Food - Lewes Farmers Market

In December last year The Economist ran an article trashing the growing trend of eating local, organic and fair-trade food, suggesting that supermarket food, because its distribution was better organised, was actually less environmentally damaging than locally produced food sold in local markets. It also suggested that organically produced food took up more land than fertilised products and that buying local goods undermined the economies of Third World countries. Their message was clear: buying in Tesco was ethically sounder than buying in the local market.

The magazine, of course, is famous for its libertarian support of globalisation and free trade, and sees the rise of the farmers markets and the subsequent strengthening of the local economies they serve as being little more than primitive protectionism. We think that the editor who ran the piece is sticking his head in the sand. It is clear to us that supermarket-led eating habits have led to a huge increase in cancer, obesity and diabetes in this and other Western countries. We believe that the oil-fuelled global economy is about to wane, and that everybody needs to be re-educated to invest as much as they can in their local economy. That the only way we can slow climate change is by radically rethinking our consumption habits. Are we being naïve? Your thoughts, at info@vivalewes.com would be welcome. Meanwhile the excellent Lewes Farmers Market, one of the first to open in the country, will be in the precinct as usual this Saturday. AG