It is now 14 years since I first suggested that organic farming might have some benefits and ought to be taken seriously. I shall never forget the vehemence of the reaction.. much of it coming from the sort of people who regard agriculture as an industrial process, with production as the sole yardstick of success.

We should be treating, I think, the whole issue of climate change and global warming with a far greater degree of priority than I think is happening now.

Climate change should be seen as the greatest challenge to face man and treated as a much bigger priority in the United Kingdom.

Personally, I have been very impressed by the slow food movement. It is about celebrating the culture of food, of sharing the extraordinary knowledge, developed over millennia, of the traditions involved with quality food production, of the sheer joy and pleasure of consuming food together. Especially within the context of family life, this has to be one of the highest forms of cultural activity.

It is clear that through the partnerships between Global Cool and the International Indian Film Academy, Indian cinema has the potential to provide great leadership by exciting its enormous and enthusiastic audience to do their bit to save the planet

Organic farming has been shown to provide major benefits for wildlife and the wider environment. The best that can be said about genetically engineered crops is that they will now be monitored to see how much damage they cause.

The demand for organic food is growing at a remarkable rate. Consumers have made it clear that they want organic produce and every sector of the food chain is responding, with the kind of results we have just seen.