Now at last, the truth is beginning to dawn. Oh sure, the prices in the supermarkets are lower than they once were. We spend only a fifth of our incomes on food today, compared with a third a couple of generations ago. Cheap pork looks more expensive if it turns out that foot and mouth was indeed caused by fattening pigs on cheap food imported from countries where the disease is endemic. Cheap food, by its very nature, rates quantity over quality.
Big profits come from relatively small margins on mass turnover.
I once asked a supermarket manager what would happen if I bought one and did not take the free one. He was telephoning for the men in white coats before the words had left my lips. Cowed, I took the two and ended up throwing the other one away. We waste a vast amount of food. Half a million tons of perfectly edible food gets dumped by the supermarkets every year.