Giles Talks

On Food

What kind of approach to biotechnology does the programme take?

The principle of the programme is to explain the science behind it and let you make your own decision. And that is a process that I was able to undergo during the filming: learning how something is cloned, for example. Not to the extent that I could go and clone myself now. Though God knows I would.

With your food critic hat on, do you prefer organic food?

Yes. It's a combination of animal welfare, environment and soil welfare, and human welfare.

When you meet vegetarian people, they often say it's because they have been to a farm. Now the right sort of farm should not turn people into vegetarians, but the way we farm now isn't right.

So I was, and remain essentially, organic in terms of animals. But soya is different, for example; although I confess it doesn't play a huge role in my diet. But in the US, where we filmed, 80% of all soya is GM, and look at the Americans, there's nothing wrong with them. [laughs]

You're co-presenting with Olivia Judson. What are your respective roles? She's clearly a scientist. Are you just there to look all nice and beardy?

[laughs] Yes, that's right, exactly! Olivia and I both travel to separate projects around Britain and the world. Olivia is much more into the science and very in favour of it; I'm more sceptical.

There are conversations between us when I'm challenging her and she's explaining it to me. I'll be trying to grasp the science and continue to put forward the cynical argument. So the narrative is much more that Olivia knows a lot of this already whereas I'm learning.

It sounds like you've had some of your preconceptions challenged

It has turned around what I think about it. That doesn't mean I think we should go fully for GM food now and abandon all traditional practices. But it has almost put me in a difficult position as a food writer, because the consensus among us bloated alcoholic drones is that it's a terrible thing.

We like a good proper bloody lamb chop; none of this cloned rubbish. But I can now utterly see why the GM people have tried to do what they've tried to do.

There are a lot of people who have told me that organic farming, because of the amount of land it requires for the yield, will devastate the planet as the population grows, and the only way to save ourselves is through GM. I haven't quite come to that conclusion, but I can see their point.

Is all of this going to make you a better food critic?

Absolutely. Any kind of knowledge about food is important. A lot of restaurant criticism and snobbery in the past was about wine knowledge, with critics saying ‘He hadn't adequately de-glazed the juices and the sauce was a bit rich.’ It was all a bit ‘I'm so clever, I know everything about cooking.’ I don't bother with that.

I didn't train as a chef. I don't pretend to take a massive interest in the mechanics of it. What I can inform people of is where the food comes from, how it got there, where we're going, what's our relationship with the food, the land and the animals. I've tried to find out as much as I could in the past about organic farming and crop rotation methods and breeding systems.

Restaurant critics will go into places and give a thumbs up if the menu says ‘We don't use GM’. The next time I see that I'll think ‘Why don't you use GM?’ If your food is rubbish, you're not really getting anywhere. Don't pay extra just for this tiny little ‘No GM’ label. The moment a fully GM restaurant opens in England, I will be the first person down there to see what it tastes like.

Giles Talks – GM Food »

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