I’ve been meaning to write something about Tesco for a while, but I haven’t had a chance to do the research I need to. However, Peak Oil Debunked has a great post (it’s a very good site) covering some of the relevant material – see here. What his article doesn’t take into account is the multiplier effect, which will exacerbate many of the issues. But I’m convinced that there will still be some international trade. It’s just that it won’t be by plane (so those just-in-time vegetables won’t be transported – strawberries don’t get shipped in containers!!) and – as the article affirms – transport >within
In the meantime, this is the text of an article that I had published in the local newspaper, just trying to set the record a little straighter!
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What I really think about Tesco

Now I know what it feels like to be ‘spun’ – and my sympathy for politicians has gone up hugely! The Daily Mail featured me in their pages on Friday 10 March. I had high hopes for what they might say – the interview lasted for more than an hour – but from that hour they quoted a mere two sentences of what I actually said, and placed it in the context, not only of things which I hadn’t said, but of their own desire to attack Tesco.

For the record, I am not particularly aggrieved at Tesco as such. I think they are an extremely well managed British company, and whilst I think their record on things like Fairtrade could be improved hugely, they are an exemplary company on other matters. For example, 5% of the diesel that they sell (sold as ‘normal’ diesel) is in fact derived from bio-fuels. This is a very good thing, in that it reduces the demand for fossil fuels and lessens the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global warming. So I do not want to be part of a process that ‘demonises’ Tesco – and I certainly don’t want to say ‘Thou Shalt Not Shop at Tesco’, the words that the Daily Mail put into my mouth. I think that Christians should take seriously the questions about where their food is coming from, but I am also quite aware that, for example, for a pensioner concerned to make ends meet, cheaper food from Tesco is a tremendous blessing.

My concern remains focussed on the introduction of Tesco into West Mersea at this point in time. The simple truth is that the business model of Tesco – or of Sainsbury’s, Asda or even the Co-op – is not one that is sustainable more than about ten years into the future, at most. Supermarkets are able to retail cheap food because they are able to employ tremendous economies of scale, harvesting food resources from around the world, and delivering them to us via planes, trains and lorries. At the moment the costs of such transport are negligible, because oil is so cheap. Yet it is precisely this system that will break down in the foreseeable future – not because there won’t be oil available, but simply because the cost of that transport will be too high for people to afford – and therefore the food transported in this way will be too expensive for most people. Instead of costing the same as bottled water (what oil costs now) oil will cost the same as gold, because that more properly reflects its value to the modern way of life. At that point, when the supermarkets are no longer able to make money in the way that they have previously, we will be thrown back upon our own resources, more or less painfully, dependent on the actions that we take now. Our future is local, and the sooner we act to strengthen our local economy the better.