I suppose it’s not surprising Andrew Thornton’s squirrel-steak-selling Budgens store in Crouch End is receiving so much publicity right now.

Even though we first covered the story in April, and even though there haven’t been any squirrels for sale for quite a few weeks, as they aren’t available. It is the silly season after all.

Just wait till they read about the bacon and egg poptarts in this week’s issue!

But there is precious little ‘silly’ about The Adjudicator, or cloned meat, or below-cost alcohol. And there is definitely nothing silly about what’s going on with milk.

Milk has always been a political foodstuff. The point was confirmed again last month when Asda started a new milk price war, now in its third week, which has seen the price plummet to just 12.5p per pint. The war has far-reaching ramifications for the industry.

But when was the last time you could buy a pint for 12.5p? The price of a pinta was one of the questions Q magazine used to ask rock star interviewees in the 1980s. I don’t recall the price being that low, even then.

Meanwhile, it’s emerged this week that milk from cloned cows is being sold in the UK. It beggars belief that, after all the troubles over BSE, a British farmer might be willing to jeopardise the integrity of the milk supply chain.

For even if, by common consent, the milk doesn’t represent a threat to human safety, it undermines trust once again in our agricultural base.

And if all this weren’t enough, The Grocer has uncovered another mad piece of EU regulation that proposes a ban on the term ‘fresh’ to describe milk that’s more than seven days old.

The wonders of science and the British supply chain mean more than 50% of fresh British milk would no longer be allowed to make this claim. Of course, manufacturers could get round this by altering the ‘use by’ date.

But that would be a retrograde step. And a lot of milk would end up wasted.

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