Why did the Telegraph put “Food is too cheap” in quotation marks when Zack Polanski never used those words?
You’d be forgiven for thinking, when you saw this Telegraph headline, that Zack Polanski had said the words “food is too cheap” in a recent speech he gave.
He didn’t.
I’ve listened to the 30-minute speech he gave to the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union conference on Monday June 8, and I’ve searched the full transcript.
He never said, “Food is too cheap”.
In fact, he never even said the word “cheap”.
Weirdly, in earlier iterations of the Telegraph article, the headline read:
Food is too cheap, claims Zack Polanski
But the following day, that changed to:
Zack Polanski: ‘Food is too cheap’
Readers generally understand quotation marks to indicate words actually spoken by the person being quoted, yet the quoted phrase does not appear anywhere in the speech.
In the original iteration of the headline, they could be excused for merely portraying their own summary of what they believed he meant.
But to change the headline into a direct claim about the words he used is inexcusable.
What did he say?
He talked about many issues during his speech, and the cost of food came up three times.
I will use the transcript from the YouTube video so you can see word-for-word what he says.
In the first mention, he acknowledges that food prices are rising in supermarkets, impacting the cost of putting food on the table for many workers:
We know it is workers who are being hit the hardest, whether we’re talking about the big international problems around the climate crisis in the global south or whether we’re looking right here in this country, the same problem and pattern occurs over and over again. The people who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are the ones who face the worst impact, and not only are so many workers right now struggling to heat their homes and put food on the table when they go to the supermarkets, they are also seeing those prices rise and rise and rise.
This is not about pitting supermarket workers against farmers or agricultural workers, but it is recognising it is those supermarket bosses who are taking record profits, record wages, meanwhile paying often their workers poverty wages.
Next, he talks about how worried we should be about the potential increase in the cost of fruit and veg over the coming years, as discussed in the recently released Autonomy report:
Just today, Autonomy, a think tank have released a new report that says fruit and veg could rise, the price of it could rise by 170 per cent by 2050. The alarm bells should absolutely have been ringing a few years ago, but they should be ringing as loud as they can possibly ring right now because we need a plan.
And finally, this was the section the Telegraph were referring to:
We do need to talk about supermarket regulation. It cannot go on as it is.
I was thinking of a friend of mine the other day who I’m not judging for this, I understand, but they were really excited that they were buying vegetables for 7p in one of the supermarkets.
That is not a sign of a healthy system, as Maisie told me in the bakery; someone is being exploited somewhere, and if you’re paying 7p for vegetables, then something is not right.
Yes, there’s a cost-of-living crisis. Yes, governments and local councils need to do everything they can to keep food prices down and make sure that people can afford to eat.
And in the same breath we need to make sure that we’re paying our workers properly and that people have proper dignity and working conditions and one of the most obvious places where that exploitation is happening is in the supermarket where a largely unregulated sector, or a sector that has not been regulated enough has been exploiting both the workers in the supermarkets and the farmers and agricultural workers, and yes sometimes the people who are suffering from cost of living crisis too.
So again, a recognition that there is a cost-of-living crisis and food prices need to be kept down, but also making the point that if vegetables are selling for 7p, then someone is not being paid enough in that production and supply chain.
That is the part The Telegraph chose to turn into their headline claim.
The obvious implication of that headline is that Polanski believes food prices are currently too low and should rise, which would impact many people currently struggling with the cost-of-living. You can see from the transcript that was not the context at all.
Does he have a point?
Whether Polanski is right or not is a separate question, and beyond the remit of this article. But it’s worth noting that concerns about extremely low food prices are not unique to him.
British dairy farmers are struggling at the moment. Industry figures suggest it costs 42-49p per litre (ppl) to produce milk, and yet they only get paid 32-35ppl by the supermarkets, making a 10ppl loss. EU farmers get paid 38-39ppl, about 10 per cent more.
Most farmers are seeing only tiny profits across the board, with this report highlighting examples such as:
For a wrapped, sliced loaf of bread, the cereal farmer spends 9.03p yet receives an almost negligible profit (0.09p) on a selling price of £1.14, but for a loaf of Real Bread sold in an independent bakery, they make 0.5p profit.
And many British farmers are struggling to make ends meet. A third of farmers surveyed last year said they are making a loss or only breaking even.
It’s definitely not an easy issue to fix – ensuring farmers and other workers within the food supply chain are earning a living wage, while keeping food costs low for consumers.
But it’s a conversation that will not be helped by disingenuous clickbait headlines like this one from the Telegraph.
I’ve talked about the use of quotation marks in headlines in the past, and it usually means they are quoting someone who is saying something they agree with, but don’t want to make the claim themselves as a newspaper.
Such as quoting the director of the Alliance of British Drivers in an article about 15-minute cities:
No, Oxford Isn’t Building “Stalinist” 15-Minute Cities
Or with the Telegraph headline – Heathrow ‘forced to shut down because of net zero’ – which was an entire article based on the opinion of Richard Tice, and bore no resemblance to the reality of why Heathrow shut down that weekend:
How a False Net Zero Claim Became ‘News’
But I’ve not come across them using quotation marks in a headline to attribute words to someone that they never actually said. That feels like a new low.
The lesson today is to be wary when you see quotation marks in a headline. It generally means they’re saying something controversial but want to hide behind someone else’s words.
And now we know they may use them when it’s not even a true quote.
Always read the article and find out the context for the quote if you can.
In this case, a 30-minute speech about food costs, struggling workers and supermarket profits, as well as climate change, the rise of the Far Right, and global politics was reduced to a quote that was never actually said.
That’s why it’s worth checking the source whenever a headline relies on a supposedly explosive quotation.
This article was first published on Emma’s brilliant substack: Monk Debunks. It is reproduce here by kind permission.
