Walking down Spar’s – or any other chain of supermarkets – vegetable and fruit aisle often feels like being in a world geography contest: bananas from Costa Rica, pineapples from Brazil, kiwis from New Zealand. It could also as easily be a world beauty contest for the most shiny tomatoes or glossy apples. But what’s wrong with that you ask? You may start by wondering how can tomatoes produced in the Netherlands or in India, at a first glance, look like they were just picked. To keep them nice and fresh and avoid bacteria, they were probably frozen or stored at very low temperatures, losing many important nutrients along the way. They are often wrapped in unnecessary packaging to prevent damage during the thousands of miles they had to travel, leaving behind a weighty carbon footprint.
You may also wonder why bananas are so cheap after having travelled half way around the world for over 10,000 km. Spar or Tesco are definitely making money, or surely all those bananas wouldn’t be as cheap; the large trading and shipping companies too, or they would be trading something else. But the producer in Costa Rica only has the bananas he produces and gets the smallest cut – the average banana farmer in central America gets around 1€ per day and most farmers receive less money now than they did 15 years ago.
Now, you may be wondering what you can do. Well, bananas are the most popular fruit in the world and are the 4th most important crop after rice, wheat and maize. It is not all up to us consumers, that’s for sure, but there is a lot we can do. We can start by inquiring more about where our food comes from and how it arrives at a nearby store. Many well-known multinational companies are known for not respecting farmers’ rights (you may recall a famous blue logo with a woman wearing a fruit hat). If information is available when you buy – and it should be – you can make a choice.
But this is not just about bananas. There are many more choices to make regarding the food we buy. Trying to buy local products is the simplest one – and in Budapest it really is!
There are a number of markets where farmers sell their produce – the famous Central Market, Lehel Market and Sunday’s Farmers’ Market at Szimpla, just to name a few. But then there’s that fundamental problem – time. In the midst of dozens of readings, papers to write and the well-deserved social gathering, a weekly visit to the market might not find its way up on the list of things to do and, inevitably, you may end up going to the Tesco around the corner.
Szatyor (www.szatyorbolt.hu) makes things a lot easier. They are a Budapest co-operative that connects organic food farmers that operate near the city with residents. What started as a small operation is now processing dozens of orders a week, and the volunteers at Szatyor have their hands full with all the new orders pouring in. You can simply order organically and locally produced fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meats, jams, spreads and many other goodies directly from local producers via an online system. In about 5 minutes and 10 clicks your order is placed. You can pick it up at one of their five collection points in Budapest and, thanks to the CEU Sustainability Campus Initiative, you can also conveniently pick up your food-box every Tuesday right at the CEU (Faculty Tower). Home delivery is also available for a fee.
That’s it, no long list of intermediaries and no long distance travels. This makes the chain a lot shorter, which means a lower carbon footprint, a shorter time between the farm and your table (so less nutrients are lost and the products are picked at their peak) and, of course, a fairer deal for the farmers and their families.
Susana Guerreiro, Portugal, Environmental Sciences and Policy
Photo: Journeyman Images 2011
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