Tesco shows true colours over white stuff

On the face of it, Tesco and Rafa Benitez would appear to have little in common, writes Rural Affairs Editor Nathan Rous.

The former is Britain's biggest and boldest retailer and the latter a humble Spaniard who shuns the trappings of celebrity to concentrate on the impossible quest to bring the Premiership crown to Anfield.

But recent events suggest otherwise. At a press conference last week Senor Benitez suggested that as well as getting the blame for Gareth Barry's delayed transfer he was also being held responsible for global warming and an increase in fuel prices.

Likewise Tesco continues to get blamed for everything from the American economic collapse to the war on terror, regardless of how many "good news stories" it comes up with in the meantime.

It's as if Tesco's PR team has looked at the way Gordon Brown has manhandled the country since his arrival as Prime Minister and used it as a model for its own marketing strategy.

For while Tesco bashing is rapidly becoming a national pastime, the supermarket gigantor does seem to enjoy giving us mere mortals plenty of ammunition.

Take local food - when the biggest supermarket in Britain decides to support local food it has a greater impact than everyone else put together.

Yes, the Shropshire carrots are grown in the county and then driven down the tortuous A5 to Hinckley for packaging before returning once again to their county of origin, but they are Shropshire carrots nonetheless and we should support the initiative.

The same goes for Shropshire eggs, Shropshire parsnips and Shropshire potatoes; all grown in our wonderful soil and all a better bet than the stuff the French or the Kenyans can muster.

For this scheme alone Tesco received widespread acclaim. If it was a cow you could say they milked it. Yet the sceptics were never far away; not necessarily in hiding but reserving judgement, for they knew that it wouldn't be long before the company showed its true colours.

Last week was a case in point. Having reversed its wicked ways and backed local milk to the hilt during the past 12 months - paying farmers more than the price it costs to produce the white stuff rather than less - Tesco has inexplicably decided to change tack.

The company has seemingly listened to the devil on its shoulder, not the angel, and slashed the price of milk by around a quarter.

"Hurrah!" shouts the blinkered consumer, trained like a NASA monkey to accept everything at face value; "Cheap milk is great for our pockets and healthy to boot".

The reality is that this cost, no matter how much Tesco claims otherwise, will eventually be passed down the production line . . . destination farmer.

Now the farmer has in times past made a handsome profit from the land, based initially on grace and favour; after all, when Britain's landed gentry carved the countryside up into handsome plots it somehow always failed to thumb through the workhouse register.

But we have moved on and any farmer who does make any cold, hard cash ploughs it straight back into the business. It is a damn sight better for our economy, both locally and nationally, if farmers reinvest in their operations rather than shut up shop.

Why? They spend locally, employ locally (yes, not every labourer is an EU migrant) and ensure we can eat and drink local produce.

Many more don't make a profit at all and simply continue doing the job as a way of life. Therefore the past 12 months have been something of a boon to the dairymen; for once able to stick something aside for all their efforts.

Tesco's latest "initiative" suggests the dark times will be here once again. Many farmers back to the breadline and those that have reinvested with this year's profits wondering whether it was really the smartest piece of business to get into bed with such a fickle enemy.

Worryingly, many of you may want food as cheap as you can get it. You may not care about whether it's local, or seasonal, or at the very least British, as long as it's cheap.

But isn't it ironic that one minute you're soaking up our Olympic medal glory, reaffirming that British bulldog spirit, and the next you're happy to support foreign imports when it's just as easy to support homegrown.