Irresponsible prices

A bread roll, a croissant, fillings, a hard-boiled egg plus a cup of coffee, all for just 1 euro; furniture giant IKEA serves breakfast for peanuts, and lunch and dinner costs just a few euros too. Various other major retail chains are also discounting food to an extent which makes me feel uneasy. If our food is worth so little, it cannot fail to affect how that food is produced.

Everyone knows that the quality of such extremely cheap food leaves a lot to be desired. But what not everyone realises is that, somewhere in the chain, there will be other victims of such low prices. Apart from the fact that very little margin remains for the producer, we cannot automatically expect that aspects such as fair trade, animal welfare and the environment are included in the price.

Of course, these companies’ offerings are based on our demand for cheaper products. In other words, our own choices are causing this situation. We choose to spend very little on food and comparatively more on smartphones and flatscreens. How cheap and hence tasteless, unfair, animal-unfriendly or environmentally damaging do we want our food to be? You’re a food producer (or somehow professionally involved in food). Which choices do you yourself make?

Thankfully there’s another side to the coin, because if our choices can result in lower-quality products and an irresponsible production chain then they can also achieve the opposite! Someone who spends less of their income on good food products might not have the newest smartphone...but they will have tastier and ‘fairer’ food.

Dennis Favier is professional Food Designer and Creative Director at Innovation company TOP BV, the company translates technological innovations to interesting use.