The Great Food Gamble

Currently, only 2.3 per cent of Britain’s farmland is farmed organically. But as consumers, he says we should use our purse power to insist on more home-grown and ethically produced goods. Humphrys, for example, won’t allow GM produce in his house, and will only feed his ten-month-old son, Owen, organic baby food. ‘If you look at very powerful pressure points, it’s always going to be our children.’ There are signs that we are heading in the right direction. Once, you could only find a couple of misshapen carrots in the ‘organics’ section of supermarkets. Now, there are aisles to choose from, including supermarket own-brands and products from mainstream manufacturers including Heinz and Mars UK. The Soil Association reports that sales in the organic food market have soared by 55 per cent in the past year and the annual market is now worth £605m. Women buying for their families have helped bring about these changes. ‘It’s mostly women buying in the food, and they have an enormous influence here,’ he says. ‘But I don’t differentiate between men and women,’ he adds, ‘and deplore the notion that there are differences. I lived by myself for ten years and did all the shopping, and apart from the fact that I’d buy rather more beer, there was no difference.’

But in male-dominated big business, does he think women could do a better job of supplying ethically produced food for the consumer? ‘I think it’s possible. Women do more of the shopping and more of the feeding of children. Fifty per cent of the population do probably about 90 per cent of the shopping and they’re scarcely represented at senior levels of people responsible for business.’