Bring back the Market

It is a necessitated burden to go shopping for food, one of those things that gets put off until you end up with a list of items 5 times its original. You’re then forced to make your way through a psychologically designed maze of crowded trolley-pushing mayhem. Whether you shop on a budget at Aldi, or go for the ‘Freshness’ at Woolworths it is apparent that supermarkets are abstract highways of consumerism. Bizarre places of nothingness, soulless in their persuasion for you to ‘buy buy buy’.

An environment of artificial lighting with persisting smells of bread permeating the senses from the supposed bakery and sounds of screaming children demanding confectionary items from their parents. The one thing left on your list always being at the back of the store. Not to mention the constant reassurance, throughout the pre-determined shopping experience, that you should be buying 99% fat free, picking at any self esteem issues you have with your weight.

You queue in lines of strangers, and are greeted by forced smiles screaming of phoniness like a counterfeit Gucci handbag. It’s a place you can’t wait to get out of, but necessary for your basic human survival.

I say bring back the local food markets. I’m in awe of Frances captivating weekly markets, jealous of their food possibilities that can spark from a simple trip down the road, and their knowledge of seasonal food that comes from winter and spring. It’s easy to say that Woolworths offers everything you would need to make your usual family meal, but the distance it places between the customer and the producer is huge, making food instant and fast, when in fact it should be the complete opposite.

The authenticity is lost in the hustle and bustle of aisles, advertising, specials, trolleys and the artificial environment of lighting and air-conditioning. As an ex-employee of Woolworths, it was apparent that the service providers had no clue about the food they were selling – me being the ‘go to girl’ for ingredient information of where to find it, or what it is.

Food should be respected and treasured, savoured and experienced. Which is why I think we need more growers markets full of all the bountiful things food has to offer.

Brillat-Savarin once said that “The fate of nations depends on the way they eat”, Australians’ relationship with food at this point is barely making first base. We need to get physical with food, talk about food, and develop a love that just keeps giving.

Food needs to be at the top of our priority list. ‘Cause it can only go up from there.

By Samantha Coutts
Photo: Flikr