Once again the UK’s food production industry finds itself under the hot glare of the media spotlight - only this time it’s the turn of the soft-fruit sector.

BBC2’s Money Programme, which was due to air as the Journal went to press, appears to attack the sector on a range of issues, although the arguments are the same old worn and tired statements, dug up and dusted off for another go on the media merry-go-round.

Worst of all, the programme appears to give celebrity gardener Monty Don, rapidly turning into the soft-fruit industry’s arch nemesis, yet another platform to continue his baffling smear campaign against producers.This is the same pundit who was recently forced by the Press Complaints Commission into a humiliating u-turn in his Daily Mail column, after making wild accusations on the overuse of pesticides on strawberry crops.

Growers seem to be caught in a catch 22 situation, on the one hand we have consumers demanding locally grown product, 52 weeks of the year, and on the other we have lobby groups and celebrity chefs bemoaning the loss of seasonality. We can’t have it both ways.

But is this what consumers want, or are their demands shaped by the retailers, with growers trapped in the middle? Is it simply the case that growers and consumers are mere pawns in the retailers’ bids of one-upmanship?

The show asks the question: “Do we want strawberries all year round?” But should the question be, who wants strawberries year round?