How should we consider the potential broader ramifications of Coles’ recent promise to reduce by 50% the price of fresh fruit and vegetables?
In the face of cheap fruit and vegetables, it is hard to take seriously concerns about our future food security and health. After all, why worry about tomorrow when fresh, seasonal, healthy food is so cheap today?
However, food security requires reliable supply, access and distribution of nutritionally sound food. While Coles promotes the price-cuts as a win-win for producers and consumers, claiming they have helped farmers offload stock that would otherwise go to waste, the current state of overproduction demonstrates the very volatility of our food supply.
It is worth keeping in mind the bigger picture to this debate. In recent years concerns about the potential impact of climate change on future food security, rising concerns about the health impact of artificial chemicals and a growing obesity epidemic have increasingly politicised what we eat and how it is grown.
The rise of a global industrial agriculture system and world food economy has intensified the disconnect between people and the food they consume, rendering invisible the pathways food travels before arriving on our plates.
At the same time, this food system and the supermarkets it supplies have enabled cities to thrive by freeing people from the constraints of food production. But this has resulted in people in urban populations losing the knowledge of how to produce our own food. This in part has also led to a loss of cooking knowledge, an over-reliance on convenience food and an increase in obesity and related health concerns.
While we are not suggesting that everyone needs to know how to grow food to counteract these issues, it seems that our growing disconnection from food, and loss of knowledge about its production – the lottery of weather, the seasonal requirements and market demands — is fuelling many of these problems.
The breaking of the drought and other favourable weather conditions have produced an abundance of some produce in some areas. As consumers in NSW pay less than $2 a kilo for tomatoes, pears, cucumbers and peaches at Coles this week, memories of paying upwards of $12 a kilo for bananas following Cyclone Larry may start to fade.
Memories may be even more readily erased of the broader global context when in 2008 and 2011 the rising cost of food led to riots and political instability in many nations, not to mention that tens of thousands of people that went hungry.
In times of plenty, the food crises of recent history seem to be readily forgotten. This kind of “forgetting” is ably supported by the industrial agricultural system in developed nations such as Australia.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council’s 2011 State of the Industry report shows that we have one of the world’s most concentrated retail environments. The big supermarkets encourage shoppers to expect year-round availability of fresh produce at reasonable prices. In fact, research indicates that the majority of shoppers could be classified as “budget conscious”, concerned primarily with price. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the “average” Australian household spends $17 per week on fresh fruit and vegetables. With the price cuts this $17 dollars may stretch further, but at what other cost?
The supermarket shopper’s focus on price suggests the majority invest little concern in bigger picture issues related to issues of food security, ethical food production and trade and health.
But we should beware of being lulled into a false sense of security at a time when we need to be planning for our food futures.
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Comments (30)
Emma-Kate Rose
(logged in via Facebook)
So a race to the bottom is then, Robert?
Please provide us with those case studies - we'd like to compare them with all of our farmers' stories. I've heard reports that farmers are too scared to make submissions to the ACCC about predatory pricing practices - I wonder why that is?
If a small social enterprise can distribute local, ecological food, that is more nutritious and still return 40c in the RETAIL dollar to our farmers, while remaining affordable to our customers, then there's something…
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Tom Bicknell
Journalist (logged in via email @iinet.net.au)
I agree with Robert, domestic retail pricing is not the critical factor affecting Australia's future food security. Yes, the push for lower retail prices does often mean razor-thin profit margins for growers, which is pushing some to the edge as production costs rise - that's definitely a problem, but it's a short to medium-term one.
Long-term, from my crystal ball I foresee that Australia's food security will in fact be in a good position. Many of the problems in Australian agriculture now come…
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elbatxeb
(logged in via Twitter)
"As global demand and thus prices for food goes up, more and more production in Australia that is currently commercially marginal will become profitable. That will be good for growers of course, and it will also flow back through to the domestic market in benefits from efficiencies of scale, the ability to reinvest in the field, innovation, etc."
Yes, provided that the production and industry / skills etc are still there when that swings around...
Farmers are already ripping out orchards etc and/or selling to multi-national corporations.
Multi-national corporations by and large (please, someone give me a conflicting example!!!) do not give the slightest sh!t about the welfare of people.
It doesn't seem unrealistic to expect that once they control arable land, infrastructure, water rights etc etc that food security will suddenly be a great big problem.
Stephen Gately
Managing Director ( BuyAustralianMade.com.au) (logged in via email @buyaustralianmade.com.au)
Short term memories combined with short term thinking are not the right ingredients for a great long term future. As we say at BuyAustralianMade.com.au "What you buy TODAY will determine the Australia we live in TOMORROW"
Robert Hadler
General Manager, Coles Corporate Affairs (logged in via email @coles.com.au)
Thomas, don't believe everything you read in the newspaper, or on blogs for that matter. There was a bell to celebrate success in one area of the business about two years ago but it was not for the purposes described and there is no bell to celebrate success in any part of Coles today. Robert Hadler
Joanna Henryks
(Assistant Professor, Advertising and Marketing Communication at University of Canberra)
Trudy - it should be the following link:
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6530.0
which is based on later data. 6530.0 - Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2009-10
My apologies.
And yes, it is VERY low. I realise it's an average but it is a figure that is of great concern.
Sally James
student (logged in via email @optusnet.com.au)
James, the term food security is not about protectionism, althought it is used in this way. The WHO World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. "Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences." (WHO).So in the short term cheap fruit and vegetables can increase food security for groups who have difficulty accessing affordable nutritious food. However if it results in a decline in production at a later time, or an increase in the price of other nutritious foods to offset Supermarket losses, there may be a deleterious effect on food security.
Michael Swifte
writer (logged in via email @yahoo.com.au)
The National Farmers Federation has joined forces with ethical food groups to pressure the ACCC to investigate the supermarket duopoly citing concerns over food security and the growing number of small farmers walking away from their livelihood.
To be certain. Australia's food security is at threat. We are seeing the steady decline of value adding with iconic products disappearing and the loss of jobs in regional centres.
2012 is the 'Year of the Farmer'. Check this link about proposed ACCC investigation http://anthillonline.com/ethical-food-advocates-demand-acc-investigate-coles-and-woolworths-are-farmers-and-families-being-ripped-off/
Byron Smith
(PhD candidate in Christian Ethics at University of Edinburgh)
I note that none of the above discussion has particularly taken note of the broader global context explicitly raised in the article. The FAO Food Price Index has been at dangerously high levels for much of the last 15 or so months (see here: http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/). A doubling of food prices has serious implications for societies with large numbers of people spending 60-80% of their income on food. Remember that many of the protests that sparked the Arab…
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Gavin Moodie
Principal Policy Adviser (logged in via email @telstra.com)
How is food security an issue for Australia, which exports 40% of its food production?
Rising and falling prices is surely the operation of a capitalist market which most accept in all other parts of the economy; which should it be any different for food?
James Jenkin
EFL Teacher Trainer (logged in via email @gmail.com)
'Food security' is a fashionable term. But isn't it just protectionism? Isn't it simply anxiety that something isn't home grown? After all, we could also talk about threats to 'textile security' because our clothes are made in China, or 'furniture security' because IKEA is Swedish.
elbatxeb
(logged in via Twitter)
You can live without furniture.... food? not so much.
Robert Hadler
General Manager, Coles Corporate Affairs (logged in via email @coles.com.au)
This is an interesting debate but it is drawing a long bow to suggest that retail discounting of fruit and vegetables provides any critical insights into the longer term issues of foood security.
Coles is pleased to let our fruit and vegetable growers talk about the benefits they see in what we are doing:
“As a fresh produce supplier to all the major retailers and independents via the Melbourne fresh market, we currently have an oversupply of fresh potatoes from our farm, due to excellent…
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Thomas Marshall
Architectural Assistant (logged in via email @gmail.com)
Whenever I think of Coles negotiating a new supply contract, I think about the "success bell" they ring when they lower the price, for those suppliers waiting for their negotiations to hear. That's pretty sick. is that actually what you do?
Joseph Bernard
Director (logged in via email @parasoft.com.au)
Sounds Like a success story to me.
greater co-operation between growers and distribution can only be a good thing as long as it is a win-win relationship.
I will be happy to shop at Coles is i am confident that Coles is supporting local suppliers with fair prices especially is they enable local suppliers to thrive.. This must be the single best thing we can do for our food security. ie make it worth while for our growers to be in business
Robert Hadler
General Manager, Coles Corporate Affairs (logged in via email @coles.com.au)
Emma-Kate
I note that none of your comments refer to Coles specifically, just second and third hand stories about the big bad supermarkets.
It is easy to make unsubstantiated claims and throw mud on the internet but it is really time to put up or shut up and take any legitimate claims to the ACCC to review.
If you contact me directly I would be pleased to provide you with a copy of our case studies confirming successful relationship between Coles and farmers.
Robert Hadler
J N Curtis
(logged in via email @hotmail.com)
I agree with the closing sentiments.. precautionary principle and all given the global situation. I was kinda waiting for some real evidence from this article though.. Where are the at risk areas in Australia and who are the farmers losing out with the price cuts at Coles? Cyclones up north hammer the banana crops. Is the author suggesting we may be seeing more crops wiped out by natural events in the future?
Robert Hadler
General Manager, Coles Corporate Affairs (logged in via email @coles.com.au)
Michael
You have been misled. The NFF has not supported any ACCC inquiry proposed by ethical food groups. The NFF has advised Coles that it does not support this claim.
regards
Robert Hadler
Michael Swifte
writer (logged in via email @yahoo.com.au)
You are correct. Food Connect have re-issued their press release. I have encouraged them to update their social media followers.
Food connect have reiterated to me that they will continue to pressure the ACCC to investigate the retail food duopoly.
Emma-Kate Rose
(logged in via Facebook)
Food Connect reissued their media release and notified same on twitter and their website one hour after their first release. Anthill used the wrong release - apologies for that.
I'd like Coles to respond to this though:
At the heart of all this is the culture of cheap food, which means that most Australians relate primarily to food through its price tag alone, with little thought to wider social or environmental issues which that price does not reflect. The focus on price is understandable…
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Trudy Williams
(logged in via Twitter)
Only $17 spent on fruit and vegetables by "average" Australian household? That seems tragically low. Aren't those ABS figures from 1998-1999 or is the link incorrect? Do you have any expenditure data that is recent?
Trudy Williams
(logged in via Twitter)
Thanks Joanna but I still can't see any figures for fruit and vegetables expenditure in the new link you provided at http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6530.0 or related downloads.
Joanna Henryks
(Assistant Professor, Advertising and Marketing Communication at University of Canberra)
Hi Trudy
If you go into the tables http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6530.02009-10?OpenDocument
and then download Australia_Data_Tables_2009-10 and go to Table 23A.
It's not easy to find! Joanna
Robert Wiblin
(logged in via Twitter)
"At the same time, this food system and the supermarkets it supplies have enabled cities to thrive by freeing people from the constraints of food production. But this has resulted in people in urban populations losing the knowledge of how to produce our own food. This in part has also led to a loss of cooking knowledge, an over-reliance on convenience food and an increase in obesity and related health concerns."
If I don't know how to farm, why would I bother learning how to cook, or go to the gym? An undeniable causal connection. Lucky we have trained academics to share such meticulously justified wisdom.
James Szabadics
Technical Development and R&D Manager, Plantation Timber Industry (logged in via email @technologist.com)
Long term thinking about food security needs to be about population. We have a better chance to plan our families than we do controlling drought and rain cycles in the future. Take advantage of low food prices today becuase if population keeps growing globally then food prices and availability will no doubt be influenced.
It's global population that will drive future food prices on the demand side of the equation.
This issue will have geopolitical ramifications (war and civil unrest) if…
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Robert Hadler
General Manager, Coles Corporate Affairs (logged in via email @coles.com.au)
Joseph
If you contact me directly I would be pleased to provide you with a copy of the Coles annual review which highlights the extensive social programs we are involved with including the Cancer Council Daffodil Day, Landcare, Guide Dogs, Childrens Hospitals, Sports for Schools and other local community donations to help the disadvantaged.
Robert Hadler
Joseph Bernard
Director (logged in via email @parasoft.com.au)
Hi Robert,
excellent, I also give to a number of different Charities and groups, because i feel we are all interconnected. With giving, may I point out that although this helps those affected, unfortunately it most often does not address the cause.
My point is that corporates are (rightfully) more interested in their own profits and your claim that "price war" does not affect the farmers is most likely one sided. For example, even if you can prove that Coles is doing the right…
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Robert Hadler
General Manager, Coles Corporate Affairs (logged in via email @coles.com.au)
Emma-Kate
Colws is focused on providing the best quality and value to our customers as posssible and to do that we need sustainable relationships with farmers. We have invested in quality and innovation with our farmers and provided volume commitments to encourage them to make the investments necessary to meet growing demand for fresh food in our supermarkets. We see a win-win outcome for customers and farmers from a resurgent Coles, and our suppliers value their relationship with us. I would…
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Emma-Kate Rose
(logged in via Facebook)
I'm not sure why my last comment was deleted. Perhaps the truth is too much to bear?
Please Robert, let's see those case studies and we'll happily compare them to our farmers' stories. Here's the response straight from our farmers:
"We also heard from a grower who knows folk who grow for a major supermarket, report-ing the power relationship in pricing is very much on supermarket‘s side. She also told stories of the major players offering very low prices to agents in the hope of getting a bar-gain e.g. $5/box cucumbers. The other common story is of the supermarkets slapping a "contaminated" or below quality sticker on the pallet and offering the farmer a very low price."
Joseph Bernard
Director (logged in via email @parasoft.com.au)
Sorry Robert,
But your point "price wars have little impact"? is a very dubious statement and as we have all seen time and time again, corporates have little regard for anything other than corporate profits, except for executive bonuses which are the only thing that seem to escape the price war..
when will executives start to have some sort of social conscience?