Honesty and credibility

The above two character traits are two that should be intrinsic in everyone. Unfortunately they're not. The people who should have them in spades are business people. People who might spend millions of dollars in advertising costs trying to persuade us to use their products or services, or promote an idea. Their money is poorly invested if we all know upfront that the rule of thumb is that we simply don't believe the hype.

From the top downwards - politicians, beaurocrats, officials, business owners, workers, unemployed - everyone these days seem to have scant or no regard for honesty or credibility. I lost count 40 years ago of the number of times someone has told me they'll 'get back' to me and haven't. A small thing, but in the scheme of whether or not in the larger scheme of things they actually WILL deliver on their promises, it doesn't bode well.

Reading a menu these days, I genuinely want to know if the owner and/or chef are of a similar mindset to me in regard to the origins of their products. Are the eggs truly free range, or has the waiter just reassured me to placate me and be able to move on with his day, secure in the knowledge that there's no way I'll find out if they're not, and that I ultimately won't die of food poisoning anyway from eating the eggs, no matter where they're from?

As times goes by, I find these issues mattering more and more to me. I don't want to be fobbed off. To this end, I must formally salute our Gobbler. He has published his list of Huon and Channel suppliers in a separate blog listing. If you go to his blogsite and double click on the Huon and Channel link (top right hand of his home page) it'll take you to the list and from there you should be able to arrange just about all your fresh food shopping, take a trip down south and let our local producers benefit. We are then all in a win-win situation.

It is recommended you phone whoever you decide to visit upfront, as Gobbler didn't call to double check with all those people whether or not they wanted their names on his listing. It's up to us to take the initiative.

So my most honest and credible thanks must go to Gobbler for assembling and publishing this valuable list. Now...... if we can just get a regular Farmers Market happening down there, we can go straight to the one location to do our deals!