I go to the True Food Coop and the Farmers Markets, but on occasion its nice to go to farm shops. I used to go to one near Pangbourne but unfortunately that closed.
Hare Hatch Sheeplands, London Road, Reading RG10 9HW - 0118 940 1600
The Organic Farm Shop, Holdshott Farm, Reading Road, Heckfield, Hook, Hampshire RG27 0JZ, 0118 932 6650
Theres the Wellington Farm Shop attached to Stratfield Saye, its a bit expensive.
cross lanes fruit farm, Mapledurham, Reading RG4 7UW 0118 972 3167
Garlands Organics is in Pangboourne. They have a blog.
Sheepdrove are a bit further away (Lambourn) and also have a blog
Wysipig, Ellis Hill Farm, Sindlesham Road, Arborfield, Reading, RG2 9JG Tel: 0118 976 0505
I have not yet been to:
Hill Farm, Manns Hill, Burghfield Common, RG7 3BD 0118 983 4869
Nursery Cop Farm, Midgham, Reading, RG7 5UL Tel: 0118 971 0300
Warren Farm, Rectory Rd, Streatley, Reading, RG8 9QE Tel: 01491 872149
Theres a list here
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5 weeks ago
6 comments:
Apart from Garlands Organic, it seems I would have to drive to all of them. I suspect the pollution from everybody in the country driving to food shops would be worse for the environment than walking to the nearset Tesco Express and getting the not particularly environmently friendly stuff there.
Get a bike!
As Weggis said, you can get there by bike, or in some cases by train.
I am not saying you should drive to these shops. Read the post, I talked about using local shops, farmers markets, true food coop.
I found one of them on a bike ride. Another when I drove past on the way to Hampshire. I suspect many people do not know they exist, hence this post.
I'm pretty sure the industrial production and double-food-miles because of driving everything to and from warehouses would be worse, but I have no figures to back that up. The pre-shop food miles would be a lot less in the local-focussed shops. As would the number of trees cut down to build them.
Tesco is one of the worst for this with there central food distribution. Food grown near you travels to a central location before coming back to your nearest shop.
One of the many reasons I dislike Tesco, along with their unfair dominance of the market, the pressure they put on suppiers. See http://www.tescopoly.org/
http://greenreading.blogspot.com/2007/10/reasons-to-stop-tesco-building-new.html
I don't have the figures to back it up either, but a couple of shopping bags in a car boot is a lot worse per mile than an entire lorry load of food. So it is better to take the food to a local shop that is within walking distance of peoples' homes than have everyone driving to an out of town supermarket.
Having a distribution depot is not in its self necesarily a bad thing either. Having the food go from lots of farms to a central depot, then from the central depot to lots of shops will over all mean less lorry miles driven on the road than having them go from lots of farms directly to lots of shops, even if it means more miles for an individual product.
Anyway, diesel and lorry drivers wages cost money, and I'm sure the big supermarkets want to spend as little on these as possible.
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