A survey in 2005 showed Tesco stocked 38 types of milk
STANDING at the entrance of Tesco Extra at Silverburn, in Glasgow is a daunting prospect for even the most experienced of shoppers. Spread over 140,000 square feet and bathed in disorien
tating artificial light, aisles stretch as far as the eyes can see.
In the fruit and vegetable department, the discerning customer can buy everything from kiwi fruit to kumquats; from bananas to butternut squash. Even the humble potato comes in a wealth of different varieties.
The cheese fridges are like a shop within a shop, while the variety on offer on the bread shelves is enough to bewilder a baker. One of the biggest supermarkets in Scotland, the store is a monument to conspicuous consumption; a 24/7 temple to the cult of choice – and the car park is packed virtually every day.
Consumers now expect to be constantly bombarded with foodstuffs from around the world, demanding fresh strawberries at Christmas, cheap meat from New Zealand and Brazil and prawns from Indonesia. In their rush to satisfy customer demands, the big supermarkets have become global bazaars for foreign producers.
But as experts warn we are placing too much pressure on the earth's finite resources – is the way we buy and consume food becoming unsustainable?
Last week, in a landmark report Food 2030, the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) made clear for the first time how seriously the government takes the problem. Using a traffic-light system to assess the security of the world's resources, global fish stocks are flashing red, with water resources heading in the same direction. With forecasts that shortages would reduce the amount of food stored in retailers' warehouses, it stressed the need to cut waste and the climate-changing carbon emissions produced by transporting goods globally.
The report also addressed a growing concern – that of food security and whether in a turbulent world, food supplies from abroad will always remain guaranteed. It stressed the need for the UK to become more self-sufficient, with British farmers producing more food. The overall message appeared to be that unfettered choice should perhaps be a thing of the past.
But should supermarkets be persuaded to cut the number of products they stock in the interests of sustainability? Should consumers accept that there should be restrictions on what they can and cannot put in their shopping trolleys? And should they also accept the end of tempting bargain offers such as the notorious BOGOFs (Buy One Get One Free), which, according to the report is one of the key reasons a third of all food purchased is thrown away.
Tim Lang, professor of food at City University London, says: "It's sustainability or bust.
New priorities will be required, such as soil conservation, setting aside land for food rather than houses or motorways, and accepting a choice of 7,000 items in supermarkets not 30,000."
The food revolution that led to the explosion of choice began after the Second World war, but flourished in the 1980s – the decade of Thatcherite free-marketeering. Consumers' increased interest in and knowledge about food led supermarkets to broaden their horizons. The result is that, while a generation ago shoppers wouldn't have known what pesto was, they now expect to be able to choose between four or five different types and brands.
In part, the explosion of choice is driven by the pressure on producers to make their goods stand out. "If you are trying to make a profit out of selling something in a market that is already saturated, then you've got to find ways to differentiate your product so you might give it some added value – an extra something the others don't have," says Tom MacMillan, chief executive of the Food Ethics Council.
And so, in 2005, a survey showed Tesco stocked 38 varieties of milk, including specialities such as low cholesterol, lactose-free, omega 3 enriched, locally sourced, soya, flavoured and goats' milk.
But the notion that vast choice increases customer satisfaction (and therefore sales) is by no means a given.
In his book, The Paradox Of Choice, psychologist Barry Schwartz suggests that too many options leave shoppers anxious and dissatisfied because they are uncertain the product they have picked is the best one and that can have an impact on profit.
He cites one US experiment, in which customers at a gourmet food store were invited to taste six different jams on a display table and then given a discount coupon to buy whichever variety they liked. The experiment was repeated the following week, except this time there were 24 jams to choose from. Surprisingly, the table with six jams resulted in ten times more sales than the one with 24 jams.
There is evidence too that as people become more aware of food-related issues such as animal welfare, poor labour practices and sustainability, they want supermarkets and governments to make ethical decisions – or choice edit – on their behalf.
A study carried out by the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable called I Will If You Will found many people wanted to shop sustainably, but that the process of working out what they should or shouldn't be buying was too complex and time-consuming. According to MacMillan, from the Food Ethics Council, many are shocked to find out supermarkets are allowed to sell products that are not sustainable. "They buy endangered fish, such as cod, because they don't know: they make the perfectly reasonable assumption that everything on the shelves must be okay-ed by the supermarket. When they are shopping, they don't want to weigh up the air miles or questionable labour practices around each product; they don't really want to think about much apart from what they are having for dinner."
To suggest most consumers would be happy to find their choices curtailed, particularly if it were to result in dramatic price hikes, is perhaps simplistic.
On Friday last week, shopper Ian Garner said it would not bother him if supermarkets cut back on the range of available products. "I'd rather eat seasonally and locally anyway," he said. "I don't agree with food being flown around the world."
But Steph Campbell, a student at Edinburgh University, is among those who still believe shoppers' freedom of choice is paramount. "I don't think it is up to the supermarkets or the government to decide what I can and can't eat," she said. "It should be trying to prevent food shortages like this through advances in agriculture and science such as GM crops so that the world food supply isn't depleted."
But MacMillan warns that shoppers should not confuse variety and choice. "If fruit and vegetables are stocked on a seasonal basis, you might have very little choice, but a very varied diet over the course of the year."
According to the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable, the goodwill of green-minded consumers is not, on its own, enough to drive major shifts in mainstream shopping trends.
It looked at how a combination of awareness-raising, EU legislation and choice editing on the part of retailers lay behind an increase in the market share of A-rated electrical appliances from zero to more than 75 per cent in just seven years.
But will supermarkets be persuaded to put food security before their customers' freedom of choice? The argument that they should is becoming compelling.
The UN predicts the world's population will rise from 6 billion to 9 billion by 2050 – an explosion that would require a 70 per cent increase in the production of food.
At the same time, however, climate change is threatening global harvests, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty. Eighteen months ago a shortage of rice and wheat caused political crises in Asia and saw prices soar. The result is that – though millions in the developing world have long gone hungry – the West is now waking up to the issue of food security.
However, some companies have already proved it is possible to act unilaterally in the interests of the planet without any adverse affect on business. After consulting 100,000 consumers – the Co-op recently drew up a radical ethical food policy. Now, all its own-brand products use fish from responsible sources, and all its fresh meat comes from British farms. "We have recorded our 12th successive quarter of sales growth, so we must be doing something right," a spokesman said yesterday.
M&S too has made sustainability a priority, putting choice editing at the centre of its marketing strategy. But other supermarkets have found it harder to jettison the principle of customer choice, with Tesco often choosing to discount eco-friendly products rather than take the alternatives off the shelves.
These chains have admitted that as far as sustainability is concerned, they need the government to take the lead.
This is why the Defra report is so significant, says Professor Lang, who believes what we are seeing now is the end of a "neo-liberal experiment" which began in the 1970s.
"For 30 years governments of all political hues have abandoned food – they've said let's leave this to the marketplace," he says. "The Defra proposals are a sign of the recognition by governments that they are very important: they hold the ring between the retailers, the suppliers and the consumers."
It is difficult to imagine what shops will look like in 2030.
In the future, shoppers may continue to do their weekly shop in a different kind of supermarket, buy from farmers' markets or give up their jobs to grow their own on allotments. But the days when they could have whatever they want whenever they wanted would appear to be numbered.
Hard to swallow70 The percentage by which food production needs to be increased to feed the world in 2050, according to the UN, when the global population will have risen from six to nine billion.
4.1 million The tonnage of food thrown out by British households each year, according to Wrap, the Government's waste watchdog.
15 The percentage of the average UK household budget spent on food. The poor spend more and do not always get good nutritional value.
26 The number of countries accounting for about 90 per cent of the UK's food supply.
116 million The tonnage of carbon dioxide emitted by UK food businesses in 2006. Agricultural activity accounts for around 7 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
