In the run-up to Christmas this year, perhaps spare a thought or two for the growers who will put the veg on your Christmas dinner table.

There are only one or two vegetables that suffer from what you might call hyper-seasonality, that are really only eaten at one, very specific time of the year. Pumpkins are one, the vast majority consumed at Halloween. Brussels sprouts are the other, with most people eating them only on Christmas Day (and the rest avoiding them like the plague!).

This intense seasonality puts these growers in a vulnerable situation: since they have to sell pretty much their entire crop at that time, the buyers of their crop have them over a barrel.

It’s a tricky and labour-intensive crop to grow. One would expect to have to pay a premium for such a seasonal delicacy but, in fact, over the last number of years supermarkets have used Brussels sprouts (and other Christmassy veg like carrots and parsnips) in aggressive price promotions.

In recent years, the price of 500g of sprouts dropped as low as 7c as part of dramatic supermarket price wars. Mainly these promotions are about getting you in the door, so you will stack your trolley with luxury mince pies, Christmas-themed napkins, selection boxes and flavoured gins.

Supermarkets insist that they fund the cost of veg promotions rather than forcing price reductions on their suppliers. They tell the growers these are short-term promotions, designed to build the market for a particular vegetable.

Consumer groups line up to say, “Sure don’t people have a family to feed?” And: “Isn’t it great we have access to healthy food at rock-bottom prices?” All of these arguments are short-sighted. In reality, promotions set a long-term price expectation that is never properly rectified.

While that might seem like a good thing for consumers, in the long run it just means more growers leaving the industry and more imports replacing Irish produce on shelves all year around. As consumers, that gives us less choice and less access to local food that’s at its freshest and most nutritious.

A question was asked on Twitter recently: why is GIY talking about an issue like this, when we should be focused on getting people to grow their own veg? It’s a valid question. We are absolutely focused on getting people to grow some of their own veg. We helped over half a million people to do so this year in Ireland and the UK.

But the reality is that most GIYers will grow only a small percentage of the food they eat and buy the rest of their food in the supermarket. And that’s OK. We believe they will be more conscious consumers as a result of their food growing, and they will seek out more seasonal, local, healthier food. They will value their food more, and understand the work that goes in to growing it.

So, in a way, our main aim is promoting “food empathy”, and growing some of your own food is a means to that end. With that food empathy comes a realisation that, downstream, there is in fact a ruinous cost to cheap food. A cost in terms of Irish jobs, our food security, our health and the health of the planet.

So, as you tuck in to your Christmas dinner, spare a thought for the Brussels sprout grower. Let’s hope they have a bumper season and get a fair price for their hard-won produce.CL

For further information, visit www.GIY.ie.