The Food Standards Agency yesterday published some research which claimed that organic food offers no extra nutritional benefits when compared with conventionally produced food. 

Their aim, they suggest, is to enable consumers to make "an informed choice".

Have these researchers been living in a cave, with nothing to sustain them other than a few berries and nuts?  I don't think that the majority of people who eat organic food think that it's going to make them healthier.  They don't eat organic broccoli thinking that its stuffed full of nutrients that just aren't there in non-organic brocolli.

They eat it, I think, because they think that farming non-intensively, without routine use of pesticides, is a better way to produce food – better for us (in a wider health and wellbeing sense), better for wildlife, better for the long-term health of the planet.  And it's not just about not using pesticides – it's often about a whole different approach to linking consumers, farmers and food.

You can read the Soil Association's response to the research here.  

I thought I'd pop down to Swillington Organic Farm to see what they thought of the research.  There were plenty of customers there who've clearly made up their own mind, and who frankly don't need second-rate FSA research to help them to make an informed choice.  Here's what the Farm's Organic Apprentice thinks the benefits are of the way they farm at Swillington:

I've just been out for an hour on my bike.  I have a nice little circular route which I ride regularly, with a few good hills and some nice greenery.  I'm trying to cycle more at the moment for a few reasons.  

One is to get fit and lose weight (having never had to worry about that kind of thing I've noticed the beginnings of middle-age expansion recently).  Another is to be a bit more eco – if I'm fitter I'm more likely to use the car less.  And the final one is that I'm pretty demotivated by a lot of what I do at the moment – so an hour's bike ride tricks my brain into stimulus (and is better than sitting at my desk looking at my Google stats).

There's a farm shop half way round my bike ride, so I often stop there to buy a bit of veg.  They're really friendly and have some tasty veg.  Obviously now is prime time for tasty summer produce:

(I like the way the woman is staring at me, probably thinking I'm some kind of freak)

I then continue through Fulneck and then down into the centre of Pudsey.  I stopped at the lights and noticed the following:

I'm in prime position to win £100 for the most debated post of the month in the Bloggers Circle.  That post praised supermarkets for their efforts to reduce plastic bag use.  So, just to show I'm not going soft, here's a post having a go at a supermarket.  The fact that they call their store Local just shows how messed up our food and shopping cultures are.  And no, Sainsburys, your store isn't bulging with all the things I want.  I don't want onions from New Zealand, or green beans from Zambia.  I want cauliflowers from Pudsey please.

One of the things I'm challenging myself on as a result of getting involved in the climate change group is my love of clever bits of technology.  My latest purchase – as you may have guessed from the videos that are starting to appear on the blog – is a small video camera.  It's great – and came highly recommended by the Social Reporter, David Wilcox.  I like it because it's small and unobtrusive – the size of a mobile phone –  and doesn't really get in the way of normal conversations.

Just back from a talk by Richard Reed, one of the three guys who set up innocent drinks.  

Cadbury's Dairy Milk has long been a secret pleasure of mine.  If I'm out and about and need a quick sugar hit, and there's nothing vaguely ethical to be had, then Dairy Milk tends to be my choice.  Francis's stash of chocolate buttons never seems to last that long either.

It's not been a good 24 hours for Leeds.  Yesterday the Council announced 450 job losses, and today I learnt that high-profile social business Fifteen will not be opening a restaurant in Leeds after all.

This week's Food Programme on Radio 4 gave a fascinating insight into the growing pains of one of Britain's finest cheeses – Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire.

Two stories coincide this week to demonstrate how difficult it is to run the world in a way that is anywhere near socially and economically just.

I bought my first forced rhubarb of the year yesterday.  For those of you not in the know forced rhubarb is a bit of a Yorkshire thing – it's either grown in mysterious candle lit sheds, or, on a smaller scale, under a terracotta cloche.  The darkness tricks the plant  into working harder to find a source of light – and in the process forces up  beautiful, delicate light-pink sticks of rhubarb.  When I see the first rhubarb of the season, it reminds me that winter will eventually come to an end.

There's plenty that can be difficult in an economic downturn, so it's worth trying to look on the bright side wherever you can.