Can we afford cheap?

I needed to buy a kettle at short notice a few weeks back. It was for a trip to a foreign hotel where, I had been reliably informed, there was no kettle in the room (heavens forbid)*. A travel kettle would have been better, but, well there wasn't time to track one down, so instead I got a cheap, lightweight full-sized one from Tesco.

When I say cheap, I mean cheap: under a fiver. I can't remember exactly how much, maybe £4.49.

And it got me thinking. What does it mean for our consumer society when you can buy a kettle for about the same price as cod and chips, or a trashy paperback, or a couple of packets of organic vegetable seed?

I am still musing on the answer to that one.

My fear is that it devalues the worth of material goods in our minds, making us think little or nothing of throwing away perfectly functional items just because we want to upgrade to the newest flashy model.

I'm always striving - and not always succeeding, as the kettle incident clearly shows - to resist the temptation of pointless purchases, and attempting to reduce, reuse and recycle everything I possibly can. I know I get much more of a buzz from finding a brilliant retro item or design classic from a secondhand shop, eBay auction or charity shop than I do from buying something on the high street.

It's the same with the food I eat: I value the crops I grow on my allotment far more than shop-bought food, in large part because I know its precise provenance. The latest catalogue from ethically and environmentally conscious clothing firm Howies, which included the page pictured above, musing on the true cost of  the cheap apples that weigh down the supermarket shelves. It concludes:

The supermarkets don't have to answer to the land. To the rivers. To the farmers. to the environment. To the local community. They answer to their shareholders. Our food chain is for the most part in our own hands. And their business is all about profit maximisation. We have to accept that. Or change it. Which brings us back to the original question: can we afford cheap? Go local, go organic, or even better - go local organic.

And, folks, you don't get more local organic than fruit and veg from your own organic allotment.

*Non-English readers may not understand the necessity for access to boiling water at all times, but trust me, I need access to hot tea, wherever in the world I am.

Comments

[Bill Lee]

"*Non-English readers may not understand the necessity for access to
boiling water at all times, but trust me, I need access to hot tea,
wherever in the world I am."

So of to China with you.
Hot water, boilers everywhere,
and thermoses of hot water
are everywhere. For tea or instant
noodles, soup etc.

See the gardens of Suzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai.

[Patrick]

Forget about the water cooker, how about cheap vegetables! What about the piece of broccoli you buy for almost nothing from the supermarket, because it comes from massively subsidized agricultural monopolies? You probably throw half of it away anyway, because it rots in your fridge and you don't eat it in time, and after all it's just a piece of boring vegetable anyway. Think about all the water, energy and chemicals that get wasted every year this way.

Imagine what life would be like if we didn't have these food monopolies. Maybe we would be able to buy better tasting and environmentally friendly food. Maybe it would cost a little more, and people would be discouraged from wasting it.

[Gardening crash-test dummy]

Totally agree with you Jane. It's a sad society that encourages us to view anything as throw-away. I confess I use disposable items from time to time but I make sure it's never the first option.

As they say - "Easy come - easy go."

[OyaDancer]

Your blog was the first one I came across before I started my own allotments. Totally hear you on this issue. At least recycling these days is becoming more "mainstream" and isn't so frowned upon. Maybe things were different in the UK, but the recyclers in the States were always viewed by popular society as being a bunch of vegetarian hippie people who were out of touch with "reality". With the growth of Freecycle, Salvo, and organic produce, maybe sniffy attitudes that equate recycling with poverty or weirdos will be thrown aside. I've already ranted in very un-ladylike language about the supermarkets on my own blog.

At any rate, hi there - and just know you're not the only one questioning the throw-away culture...and the list of people doing the same bit of questioning is growing.

[Clodhopper]

Spot on Jane. The stuff that is thrown away at my local recycling centre would be riches beyond dreams for many people in this world.
Makes you weep doesn't it?