Can we really blame the recession for buying (and supposedly eating) less fruit and veges?

I was watching the news on Sunday night and saw a segment blaming the recession for the Restaurant Brands profit surging but the purchases of fruit and vegetables dropping - can we really blame the recession though? Turners & Growers saw a decrease of 34% profit and this was attributed to the fact that people weren't buying fruit and veges in the recession. That same day I had also read the newspaper and a great article on a different slant to the decreased purchase of fruit and veges - that article discussed how so many NZer's are now growing their own fruit and vegetables and that this could be in fact the cause of the slump in profits - not that we had just gone off veges and brought fast food instead.

I believe there is a lot of proof to the newspaper article - I myself now have vegetable plants growing (red onions, spring onions, celery, lettuce etc), we have a huge feijoa plant as well as large lemon tree and a passionfruit vine. Because of this we do spend less at the supermarket on fruit and vegetables but its not to say we aren't eating them.

Although it may be reported that fast food consumption is increasing there are still a lot of NZer's concerned about their health and making a big effort to increase to their intake fruit and vegetables which is great to see!