Gentle Reader,
WHEN David Miliband, the environment secretary, was reported as believing organic food brought no benefit, it reminded me of a certain photo shoot of a conservative minister with his daughter, John Gummer, in which he pushed a beef burger in front of her nose during the BSE crisis back in 1990.
Miliband said: “It’s only 4% of total farm produce, not 40%, and I would not want to say that 96% of our farm produce is inferior because it’s not organic.” The hands of civil servants, the FSA, and the farming lobby in that methinks.
No matter that he has forgotten his future king is one of the largest organic producers in the country, takes it seriously, and does pretty well by it too.
No matter that the Soil Association outlines several benefits for soil, quality of meat and quality of life for the livestock.
From personal experience, I am happy to say I no longer buy tomatoes that taste of fish because chemically that was what they were grown out of, and haven't done for a long time. I can also say that the naturall reared chickens and sheep I ate while living abroad tasted far superior to the crap peddled on supermarket shelves, and I bet you that if you ask anyone who was brought up in a country where you are very likely not going to eat food produced by intensive arming methods, they will tell you the very food Miliband is defending is bland in taste and texture.
So why is he being advised to say something that is so debatably untrue? And why is he listening to the advice?
Mr Gummer looked pretty undignified a the time, so when is some of the teflon coating finally going to let down some of the good politicians in the current government when they talk such dubious propaganda?
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