I want to focus on the effects. If the best way to combat the effects is to combat the actual climate change then so be it, lets do it, however, many of the schemes to limit emissions appear to me to reduce the standard of living and to drive people into more poverty. Not something we want surely?

As for the meat, this really isn’t anything to do with subjectivity. The facts are that (like admittedly plenty of butchers our there, so finding the best quality and therefore value is not easy, which is one of my points about why supermarkets can’t be bad too) meat in supermarkets come from poorly reared animals. Take a look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/food_heroes/directory_meats.shtml for more information and if you can try and find “Kill it, Cook it, Eat it” for an informative look at the stark differenced between good meat and supermarket meat.

This isn’t a case of my value vs your value, it’s about one factual quality vs another. I accept quite happily that this isn’t evil, and that if people want to buy poorer quality meat from more “factory” farmed methods then that is their choice as it stands, but it is, none the less, a mark against the supermarkets since the option is there to buy shit from butchers as well.

Good meat - well, I don’t buy the ‘value’ stuff, but the general Tesco stock is pretty good. I’d say its good value for money, if you want something else, go somewhere else. Most people obviously like what is sold.

If you’ve bought poor quality produce, well, vote with your feet. I tend to walk to the nearest shop to buy food on a more than weekly basis - that’s either Tesco’s at home, or Sainsbury’s at work, so I don’t come across that (and their apples keep for an age and a half).

Of course there’s valid criticism, I don’t think your ones are valid as general criticisms though. To you, the value is not sufficient, but to others it is. You cannot decide on the values which other people make their decisions upon, value is subjective and each person makes their own decision.

The “quality” of the meat sold in supermarkets is highly under question. Maybe “good” is an acceptable quantifier in comparison in some outdated basis but by todays standards supermarket meat is poorly stored, poorly sourced and not “kept” for long enough to maintain a sufficient quality of taste. We also eat fruits at any time of the year at the expense of a large carbon footprint or, again, at the expense of taste and/or lifespan of those produce.

I have bought veg from supermarkets that doesn’t last 5 days before going limp and unusable despite the best of storage I can give, comparable items from a local veg shop keep for longer, if only it was as convenient to shop from them for this particular part of my weekly shop I know I’d not hesitate.

I too don’t see the hatred for supermarkets, but that does not mean there is no criticism to be levelled at them…and somehow you’ve managed to pick two of the main ones in reference to why supermarkets are supposedly wonderful. There is no excuse for “lack of confidence” to evolve into laziness over standards, but then there is really no excuse for supermarkets to be dealing with food, at least in terms of the meat they sell, the way they do.