A group of experts from both sides of the GM divide argue their case for best solving the impending world food shortage. The discussion was recorded at the John Innes Centre in Norwich in December 2012 and was chaired by John Shrive.  The participants were:

Professor Cathie Martin of the University of East Anglia, group leader at the John Innes Centre, Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell

Dr Charlie Clutterbuck, Fellow, Food Policy, City University London

Dr Rupert Read,  Reader in the UEA School of Philosophy, Chair of the Green House thinktank, and Green Party MEP candidate

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As part of our series on GM foods,  we filmed a discussion between Professor Jonathan Jones, FRS, and Peter Melchett, Policy Director of the Soil Association, outlining their opposing views on this issue.  The meeting was hosted by John Shrive,  at Nelson House in Holt, Norfolk.

No attempt has been made by us to edit the material and, as a result, the video is over an hour in length.   It has been divided into parts for ease of viewing.

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Here is the first of a series of interviews and debates on genetically modified (GM) foods.

Agricultural journalist and author, Diane Montague, interviews Vivian Moses, Visiting Professor of Biotechnology at King's College London, and the resulting discussion sets out what GM is and what the major issues are. It is a fitting introduction to the discussions which will follow.

Next up will be Professor Jonathan Jones, FRS, head to head with Peter Melchett, Policy Director of the Soil Association.  We will follow up with  a round-table discussion with Professor Cathie Martin of UEA, Rupert Read of the Green Party and Dr. Charlie Clutterbuck of City University. As a policy to ensure no editorial bias, the debates are unedited. They have been broken in parts but that is purely for ease of watching as each one runs over an hour. So, anyone looking for quick soundbites should go elsewhere.

To our knowledge this is the first and only such series of debates and is intended to be a permanent record of something that affects each and everyone of us.

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In Zara G.'s latest diary entry, a lady from Turin is not quite what was expected...

Parts 1 -6,  featuring Henry, a carnivore from Colombia and Yozo, a football fanatic from Japan, and more can be found in READ

Everyone has a memory of their school dinner - and it's not always about the dreaded tapioca pudding! There are some people who actually liked them.

Welcome to the revival of our blog, From the Back of the Shelf, with the first Cookbook Quote. We'd love you to send us suggestions from any forgotten or undiscovered gems gathering dust on the back of your shelves to add to what we hope will become an entertaining collection.

To kick off here is a period piece from The Complete Book of Curries by Harvey Day, published by Nicholas Kaye Ltd, 1966.  It may have originally appeared in The First Book of Curries published earlier in 1955.  It is part of the introduction to a chapter called 'Rice Dishes' and argues that rice has played a part in forming the English character... 

zee, 19th March, 2013

Camilla Barnard, champion of all things oaty and purveyor of some very fine breakfast foods, got together with packaging guru Tessa Stuart to talk to us about the challenges of packaging… what messages does it send out, how does it behave on the shelf, does it grab you and do you grab it? 

For a start-up company, your packaging may be the only marketing tool you have...

The collective knowledge and wit of Matthew Fort and Jonathan Meades make this conversation one to savour! The iconoclastic Jonathan Meades is often considered to have been the best of all food critics during his tenure at the Times, and is still regarded by many as supreme.  Meades airs his trenchant and outspoken views about today's chefs and the food scene generally. He cites RADA,  "the Sandhurst for chorus boys", where he trained as an actor, as the place which instilled in him a lifelong discipline and, one suspects, his disdain for the pretentious.

At a relatively early age Fuchsia Dunlop became hooked on China.  She decided to learn Mandarin at evening classes and eventually won a scholarship to study in Chengdu, Sichuan.  It was there that she trained as a chef, the first westerner to attend the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. As a result she is now one of the foremost experts on Chinese cuisine and has built up a large and devoted following across the world.

At Barshu in the heart of London's Soho, a Sichuanese restaurant where Fuchsia acts as consultant, she talks to Mark Hilton, who also decided at a young age to study Chinese and Chinese culture and has lived in Xiamen in South-East China for 12 years. Discussion ranges from her life in Chengdu to the effect of the country's rapid changes on its cuisine and the, often false, assumptions the west makes about Chinese food.

More on Fuchsia...you can see her in conversation with Prue Leith here.

Zabar's is not a building that really stands out, perhaps the mock tudor looks a bit odd on 81st and Broadway but that's about it. Yet any self-respecting New Yorker knows it...

Ever wished that you could cut down on your food bills? Artist and activist Spring Exprit (Eugenia Beirer) may have the answer. Call it Dumpster Diving, Skipping or even Freeganism - on the face of it “food salvage” is simply the practice of retrieving and eating food that others have thrown away. But it goes much deeper than that, calling in to question the workings of the entire capitalist economy. Oh, and it’s a heck of a lot of fun too.

Hattie Garlick visited New Covent Garden Market with a group of novice scavengers to learn the tricks of the dumpster diving trade. Click More below to watch her video.