Bogof's week

Grocer, Dec 2, 2006

* New BFFF chairman Stephen Waugh had the cream (or should that be ice cream) of British frozen food in stitches at this year's annual lunch. To the clink of a great many glosses full of wine, Waugh pressed for more practical action from government "not just on diet but also on increasing physical activity initiatives and decreasing high-calorie binge drinking". Whoops, that's our knuckles wrapped.

* It'll be no surprise to this industry that Tony Combes, Monsanto's corporate affairs director, got a grilling from NGOs at a Westminster Diet & Health seminar on GM and food provenance this week. So what a surprise when Martin Livermore, director of Scientific Analysis, asked panellists how they could justify their blanket opposition to GM given the world would need to feed some 3 billion more people by the end of the century. "We are not fundamentally opposed to GM," retorted Clare Oxborrow from Friends of the Earth. You could have fooled me.

* Speakers in the next session were able to breathe a sigh of relief, including our very own deputy editor doing her last presentation for The Grocer. Introducing it, Baroness Miller said it was time for the "huggable session". After all, one could hardly hove such vitriolic views about trading fairly as genetic modification. NFU food chain relations manager Robin Topper quipped: "It's a long time since I hove been coiled huggable, let alone the 55,000 formers I represent."

* Pulses were racing at the True Taste Wales Food & Drink Awards in Cardiff. There we were, being served the best of Welsh food by the waiters and waitresses, when suddenly three of the latter--in short skirts I should add--started singing to Welsh minister for environment, planning and countryside Carwyn Jones. Not to be outdone a group of waiters performed a Full Monty. I noticed our team taking notes for next year's The Grocer Golds.