Farmers' Market vegetables?
Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Labels & advertising
There’s nothing like half an hour trawling through the supermarket, looking at the best of food manufacturing, to get me fired up.
Last week, while researching some products for a client, it was Birds Eye that really got my goat. In particular their new product – “Farmer’s Market” frozen vegetables.
I have nothing against frozen vegetables. I recommend them to clients. I usually have at least one packet in my freezer. There is much to be said for their nutritional goodness.
I don’t even have anything against Birds Eye in particular. But this branding strikes me as a bit of a cynical piece of marketing. A food manufacturer trying to tap into the buzz and growing awareness of farmers’ markets, align themselves with their ethos, and brand their product as wholesome, local and fresh.
Buying a packet of frozen vegies made by Birds Eye and sold in Coles is nothing like shopping at a farmers’ market. The ingredients weren’t bought from a farmers’ market. Just because they’re cut up in a chunky style and packaged in a tray, doesn’t mean the product has anything to do with a farmers’ market. In fact, it strikes me that buying packaged frozen vegetables from a supermarket is pretty much the antithesis of the farmers’ market community and experience.
They’re also more expensive. While most of the good frozen veg products cost about A$4.40 for a kilogram, these are $4.99 for 600g.
As I said, I’m not against frozen vegetables. It’s the naming and branding and the attempt at fooling the consumer that annoys me.
Plus, isn’t the apostrophe in the wrong place on the packet?
21 July, 2009
Comments
Hmmm.
Worrying Trends, indeed. Apostrophe definitely looks wrong. Crimes against grammar to boot.
Nothin’ says ‘Farmers’ Market-fresh’ like a box ‘o frozen veg…I’d love to go supermarket shopping with you.
ok, so this really fires me up.
REALLY.
grrrr. Thank you for posting about it, so hopefully people will be made aware.
I hate big companies :(
(hey, you might actually like a recent post I did about farmers markets and such, but I am going to bet that you already know everything I talk about ;P http://art4friends.blogspot.com/2009/07/if-you-want-to-cook-like-masterchef.html )
Yep, that apostrophe is definitely wrong. Grrrrrr…
Obviously Captain Birds Eye is the farmer, hence the singular ’Farmer’s Market’. Also, “Birds Eye” without the apostrophe is just confusing.
Hmm I’ll pick up a pack of these with a box of fruit fix.
The apostrophe position depends on how many farmers there are. In the case of a local market run by various farmers, you have a farmers’ market. In the case of a multi-national corporation who may be the only market for an individual farmer’s output, you have a farmer’s market. And a cynical marketing ploy.
URGH that kind of marketing bollocks really gets my hackles up. Maybe Farmer’s Market is the new All Natural?
Supermarkets…packaging…survival of the fittest (brand that is)… advertising campaigns…in OZ -Woolies versus Coles… there’s THAT story about food which we have come to rely on and often loathe for a great many reasons!
And then there are the alternatives…they take forward planning and organisation… e f f o r t ! ! I know…we are all too busy…are we really too busy to notice quality food sources disappearing I ask. Possibly 98% of seeds on the planet owned by 6 corporations. Farms closing. Even nurseries closing.
I love the fact you have dedicated so much space to discussing sustainability on your blog Kathryn.
We have to keep talking this up…its the only way to transcend the blazing cynicism surrounding ‘industrialised food’- the name used by Barbara Kingsolver in her best-seller ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’. Anyone read this book and not come away at least wondering more, if not agreeing with her take on the big picture of the industrialised food production industry?
God love the grammar nuts… but lets love our farmers a whole lot more and find out every single viable option for buying smarter and more direct that there is!
In Brisbane we have a fabulous option at: www.foodconnect.com.au where you dont just buy in weekly boxes of organic (or as good as) produce but you know the names of each farmer who provided this bounty and you can subscribe for a month, or a year at a time…and assist in assuring the farmers have an ongoing market. Now we’re talking sustainability. Each time we strengthen the viabilty of a good food producer we are doing something positive.
Top selling item in Australian supermarkets is …Coke. the top 25 items are mostly variations of coke, or chocolate and such goodies. I’m partial to chocolate myself…but when I spent 2001 to 2006 in NSW high schools relief teaching I was quite shocked to discover kids thought of coke and chocolate as food items (not treats) and consumed both (and similar) all day long, in class and in breaks. Think about that for a moment…eating all day long…many having no idea of meal times or good food or health strategies. What upset me most is very often adults were turning a blind eye as if nothing in this habitual snacking was problematic…in the classroom included.
I now find it almost impossible not to look unkindly on the big supermarkets as purveyers of a kind of frightening contemporary reality where all that is wholesome is buried under the rest. The quality products from independant smaller companies fight for their survival…and most of what is happening in that regard we barely have a clue about. The Bird’s Eye label ’Farmer’s market’ is just another lie… another falsehood in the vast industrailised food world!
Sorry i could not keep my response to 2 lines…too much to say Kathryn!
hear hear! the supermarkets are trying to mess with out minds in the greediest way possible
Two egregious errors here — incorrect grammar & label misinformation. The first is annoying, the second, truly maddening. An example of greenwashing or localwashing (and yes, if you Google the latter term, you will find, sadly, it’s become part of the lexicon).
Maddening. Our shops are full of meaningless “farmhouse style” and “market fresh”. I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of Farmers’ market yet though.
They’ll be leaving little bits of soil in there for added authenticity next :-)
Maybe there’s only one farmer? LOL.
Yeah a very cynical branding exercise. Great post!
Leave a comment