffer as a result. Fresh local seasonal vegetables can come once a week from a local farm, delivered in a box either to you or a neighbour if you want to try negotiating a bulk discount.  Check to see if there is a veg  box scheme near you .Your veg evenings can be something to look forward to – freshly picked spinach, pulled carrots, chillies, purple sprouting broccoli, pumpkins. And as the seasons change, so do the veg.

5)      What about meat and fish? 

With a bit of research, you can buy locally reared meat from farms that run under the principles of community supported agriculture. Maybe try to buy less meat but spend a little more when you do aiming for high quality produce, which has been reared under the best possible animal welfare conditions.

If you live near the sea local fish can be on your doorstep – locally caught fish by fishermen who live and work in your community, what could be better.

Shopping locally may seem more expensive than supermarket shopping where own- brand value ranges can be very cheap, but like-for-like you might begin to question which is cheaper. Local shops may seem to have less choice, but what is the value of choice if the cheap strawberries you buy in mid winter have no taste, or the frozen prawns flown half way round are contributing to climate change through excessive carbon emissions, or the cheap chicken is cheap because its pumped full of water? Choice is more than having a multitude of products to choose from on a supermarket shelf every day of the week. Considering your and the planet’s health in the long term you might find out you’re the one making net savings