A speech given by His Royal Hystericalness in Washington in 2011 has now been turned into a small book - which is getting oodles of praise from the kind of foodie eco-activists who share his fearful, anti-progress outlook.

Those who only eat forego importing food from around the world in favour of locally produced food won’t save the planet, become healthier, revive communities or improve food security.

My article in City AM, a preview of a Battle of Ideas debate, looks at why big business has, by and large, provided the food system that we need.

Carolyn Steel argues that we need to put food at the centre of our lives again. But one of the great developments of the past few decades is finally being liberated from the day-to-day problem of feeding ourselves.

Food prices aren’t rising because the Earth is full. But Malthusian commentators are certainly full of BS.

It is not rising population levels that lead to food-price crises - it is economic underdevelopment.

Prices are now at or above the crisis levels of 2008 for many food commodities. But that time, there was a strong element of speculation involved. It will be interesting to see how much of the current price rise has similar roots. Rising oil prices - now at $95 per barrel - won’t be helping, though.

It turns out that all those green claims that we could save the planet by foreswearing meat were BS. Unfortunately, in the process of exposing this fact, Simon Fairlie still recycles many modern-day eco-prejudices.

Much has been made about Cuba’s post-oil farming: lots of urban agriculture and almost entirely organic. But Cuba still has to import 70 per cent of its food and, presumably to the despair of organic food supporters in the UK, has been developing its own genetically modified crops.

Very good piece by Jason Smith on the new ‘mega-dairy’ in Lincolnshire and why we should be seeking greater productivity from agriculture rather than mythologising the benefits of small-scale farming.