Bytheway...It’stimetostartmakingyourownbread

FOR too long, the villains have held too much sway over food production. In farming, the push has been for greater and greater yield at whatever price in terms of environmental damage and the drop in food’s nutritional content.

Meanwhile, in manufacture, profit is the dominant driving force. Who could forget the headline earlier this year ‘Junk food ban dropped as minister bows to lobbyists’?

There’s particular concern about what we’re doing to the soil — 95 per cent of our food is, directly or indirectly, derived from it (the UN designated 2015 the International Year of Soils, reflecting its importance as a natural resource as vital as the air we breathe).

But across the world, modern farming practice is depleting it at an unsustainable rate. We have enough fertile soil left globally for only about 60 years of food production, unless we change the way we farm, according to Professor John Crawford, of Rothamsted Research, the leading agricultural research institution.

As a beekeeper, I often flip through Farmers Weekly magazine. In the latest copy alone, there are articles encouraging the use of chemical additives such as phosphorus, selenium, ammonium nitrate and sulphur for improved growth.

But is this the best way to nurture this precious resource? As long ago as 2001, the Soil Association concluded organically grown food would improve our intake of nutrients, as well as reduce exposure to harmful residues such as pesticides.

Before I get letters saying going organic can’t feed the world, let me add that it’s also about

how we farm. The Sustainable Food Trust is in the vanguard of the movement to end the push for greater yields from monoculture (vast acreages of wheat or soya) and return to mixed farming and crop rotation, resulting in healthy products from the land and healthier soil.

When it comes to food manufacture, it’s not just junk food we need to be concerned about: supermarket versions of our trusty staple, bread, can contain up to 20 additives when all that’s needed is flour, water, salt and yeast.

We are at a pivotal moment — thanks, partly, to Brexit — which will bring about and highlight the need to re-think many farming policies.

There is also growing public awareness about the risks of sugar, fat and additives in our diet (plus, we have a prime minister with diabetes who must, inevitably, adhere to a pattern of sensible eating). This must focus minds at a high level to bring together the threads: farming, nutrition, education and intelligent regulation.

But will it happen? There is change in the air everywhere, so I am hopeful. But at the very least, think about making your own bread.