China cruise for Langoustines

Dawnfresh, a Scottish company that fishes for langoustines in Dublin Bay, is sacking workers so it can ship its langoustines to China to be shelled by cheap labour, and then ship them back to find their way onto the shelves of Britain's fave duopoly, Tesco and Asda.

This is madness! The big thing here at the moment, apart from the revolutionary new concept of BYO shopping bags (they've only just cottoned on... er mind the pun) is Food miles. String beans from Kenya, Blueberries from Argentina and now the most well-travelled raw prawn you'll ever meet will wind up on your dinner plate with a stamp in his passport and a cheap handbag from Shinzen.

I can't believe that the amount of energy spent on shipping the langousintes to China and back can be less than keeping them in Scotland to be shelled by workers in the local community. Shame on you Dawnfresh!

And as for the stringbeans from Kenya, I've just read in the Guardian that 25% of the water in the great river of Ngiro and used by 100,000 people, is being sucked up by flower beds and vegetable patches for British shops. Another good reason to shop at the farmers' market.