That’s great of course. Except, if you think for a moment, it’s not great at all because how in the name of all that’s holy can a supermarket sell you 415g of food for so little? You’ve got all the tomatoes needed to make the sauce, and the herb extracts and the salt and the cornflour and the vinegar. And then you need the tin and the labelling. And all of the trucks needed to get the ingredients to the Heinz factory in Wigan, and the distribution centres, and the profit that the retailers are going to need. So how much of the £1.40 do you suppose is left over to pay the farmer who grew the 465 beans that you find in each tin?
Yes, you’re absolutely right. It’s bugger all. And it’s not just beans either. McDonald’s has got staff bills and heating and lighting and a logistical empire bigger than the US navy’s. So how much of the £4 they charge for a Big Mac goes to the farmers who grew the cows and the potatoes and the flour and the tomatoes and whatever it is they put in that delicious sauce?
Answer? Not much. Which is why, historically, governments in the civilised world have given farmers subsidies and cut-price fuel and so on. It was compensation for the fact that people simply would not pay what it had cost to grow the food.