Slow Life Blog from the Lake District
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me

Slow Food Mimics Marco

26/4/2010

0 Comments

 
Picture
I wonder if, when Marco Pierre White became the spokesman for Bernard Matthews Turkeys anyone said: “That’s a principled decision. I respect him for that” ? That thought came to mind today when it was announced that Slow Food is to be sponsored by Booth’s supermarkets. Now, as far as supermarkets go, I know that Booths are marginally less evil than the rest. And as it’s five years since I ventured inside a supermarket I thought I’d better check and see, in case I was hopelessly out of date and they have become, as the press release implies, a paragon of virtue.
I popped into Booths in Ulverston. They have a fresh meat counter from which they sell beef which is labelled “From the region”, which is as vague as it gets, and as no breed is specified, you can be certain that it is the usual suspects- i.e. Limousin and Charollais- in other words beef bred for size with no regard for quality. There are other token gestures to local and seasonal food, but the overwhelming mass of the goods on offer is the usual junk, with whole aisles devoted to pre-packed ready meals and BOGOF frozen pizzas. I picked up a pack of lasagne which had a meat content of 23% with no indication as to where the meat came from.
​
The principles of slow food are “Good, clean and fair”, where “good” means “not junk”, “clean” means “free of chemicals and preservatives and excessive doses of salt and sugar” and “fair” means that the producer gets a fair price for his produce. All supermarkets talk a lot about ‘local ‘ and ‘organic’, but they make their money by piling up the junk food, which is full of chemicals, preservatives, sugar and salt. Booths survive in this very competitive world with more of the same. I’ve no objection to their trying to become the Waitrose of the Northwest but I wish they wouldn’t do it at the expense of the principles of Slow Food.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    ​About Slow Life

    The idea of Slow Life is to take the principles of Slow Food, which are “good, clean and fair”, and extend them to life in general.

    Here in the Lake District, the air is clean, the pace is slow and the atmosphere is calm. If we don’t grow food ourselves, we can buy it in friendly small shops, where you know the quality is going to be the best.

    This blog is a celebration of the Slow Life, with forays into the world of design, music, the arts, gardens, and my particular weakness, Japan.

    Archives

    June 2017
    December 2016
    August 2015
    May 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009

    RSS Feed

Home   |   About Me   |   Contact Me

Jonathan Denby's Slow Life blog from the Lake District

© Copyright Slow Life 2020. All rights reserved   |   cookie policy    |   Site by Treble3
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me