Editor’s Comment

Organic retail sales in the UK are on the move again and growth, though modest, are outpacing conventional sales. But organic’s share of total food and drink sales stubbornly refuses to move. At just below 2% it’s significantly lower than that of other European countries with mature organic markets – it’s 3.7% in Germany, 3.59% […]

In 2002 the pro-GM Labour Government held a national debate to test public opinion on GM food. When the findings of the GM Nation? debate were published it was clear that the British public comprehensively rejected the technology. In fact, only 2% of the 30,000 people who took part in the GM Nation? consultation said […]

“A compelling combination of retail, food service and community” “The retail equivalent of your uncle trying to be groovy at a wedding and failing” Two rather different interpretations of Tesco’s widely publicised plans to breathe some life into its underperforming superstores – the first from Kantar Retail, the second from the New Economics Foundation’s Andrew […]

Tesco’s horsemeat media confessional continues. First there was the visually stark yet otherwise strangely chatty We Apolgise advertisement. “You’ve probably heard or read that we had a serious problem with three of our frozen beef burgers …” it began, with no small measure of understatement. Next up was the What Burgers Have Taught Us double […]

“Next week”, announced the dulcet-toned Charlotte Green, “Radio 4 will broadcast the first in a two part-series in which Lord Gus O’Donnell makes a provocative and passionate plea in defence of bureaucracy. “In the programmes the former Cabinet Secretary will argue that an efficient bureaucracy isn’t just a symptom of a mature democracy – it’s […]

I’m not sure when the phrase ‘reconnecting people with their food’ was first coined (it began cropping up in the media around the time the Curry Report was published, in early 2006). But because it resonates strongly for so many people it’s now passed into general currency. (more…)

Residents of Tunbridge Wells are usually acutely aware of their ‘disgusted of’ reputation. We live each day as a national joke (yes, I speak from personal experience). (more…)

Industry analyst Organic Monitor has an intriguing New Year prediction. Not only will mobile technology be used by growing numbers of people in 2012 but — in the form of smartphone apps — it could cut the maze of eco-labels that consumers have to navigate every time they go shopping. (more…)