The business of producing food has never been a piece of cake (apart from growing cress on a damp kitchen towel), particularly for farmers. It’s extraordinarily challenging when tragic wars are bringing upward pressure on the costs and even availability…
Farmers are often grumpy. It’s the unpredictable elements of their business such as tussling with the vagaries of the weather, market prices, awkward customers and regulators, and coping with the peccadillos of their neighbours and wayward countryside visitors. But, right now, they’re angry even…
Dr. Food is an inveterate reader of the weekly influential current affairs periodical The Economist. In history, it was always a Saturday morning treat to sit down with the magazine and a coffee and be immersed in the brilliantly written…
Consumer concerns about protecting and improving their health and the health of the planet are twin trends that have been accelerated during the pandemic and both have a big significance for the food and drink industry. Our food purchases are…
A group of 40 influential European food industry companies, including major retailers Ahold Delhaize, Aldi, Lidl, Migros, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and some of the big names in UK’s meat sector like Moy Park, Hilton Food Group and Cranswick have written an…
We don’t usually reach for a quote from Lenin to kick-off a blog but, in a pensive moment, Vladimir Ilyich mused “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen”. Ten weeks of lockdown, with travel…
Big corporates – supermarkets and fmcg – are courting farmers and fisherfolk again. Is this a Covid-19 thing that induces love for primary food producers? Yes but it’s more than a kneejerk coronavirus response. One outcome of a pandemic or,…
How’re you all doing? Miguel’s family had a scare – his wife was very poorly for 3 weeks but is much better now. David, self-isolating in his bunker, has been grumbling about Government spokespeople listing the criteria for those considered…
Here’s a challenge: explain consumers’ understanding of sustainable food in a 140 character tweet – oh, go on then, try the new 280 character option! Succinct descriptions of complex topics are very fashionable with politicians and business leaders alike and…
Who would you choose to captain your fantasy A Team on environmental issues? In agriculture and food, Rachel Carson of “Silent Spring” comes to mind. She’s been the mother of the modern environmental movement with her early stance on abusive…
Supermarkets in your pocket. 