It wouldn’t happen in France or Italy, it just wouldn’t be possible or allowed. I refer of course to the great Somerset apple heist. The news that the cider making factory in Shepton Mallet will in the future not make cider but act as a hub for the exportation of apple pulp to be…
Category: food
The End is Nigh
Over the past few years I have become interested in the politics of the end of the world or rather those who are anticipating it – because if has come to saturate the news. Often we don’t recognise it but it is there, and it is important to acknowledge it. I started with presentation on…
Only certified organic food is organic.
There’s nothing new or modish about organics – until the 1950s, all the food we ate was organically produced. I have a lot of time for Joanna Blythman, as well as owning several of her books, and in this recent quote she is echoing an idea I’ve heard many times. But I believe that in…
Food without labels
A few days ago a friend brought us a bottle of wine as a gift – & it had no label. From some folks that would be a sign of a home brew, other wise waste fruit fermented to something nearly drinkable. This bottle was the product of a Dorest vineyard, owned & run co-operatively…
Frugal Food Innovators
I’ve spent the past couple of days with the Pasture Fed Livestock Association [PFLA]. If you don’t know the name sort of suggests what they are about, the difficult task of using pasture as the basis for contemporary farming. Taking up the challenge of not feed soya, maize, barley, corn and the like to produce…
What if Defra was headed by ……..
What if…Defra was headed by a …. Thought experiments sometimes illuminate reality. Imagine if DEFRA were headed, for sake of example, by a climate change denier sceptic or possibly a vegan? Would that make any substantial difference to the policies enacted or changes on the ground? Let us put to one side that more colourful…
Select Places & Food Futures
One of the many privileges of being a researcher is that I get to go to some very select places. During the past week I’ve been lucky enough to be a guest at two fascinating, contrasting but connected, locations. As a guest of the Sustainable Food Trust I went on a tour of the Duchy…
Urban Food in Utrecht – Food Confessions
I’ve just spent the last 4 days in Utrecht, Holland in a series of meetings and conferences, considering and discussing the development of urban agriculture. Others will be able to offer you fuller reports over the next few weeks, but for the blog post, I want to confess two interlinked failings. The first is that…
The Ruralist 