Hello friends,
Under strict instruction to rest, I've been avoiding the shops for the past couple of weeks and looking into the best grocery delivery service. The ‘best’ for me is a balance of value, convenience, flexibility and sustainability. As there's not much else I can do at the moment without immediately requiring a nap, and because of my general personality, I probably gave this more thought than it necessarily required.
Trying to juggle the criteria became challenging (read: annoying) and comparing supermarkets spawned other kinds of spiralling questions. How do I know that ‘extra special' or ‘finest’ is actually any different than normal version? Shouldn't ‘higher welfare' and ‘sustainably sourced' standards be the bare minimum anyway? How many ultra-processed foods a day will kill me? Is paper actually better than plastic if it's wrapped around kitchen roll? Do any of my choices even make a difference? I could be struck down tomorrow and I will have spent my last evening on Earth having an existential crisis triggered by bolognese.
The Good Place, a sitcom about the afterlife which I highly recommend watching, explains very neatly how even well-meaning actions have unintended consequences when a man buys his grandmother roses but it ultimately counts against him in the grand moral points total: 'Because he ordered roses using a cell phone that was made in a sweatshop. The flowers were grown with toxic pesticides, picked by exploited migrant workers, delivered from thousands of miles away, which created a massive carbon footprint, and his money went to a billionaire racist CEO who sends his female employees pictures of his genitals.' No more roses for grandma then, although fortunately all my grandparents are already dead.
Let's say I was only prioristising shopping with a sustainable brand. According to European Supermarket Magazine [1] and their scoring system, the most sustainable supermarket in the UK is Waitrose. Unfortunately it’s also the most expensive, according to a Which shopping basket review [2], and in reality I do have to consider cost (sign up for a paid subscription below). The effect is also seen in reverse: Asda and Aldi are the least sustainable but first and third for value. The second is Lidl, which sits happily in the middle of the sustainablity list too, so perhaps that's a good compromise.
It's sadly unsurprising that brands with relatively sustainable practices are generally more expensive. We can, of course, make sustainable choices at cheaper supermarkets but making these decisions for every item you buy requires an investment of time, research and, frankly, patience that not everyone can spare. For many it's hard enough to get food on the table as it is without adding the extra responsibility of the planet. The Food Foundation reported that 15% of UK households were living in food insecurity in January 2024, which is equivalent to approximately eight million adults and three million children [3].
There must be small actions from big brands that could help us to make better choices. Put all the in-season products in one place. Suggest sustainble swaps that are realistic (like haddock? Try hake!). Stop trying to entice us into buying unhealthy products and stop wrapping things that already have wrappers (citrus fruits, I'm looking at you). The rest of us just have to do our best with what we've got. If we can make one healthy or sustainable choice a day then surely that will help overall. Surely!
The morale of this story is that food shopping is not as enjoyable online as it is in person and I miss my greengrocer. He used to try and guess what I was cooking based on what was in my basket, and being under house-arrest 100 miles away has really scuppered this weekly fun. Once he left me to man the shop when he went to get a coffee - I turned around and he had vanished without a word, returning a few minutes later enitrely unabashed. Really, I should simply be counting my blessings that my usual home is within walking distance of a greengrocer, and the next time I skip down there for a squash, limes, coriander, red onions, garlic, tomatoes and spring onions I will certainly be doing so*.
Deb
*Squash wraps, if you're wondering.
References
https://www.esmmagazine.com/retail/waitrose-ranked-as-one-of-the-uks-most-sustainable-brands-255794
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/supermarkets/article/supermarket-price-comparison-aPpYp9j1MFin
https://foodfoundation.org.uk/press-release/families-stuck-food-insecurity-are-buying-less-fruit-and-veg-uks-health-divide-widens