SUPERMARKET IMPACT ON EMPLOYMENT:
• The British Retail Planning Forum (1998), found that every time a large supermarket opens, on average, 276 jobs are lost. It found that there is 'strong evidence that new out-of-centre superstores have a negative net impact on retail employment up to 15km away'. (used in speech)

FARMING:
• The government predicts that by 2006, 25 per cent of the remaining farms in the United Kingdom will have gone out of business or merged, with a further 50,000 people forced to leave farming.

• Fifty years ago, farmers in Europe and North America received 45-60 per cent of the money that consumers spent on food. Today that proportion has dropped dramatically to just 7 per cent in the UK (but remains 18 per cent in France)

• Up to 40 per cent of perfectly good product is routinely discarded to meet supermarket criteria on the cosmetic appearance of produce.

• Cheap food is a myth. The consumer really pays three times; once in the shop, a second time in taxes through direct subsidies to farmers, and finally indirectly in taxes cleaning up the mess left by industrial agriculture and subsidising the transport infrastructure.

LOCAL ECONOMY
• A study by the new economics foundation found that £10 spent on a local organic box scheme in Cornwall generates £25 for the local economy (a radius of 24km from the farm), compared with £14, if the same initial amount is spent in a supermarket.

• FOOD MILES AND LOCAL SOURCING
Long distance transportation of food produces vast amounts of pollution, requires excessive packaging, and use of chemical preservatives, uses up large amounts of non-renewable fossil fuels (aviation and diesel) and thus contributes significantly to climate change.

• According to the ‘Eating Oil’ report, the food system accounts for up to 40 per cent of all United Kingdom road freight.

• In 1997, 126 million litres of liquid milk was imported into the UK at the same time as 270 million litres was exported out of the United Kingdom.

• A Friends of the Earth survey found that at the height of the UK apple season under half of the apples on sale in the biggest four supermarkets were home grown. (Over 60% of the UK's apple orchards have been destroyed in the last 30 years)

WASTE
• The average household spends £470 per year on packaging – almost a sixth of food expenditure.

FOOD, HEALTH AND PRICING
• Mark ups of as much as 198 per cent on apples, and 439 per cent on eggs have been noted in some superstores.

• A survey by the Food Commission illustrated that a shopping basket of ‘healthier options’ was 51 per cent more expensive than a basket of standard processed food. They also found that healthy options were not available in many discount stores especially a good range of fresh fruit, vegetables, and staple foods which need preparation such as flour and dry pasta.

• In October 2001, it emerged that a supermarket chain had raised its prices in the weeks before it began its now £100 million price cutting campaign, in order to maintain its profits.

CONTROL OF THE FOOD CHAIN
• The big four supermarkets now control over 75 percent of the United Kingdom grocery market.