Supermarkets. Good or bad for farming?

[devonshiredeli]

There is a lot of talk about how supermarkets are running and ruining our farming industry so I'd like to invite both farmers and supermarketeers to have their say. What is your opinion? Are supermarkets "giving the customers what they want" as they so often put it, or is that just an excuse for having it all their own way in order to make more and more profit?

For example, I have heard that supermarkets promise to buy all a farmes produce in return for a much lower price with difficult to achieve limitations only to pull out of the deal when they find a cheaper source leaving the farm stranded with no customers.

Supermarkets also like their produce regularised, all the same size, shape and colour. But what of other qualities such as flavour and nutrition? And what happens to all the produce that does not fit their bill?

Tesco's profits last year were £3.1bn with sales topping £1bn each week. How much of that profit went back into the local economy?