I was lucky enough to visit the Prince of Wales’s Highgrove Estate this week, as a guest of the Soil Association.

On a tour around the idyllic Duchy Home Farm, it would have been easy to believe that this is how the world should operate; that the organic way is the only way. We were told as much, and that opinion is increasingly being based on the organic lobby’s solid belief that the rising costs of producing food, as well as the decreasing availability of the chemicals needed to grow conventionally (p1), will oblige farmers to seek an alternative production system.

It was interesting to hear the word ‘sustainable’ being used to such an extent, often in sentences where ‘organic’ would have been routinely inserted in years gone by. That is perhaps recognition that the UK public is not listening to, or as interested in, the “no chemicals” argument as much as it arguably once was.

There is also recognition that the wholesale switch from conventional to organic systems, the utopia of all supporters of the organic movement, has not moved as quickly as hoped, and is unlikely to happen in the near future. Convincing farmers, it was said, is the hardest task of all.

That is undoubtedly true, as anyone working in this industry would concur. But I still believe the majority of consumers are waiting to be convinced of the merits of organic food, and the slow growth of the sector is testament to that.