Stalker wasn't surprised to be reading of gloomy outlooks on the problem page in The Mushroom Journal October 2004. The estimable Richard Gaze was waxing mournfully in places and giving a bit of stick too (where it was needed.) Stalker did chuckle at the phrase – " maybe we are in danger of becoming corporately clinically depressed." If only there was Prozac in them there British mushrooms we'd all be as "happy as Larry", and consumers would be ingesting the produce at a prodigious rate.
Indeed the stress busting properties of the produce could be 'stressed' more in order to gain some extra demand. But central thrust of the problem page was essentially spot on in Stalker's opinion i.e. convincing retailers of the error in sourcing the cheapest produce from far afield.
Quality produce from local sources sells best in the longer run. Survival doesn't have to be selfish, it can be mutually beneficial, and indeed economic theory would suggest that selfish behaviour damages the economic good of an individual/company/state eventually.
