What's Wrong with Supermarkets?
by - 18.04.2004 23:26
Overview: Supermarkets sweep up
The supermarkets we know today started in Britain with the Co-operative Movement in the 19th century. This was a group of independent local retailers controlled by its consumer members, who sold unadulterated foods at prices working people could afford. It was in post-war Britain that the foundations were laid for the supermarket revolution; the 1948 Agriculture Act initiating the 'cheap food' policy that is still with us today. With government subsidies to farmers and new machinery and new chemicals arriving on farms, food production rocketed.
