Soil Association Director, Patrick Holden, 56, has been involved in the organic movement for more than 30 years. He divides his time between Bristol, where the Soil Association is based, and his organic farm near Lampeter, in West Wales. A dairy herd of Ayrshire cows graze on his farm’s 240 acres. Holden and his wife have recently gone into partnership with his son and his wife to produce, organic unpasturised cheese. In 2005, he received the CBE for services to organic farming.

What’s in your kitchen?
Unpasturised Ayrshire milk and carrots from the farm. My younger children aged 5, 4 and 2 are addicted to carrot juice. It’s lovely that they’ve got a taste for it at such an early age. We have lots of other things from the farm in season - mostly wild food actually – blackberries, mushrooms – anything we can forage. We also have some of our farm beef in the freezer.

Most of our other food – bread, olives, tinned stuff - comes from an organic shop, Organic Farm Foods in Lampeter. We buy our freshest vegetables from an honesty box on a small organic horticultural holding of about 50 acres run by friends of mine Peter Seger and Anne Evans – Blaen Camel Farm, Cilcennin. It it is just a mile off the main Lampeter-Aberaeron road and signposted "organic farm shop".

In Bristol I shop in The Better Food Company which is an amazing organic supermarket in St Werburghs. Ninety-five per cent of what they sell is organic – they do paint, clothes and every food you could imagine.

What’s your food philosophy?

I’m not one of these people who believes in polarising the discussion for and against supermarkets. The retailers who adapt to the changing demands of citizens' eating habits will survive. Those that don’t, won’t. I think it is part of my job to pay an occasional visit to most supermarkets to see what they offer.

I wouldn’t buy intensively produced chicken, salmon or pork because I know too much. Nor would I buy fruit and veg that has been heavily sprayed – I prefer organic. I don’t like to be too faddy about food. I love food but my preference will be for local, fresh, in season and of course organic food because organic food is produced sustainably.

We are all walking contradictions with lots of vices – I sometimes think, thank God! It would so boring to be too worthy. My mentionable vices include travelling too much, for my own good and the good of the planet. But I like to think that spreading these ideas is worth a bit of carbon.

How have our attitudes to food changed?

We were one of the leading industrialising nations in the world. We thought it was grown up and clever to commodify our food industry and worship at the altar of cheap food. Now we are realising, just in time perhaps, that actually it wasn’t clever at all. We have got a lot to learn from the French and Italians who held onto their food culture.

Interestingly, though, I think powerful ideas spread very quickly at certain moments in history. This is such a moment. Millions of people in this country are intuitively aware that something has gone very wrong with our food and farming. They want to do something about it and be part of the change. The great news is they can be.

What annoys you about food in Britain?

It is annoying when food is treated as fuel with all that that implies. We eat so much commodity food produced by people we will never know, often without any attention and in front of the television. And yet, food and the sharing of food with friends and lovers is the highest form of cultural activity.

What's Britain’s best kept food secret?

Wild food is fascinating because it is where farming meets nature and some of the most vital foods of all are wild foods. At the Soil Association Conference in Cardiff we had a workshop on wild food. The speakers were Serena Allen from Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the third speaker Aeneas Mackay from Ardalanish Farm in Scotland.

I had a meal once on the Shiant Isles, between the Isle of Skye and the Isle of Harris. We had limpets followed by puffin with nettles and seaweed. Nettles are just amazing - I eat them while the season lasts (April to November). Pick the growing tips. They are at their most vibrant in early spring. You can taste the vitality in them. They are very high in minerals. Cook them like spinach. Put them in a saucepan and you put not very much water – maybe half an inch or so – of water in the bottom of the saucepan. I put a couple of enormous knobs of butter in as well.

You can get them everywhere – they are in all London gardens. They are the perfect example of wild food which co-exists with everyone and which could become a significant part of our diet.

Do you prefer eating in our eating out?

I much prefer to eat at home. I like the intimacy of eating with close friends. But I think if I didn’t have such a stressful lifestyle I’d like to eat out more. There is nothing better when one is in the right state than eating out at a very good restaurant. There is a very good – and sustainable - one in Bristol called Bordeaux Quay.

I’ve got friends up in Argyll who run a simple restaurant called The White House, in Lochaline. It’s only open May to October, but like all the best restaurants it captures the spirit and the taste of its location.

What is the next big food thing?

The first years of the 21st century are also the closing years of the fossil fuel era. The planet has squandered the accumulated energy capital of perhaps 100 million years in just over 100 years. This issue will dominate everybody’s life.

Nearly all the things we take for granted, most of which are dependent on oil, are not going to be so accessible. We are going to have to compensate for reduced mobility and economic prosperity - hopefully with increased quality of life - but we also have to begin what I would call a 10-year preparation to equip ourselves to survive in a world where the things we take for granted are just not going to be available anymore.

A vital part of this shift is recognising that taking our food seriously is not just good for our health; it is good for the health of the planet, and it may even be connected with our own survival.

I think that’s a big new movement and it’s reflecting the spirit of our time. We must find ways of improving the quality of our lives despite having to adapt to very new circumstances and food is at the heart of that.

For further information: One Planet Agriculture: a Handbook for Practical Action will be published later this year; to reserve a copy e-mail: sass@soilassociation.org

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