The Sunday Telegraph recently published a debate on the future of British food with 11 “experts” taking part.
On reading the transcript of the event, moderated by John Humphrys, one comment from Efreda Pownall, the newspaper’s food editor, particularly struck me.
She said: “Supermarkets photograph their apples. An apple has to conform to within quite a small range of an ideal colour for a Cox. That seems to me total madness when we all go very happily on Saturdays to farmers’ markets and buy a bag of mixed and choose ourselves. Caveat emptor.”
Now, while Humphrys did pull her up to point out that we do not “all” traipse off to farmers markets, it does raise a rather worrying issue in my mind.
Pownall appears to be a fantasist in a very influential position, effectively setting the agenda on food for a large proportion of consumers who pore over the Sunday supplements looking for their latest foody hit.
The fact she appears to be living in some kind of cloud cuckoo land where we all nip down to the farmers market for a quick top-up shop of organic UK-grown oranges fills me with despair.
The food chain is far from perfect, but for goodness sake, if those in influential positions are so out-of-touch with everyday life, what chance is there of any sensible debate?