What a waste of money. All those £8 corn-fed chickens, the gnarled 75p apples and chewy luxury porridge oats. My family could have been eating £1.99 chicken nuggets with cheese strings and frozen peas for the past few years and ice cream made from palm oil for 74p rather than a luxury brand made from double cream and free-range eggs for £3.95.

Organic food isn’t going to make my children live longer, behave better or win the egg-and-spoon race. I never thought it would — but while organic food costs more, it tastes better and it has a conscience. I know my limits. I am not going to eat £10 Poilâne bread or buy cheese at Whole Foods where the It brie costs more than an It bag. However, I don’t want my carrots with a side-order of pesticides or my children’s hot chocolate with a sprinkling of growth hormones.

During the foot-and-mouth crisis I went to abattoirs and saw the riddled organs of organic cows, so I am not against antibiotics for animals. I want to know that they have at least seen a blade of grass before they have been killed on my behalf.

It may mean that I am now spending my holidays in Devon rather than the Dordogne, having overspent on switching to Green & Black’s organic chocolate from Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. I’m not expecting my children to thank me for feeding them homemade organic burgers rather than McDonald’s.

But will I change my shopping habits now that I know that there are as many nutrients in a sports drink as in organic apple juice? I don’t think so. Eating is not just about nutrition, it’s about pleasure.

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