Food for Thought

The third Open Farm Sunday seems to have gone well. Over 400 farms opened their gates to the public on 1 June and although no one is quite sure of visitor numbers - early indications are that it was bigger and better than last year.

What is clear from the pictures on FWiSpace is that it certainly went down well with the children.

Should Scotland go GM-free is the big question discussed by Scotland Environment Minister Mike Russell and NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren in this podcast presented by Farmers Weekly's Scotland correspondent Nancy Nicolson:

Did you know that over 80% of fresh tomatoes consumed in this country have been imported.

Want to know what goes on in the Farmers Weekly office during a typical day? Here's an insight:

Was anyone else listening to The Archers this weekend? There were several mentions for LEAF's Open Farm Sunday event on 1 June.

It would seem that Ambridge is going to be treated to not just one - but two - open days as part of the initiative. Ruth and David Archer are treating it fairly seriously and there is a rather more opportunistic effort being cobbled together by the Grundy family. Thank God, both have got "marinated" posters given there's been a bit of rain in recent days (if you don't understand this reference then you will have to 'Listen Again'). 

I wonder if Ruth and David will be sending any pictures for our online gallery on FWiSpace?

Last night, I attended a dinner held by British Pig and Poultry Fair sponsor ABN and it was an excellent advert of British food at its finest.

They hired Berkshire-based celebrity chef Mike Robinson to cook the four-course meal and between each course, he told diners how he constructed the dish. This was followed by a short video featuring the supplier giving a glimpse of how the animals are reared.

For example, the starter was smoked duck salad made with duck supplied by Cherry Valley. Main course was chicken, reared by Hook 2 Sisters with a clip of James Hook explaining his production methods.

What a brilliant advert for British farming and the enthusiasm of the chef and farmers alike gave diners confidence that the animals had been treated well and reared to very high welfare standards.

Just imagine if pubs and restaurants took on some of this by giving customers more information. I'm convinced the public wants to know more about where their food comes from, especially on the back of the recent BBC undercover investigation which revealed that some unscrupulous pubs were passing imported oxen off as British beef.

Supermarkets have done much good work in recent months promoting British chicken, but now it is the turn of the catering/hospitality sector. It's in their interest to reconnect with consumers too. 

Catch up on the latest news from the British Pig and Poultry Fair.

Reading today's newspapers with another heavy push on the rising price of food. I just want to know - are sales of food declining in the premium stores like Waitrose and M&S. And how are the sales of organic food holding up?

It's been a bit quiet on here during the past week and the blame lies with a bunch of Young Farmers.

In a positive way, of course. It is just I have been tied up at the agm in Blackpool being thoroughly entertained by over 5000 YFC members.

It was a great weekend with clubs from all over the country meeting to compare notes, compare club shirts and boast about the size of their tackle.

And it struck me that as a group of young people - you couldn't meet a nicer bunch. OK there was a fair bit of beer consumed over the weekend and at times some groups were pretty noisy. But at no point did you get the sense that things were going to boil over into the kind of aggressive, violent behaviour that seems to characterise so many towns and cities.

They knew where the boundaries were and respected them in a good-natured way. A great bunch.

Farming makes another of its appearances on TV tonight and the signs are that it won't be pretty.

Our Daily Breads screens on More 4 at 10pm and looks at modern agricultural practices across Europe.

There's already been some discussion on FWiSpace.

That's the phrase used more than once at last night's Real Food debate at the first Real Food Festival at Earls Court.

The charge was that all the "side issues" such as GM, food miles and the like are just that. The real deal is much bigger and according to food miles guru Tim Lang a suite of eight fundamentals need addressing as a whole not in part.

But what alarms me at debates such as these is the middle-classness of them.

One delegate ventured to suggest that food quality issues (of the type discussed last night - in other words trying to define what 'Real food' means...you get my drift) aren't just the preserve of the wealthy but the poor too. But I'm not sure I agree. A lot comes down to price.

It's all very well to talk about the importance of reconnecting people with where their food comes from...but to what purpose?

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