Reply #34: I'm undecided on the Sustainabilities bill [View All]

But we have got corporatization of all this. We also have the insane EU Common Agricultural Policy. But in the town where I live (Chelmsford) there is very little in the way of small business. My town keeps applying to become a city but I will oppose this until we at the very least get decent butchers, bakers, greengrocers etc rather than multiple branches of Tesco. Some of the surrounding town's still have decent local businesses though but no, we do have the cororate food chain in full swing over here, and indeed some claim that the Supermarkets are the biggest lobby group in Britain.

I disagree with you that subsidies do not affect food produce. They most certainly do and indeed there are very few economies which are truly open to the international food trade. The subsidies tend to get creamed off by agribusiness and vast swathes of EU agriculture is in reality quite uncompetitive. This is a daft situation. Whilst I would agree that some Local farmers do tend to produce better quality they need to have the means to get their produce to the widest audience, on a fairly equal relationship with the buyers (who tend to be the supermarkets as I am sure you are aware) To that end I support such ideas as farmers markets (I support that one very strongly, we need more of those) and I would probbably support some form of Local Communities Sustainability bill, albeit not quite the same form as the one the New Economics Foundation are proposing.