DO WE REALLY KNOW THE PRICE OF FOOD?

We are Get used to finding any product throughout the year, often at prices contents. This availability, however, can create the illusion that food is inexhaustible and that its value coincides with the price displayed on the shelf. In reality, behind every food there is a long process: there is water, soil, energy, work, favorable transport and weather conditions.

Summer 2026 in Veneto has made this interdependence evident. It was the most Heat never recorded by the Arpav network, with an average temperature of 23.5 °C: 2.8 °C above the 1991-2020 climate average. Heat and drought have reduced the agricultural yields and, in some cases, the quality of the products has worsened. The estimates Regionals indicate damages of more than 400 million euros, with losses up to 50% for corn, 40% for soybeans and 20% for vegetables and fruits.

The problem it's not just about farmers. Less product available means higher costs for irrigation, energy, selection and conservation. Una part of these expenses is transferred along the supply chain, to the consumer. Assuming prices that are always low often means not seeing the environmental costs and social networks of intensive productions, very long supply chains or underpaid work.

The price Hidden availability

An example The Mar de Plastico in Almería, in Andalusia, is significant: a very large area of polyethylene greenhouses visible even from space, with more than 30,000 cultivated hectares and an annual production of about 3.5 million tons of fruit and vegetables destined for European markets. Tomatoes, Peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and melons arrive in supermarkets like this in

This system guarantees high quantities and competitive prices, but its real cost does not always appear on the receipt. Migrant people work in greenhouses who they report very low salaries, extreme temperatures, difficult conditions and precarious housing. They have been brought back, by the few realities that have the courage to report the serious situation, I work below the minimum wage and accommodations devoid of essential services.

“Greenhouses only greenhouses”, yes Read in the article by journalist Stéphane Mandard on Le Monde, “A white tide that devours the coast, engulfs cities and It inexorably gnaws at the mountain. A sea of plastic that extends over the Mediterranean and throughout the province of Almeria, flooding supermarkets with strawberries and tomatoes. Round, in clusters, cherries or dates... tomatoes Spaniards also colonize the shelves dedicated to the bio of the chains of supermarkets; in the stores of Carrefour, Auchan, Leclerc, Lidl, Monoprix, Franprix you can find packs of organic Iberian cherry tomatoes all year round in their strictly plastic packaging.”

It's about understand that the continuous availability of fresh food is neither natural nor free: depends on a complex, intensive and vulnerable production system. Al supermarket we should ask ourselves not only why a tomato is cheap, but Even how much water, energy, plastic and work were necessary for produce it.