Well, let's try not mentioning it so much. I am feeling mildly hysterical about the overload of statistics about the economy that I am digesting at the moment. Yes, times are hard, bread and milk ARE more expensive than they used to be but I wonder if I really need to worry about the lower than expected profits of the Royal Bank of Scotland and all the other world banks? Too much financial information seems to be aimed at inducing financial panic - and its working. I was musing the other day about the credit crunch (the expression has now entered the dictionary) and whether shrinking household budget would mean a return to buying cheap deals rather than making ethical and environmental choices at the supermarket. I am not the only one giving this some thought as I have just read an article in today's Guardian that addresses the issue. It's really worth reading. There has been a fall in the rise ( if you get my drift) of people choosing to buy organic if you look at supermarket sales alone and Wholefoods/Fresh & Wild have discovered that there may not be the demand they were expecting at the luxury end of the organic market - well perhaps Waitrose and M&S already have that covered.
I wonder whether the huge rise in the number of people growing their own vegetables may be having an effect. Here's a nice statistic - the demand for vegetable seeds outstripped the demand for flower seeds this year! We have re-discovered our love of growing food and buying local, getting veg boxes, knitting, swapping, charity shopping and farmers' marketing and there are only so many hours in the day. Maybe that's why the organic shopper numbers are leveling off a bit - perhaps we simply don't have the time to waft about selecting from all that stuff anymore - too much choice is really exhausting.
My tip on how to avoid depression brought on by the credit crunch is to listen to music instead of the news - something uplifting.
love & peace
Sally
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