"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...
michael adams wrote:
"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...

I don't know if things have changed but I remember the 'shock horror'
many years ago of the EC declaring many old species of fruit and
vegetables illegal to grow for selling commercially.


...

As far as apples are concerned at least, the position is
that the EC introduced Common Marketing standards for
apples so that in principle ordinary consumers knew what they
could expect. All varieties of apples which were submitted
were graded according to colouring, russetting, and size,
and it's a condition of all grading whether "Extra" Class,
Class I, or Class II that the apples conform to the general
characteristics of the variety.

The problem may have arisen because it costs money to submit
individual varieties to the appropriate EC testing body for
registration, so that if only one or two growers are growing a
particular variety it becomes uneconomic.

Why then not sell as 'unregistered' especially if that variety might
have been sold for a few hundred years to the very same families who'd
bought them only the day before the ruling came in ?

I think nowadays with the growth of farmers markets and a return to
selling locally and in relatively small amounts this idea of selling for
a large commercial gain and in vast quantities then falls by the
wayside. It becomes a return to marketing produce in the pre-Common
Market days with the old steel bowled weighing scales, a wooden painted
board to announce what was on sale that season and paper bags to enclose
the produce, all of which I remember very well.

....

Farmers markets, organic produce, and heritage varieties, all of
which can charge a premium, also open up a large potential for fraud.
In the old days when such things were the norm, and there were no
large supermarket chains there was no scope for such a premium.
Whereas nowadays there is, because its generally accepted that such
produce is more expensive to produce compared with what's available
in Supermarkets and ordinary street markets.
I don't have any precise knowledge, as to how much inspection there
is etc. But the fact is that consumers naturally assume that anyone
selling in those markets is automaticaly somehow more ethical then
the local supermarket. And that farmers markets won't attract their
fair share of Arthur Daley types

....



However this is probably as much a protection for people being
fobbed of with "heritage varieties" which are being sold at a
premium - but which in fact may be no such thing - as anything
else.

It's time for a loosening or changing of guidelines to reflect the
changes in production and selling. Unless, happily that has already
happened.

....

If people want to pay more for their produce in Farmers Markets
then that's their choice. But they still need protection from
unethical trading practices and misrepresentation.

According to some people at least.


michael adams

....






michael adams

http://tinyurl.com/7mu46

for-


http://www.agribusinessonline.com/re...pplespears.pdf


Richard.


--
We trade our health in search of wealth,
We scrimp and toil and save;
We trade our wealth in search of health,
But only find the grave.