Food miles

[Lyds]

I bought the kids a treat this week - Doves Farm choc stars cereal (organic). I always use their flour which is excellent. On reading the box the OM saw that the product came from ITALY! The write up and the piccys make it look English. He also noticed that the packaging on Yeo Valley organic yoghurt seems to come from Switzerland! Its important to me to buy local - it does'nt have to be organic just good food without addditives. If poss from small producers and small shops, meat from local farms etc. So, anyone else noticed little things like this?
Surely we dont need to import so much food? This month the Ecologist shows the oil needed to produce a bottle of ketchup - its insane.

Anyway, thanks for the space to rant - I feel better now....

[Millymollymandy]

My rant is the complete opposite! White wine vinegar - made in France, not available in France! The only time I've bought it here was in a shop selling curry spices and English food and it was imported from South Africa - but originally exported from France and made by a well known French brand who do mustard. It is stupid, stupid, stupid and no-one understands why we can't buy it here.

[shiney]

Lyds,

My other half did some agency lorry driving for Yeo Valley and he told me they were moving the production to France/Switzerland. It does make me cross when they do this and still pretend to be producing the product from the UK.

You do have to look quite closely at some 'British' products to see where they really are being manufactured. It is good to buy locally but it is more expensive generally.

[Wombat]

We have similar problems here - some of the good "Aussie" products are owned and/or produced overseas now. Frustrating!

Nev

[ina]

Lyds,

My other half did some agency lorry driving for Yeo Valley and he told me they were moving the production to France/Switzerland. It does make me cross when they do this and still pretend to be producing the product from the UK.

Thanks for making that public - I rather like Yeo Valley, but I can live without it! I think yet another boycott is called for. (There's loads of stuff I don't buy on principle. Folk often wonder how I can remember all that when I'm shopping, and how I still manage to get enough to eat - well, a lot more than enough, to be honest...)

Ina

[Lyds]

Think I might email Yeo Valley and ask for a straight answer

[shiney]

I could be wrong, I could be sending out false info, but I am sure this is what is happening. They maybe moving some of their production abroad and keeping some of it here. Check with them, cos I really like Yeo too!

This is what happened to Dyson Vacuums. Started up, made a bootload of dosh, got greedy, moved to far east and dumped all the local production staff. Boy,the workers were really cross, as you can imagine.

[Lyds]

Have just sent Yeo Vally an email - watch this space for an answer.

I get really disappointed when things like this happen. Nothing is as it seems and everyone is owned by someone else. Green + Black for example being bought by Cadbury who are owned by Premier Foods, or Marmite being owned by Unilever. Four big companies own everything and four big supermarket chains sell it. Themore I find out about supermarkets and big business the less I use them

[Lyds]

Rec'd email from Yeo Valley today who say they have no plans to move their production to Switzerland but are expanding in this country. They had no answer to my question re packaging coming in from Switzerland tho.

[shiney]

What about plans to move anywhere else? Like FRANCE or somewhere else in the EU?!!!

Maybe the fact that the rumour got out got them thinking it wasn't a good idea? Their yogurt is lovely and lots of people buy it because it's an organic UK product.

[ina]

Nothing is as it seems and everyone is owned by someone else. Green + Black for example being bought by Cadbury who are owned by Premier Foods

Somebody once mentioned Green&Black as one of the few British chocolates that were any good - well, that is made in Italy. Pity, but true.

[Lyds]

Ina, are you sure? It says nothing about Italy on their website.

[ina]

It says so on their wrappers, in small print, of course - made in Italy. Well, maybe it's just some of their production; I'll keep my eyes open.

Ina

[Chickenlady]

Hmm...I was thinking about Yeo Valley - no probs, make your own yogurt! use one of their natural ones as a starter, and it tastes very similar.

But I am stumped on the chocolate! I just cannot produce anything to rival Green and Blacks!