The conduct of supermarkets has been dubbed “immoral” and “despicable” by community food providers, as the senate inquiry into supermarket prices gets underway.
The inquiry began in Tasmania on Thursday and submitters spoke of how communities are forced to shoplift and dumpster dive, with so many people simply unable to afford groceries.
Grassroots Action Network Tasmania member Amelia Cromb said supermarkets were throwing away tonnes of perfectly good food, and “didn’t care” as they would just offset the costs to customers. Greedy bastards.
“It just seems like cruel mockery that every day people are going to the supermarket to buy food that is a human right, and there’s all these high prices and they can’t afford them,” said Cromb.
“And then at the end of the day the supermarket can rip off the tag and throw it in the bin as if it had no value at all. It’s despicable really.”
Cromb says that although supermarkets had agreements with local food banks, there was a culture of simply throwing food away as that “was easier”.
Tell that to the scores of people who can’t afford to feed themselves or their families.
Supermarkets however dispute the claim that food is being excessively wasted. A spokesperson for Woolworths told PEDESTRIAN.TV that 80 per cent of food was diverted from landfill last year.
“It’s always disappointing when food has to be thrown out and we work hard to reduce food waste across our stores – it’s not only the right thing to do, but also good business,” they said.
“We aim to only discard food that can’t be donated to charity, often for food safety reasons.
“Last year, we diverted 80 per cent of our supermarket food waste from landfill and donated the equivalent of 28 million meals to our hunger relief partners to help feed Australians in need.”
Other submissions throughout the morning heard of how supermarkets control the price of groceries, and punish producers who do not comply with their demands.
TasFarmers CEO Nathan Calman said the behaviour amounted to “predatory buying practices”.
“Every Tuesday the supermarkets will contact the growers and say ‘this is what we have determined the price to be. If you want to participate in the market, please acknowledge’. There is no price negotiation going on, the price is set by the supermarkets,” he said.
“And commercial retribution is a very real fact. Producers are worried that if they do not participate they will be punished, they will get lower orders going forward, and they cannot afford to do that.
“And almost every grower in this country feels they have no choice but to accept.”
Calman’s damning claims included that producers could be punished for “three to four months”, and that despite supermarket prices going up, many farmers haven’t seen an increase in their pay checks in 10 to 15 years.
All this, submitters say, has created a “social crisis”. They say many Aussies cannot afford to eat and growing numbers are stealing or skipping meals, and skyrocketing costs mean people are having to work more hours just to afford the basics.
University of Tasmania professor Danny Carney said it was at the point where people would consider the risk of a criminal record to be “worth it”.
“I’ll have students admit to me ‘oh I have to steal that because if I buy shampoo I can’t afford vegetables’,” he said.
“These are conversations I didn’t have even three years ago.”
Carney said that university research showed that almost half of students and 16 per cent of staff were struggling with food insecurity.
Ultimately, submitters say what we’re all feeling — that the current system is broken and failing, and urgent reform is needed.
The hearings will continue into next week.
