Unusually, for reasons I won’t go into, I was listening to BBC Radio 2 yesterday. (For those not familiar with the BBC’s output, this is the station for people who think they are still trendy, but realize that all pop music produced in the last 20 years is derivative rubbish.) This was quite a shock to my car radio, which hadn’t realized there was another station as well as Radio 4.

On the air was Steve Wright, a veteran DJ who has the reputation of being humorous and rather more intelligent than many of that profession. But he and his ageing posse fell into a classic broadcasters’ ignorance trap.

They briefly covered the recent announcement of a study showing that organic fruit and vegetables are more healthy than conventional

So far, so good. But the reaction was along the lines of ‘once more scientists have wasted millions of pounds proving something everyone knew. We already knew organic food was better for us. That’s why people buy it.’

No it’s not. People buy organic food because it has been cleverly marketed, and gives the impression of being better for you. This was absolutely essential research, because it has never before been substantially proved that organic fruit and vegetables were any better nutrionally. What ‘everyone knew’ was a myth up until now.

I ought to stress that I’m not anti-organic. We get a veg box from the excellent Riverford organics – but because it’s fresh, local, interesting, reasonably priced and avoids dealing with a supermarket. It’s a great bonus if this research is substantiated, but I’m afraid Steve Wright and friends were being suckers when they trotted out the party line.