The facts from our front page story this week really speak for themselves. With ignorance about fresh produce seemingly so rife across the country, are we fighting a losing battle to change the nation’s eating habits?

The survey, conducted by AXA, found consumers’ knowledge of both domestic production and imports to be seriously flawed. I can’t help but wonder if the supermarkets are partly to blame for this apparent dearth of knowledge. Although they have managed to improve vastly the availability and range of fresh produce on offer, their penny-pinching tactics have commoditised food and may well have affected the consumer’s relationship with what he or she eats.

With many fruit and vegetable growers forced to swallow these cost-cutting techniques - see our Picota feature on p18 for a salient example - thus deflating prices to an almost unsustainable level, it is little wonder that a lot of consumers don’t know much about the true value of food. They focus on how much a product is, instead of on its provenance and the huge amount of work behind its journey to the supermarket shelf.

Perhaps one positive effect of the recession might be if it were to instil - in shoppers, but more importantly in supermarket buyers - a newfound respect for food. That would ensure that while we might face an uphill battle to educate consumers, at least it would not be a losing one.