Oliver Thring

Liquorice in many forms. Photo: Bah Humbugs

This week I've considered liquorice at the Guardian. Did you know it was poisonous? Click here to read.

4/5

A few weeks back Riverford Farm invited me and some other bloggers down to the West Country for dinner and a look round. If you're British and interested in food you'll probably have heard of the farm. They run the largest box scheme in the country – Cain to Abel & Cole – vanning ethical cardboard and contented swedes to people just doing their bit.

Organic is a strange, regressive movement. A lot of food lovers are rightly conflicted about the impact of industrialisation on the way they eat. Yields in American farms quadrupled over the last century: a triumphant, localised victory over starvation. But the world's population has doubled in my parents' lifetimes and will double again in mine – and non-organic farms produce a lot more food than organic ones. It's ostrich-headed and irresponsible to argue that this crowded planet will feed itself on heirloom tomatoes and hessian good intentions. To survive, we'll need GM, super-intensive farming and enough pesticides to torch every ladybird's home in Europe.

What's more, the British abused organics. They took a hale, wholesome, rootsy idea about bringing good food to good people and twisted it into a pathetic debate about class. Too much organic food is now the province of weepingly awful delis, mauve labels on chilly Tesco shelves, and tasteless restaurant mark-ups.

Surbiton station. According to AA Gill, 'the railway invented the suburbs'.

Click here for my weekly round-up of the national restaurant critics at iStarvin.

My thoughts precisely.

This week's 'Consider...' at The Guardian is on Pimm's, a drink very dear to me. Click here to read.

Click here for my weekly round-up of the national restaurant critics at iStarvin.

Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Oh lordy.

I've considered the evils and virtues of processed cheese over at The Guardian. Click here to read.

Atul Kochhar, co-owner of the much-drubbed Colony

Click here for my weekly round-up of the national restaurant critics at iStarvin.

Harold Wilson with "Wilson's Gravy"

This week's Consider the... is on HP Sauce, an appreciation for which I discovered quite recently but with enormous enthusiasm. I liked the way the Guardian tweeted the article, so I've nicked their joke below. Please click it to read what I've written.

"This week is your chance to get that Brown out - but do you prefer HP or Daddies?"

Zucca. Near-unanimous acclaim

Click here for my weekly round-up of the national restaurant critics at iStarvin.