In the wake of foot and mouth disease, policymakers now realise that farming brings less to the economy than tourism. It is the triumph of the view. I thought of this last week when back in my old neck of the woods doing grandchildren duty and then in the nearby Lake District staying with friends and walking. From above Ullswater a huge pyre was clearly visible, smoking away. More than the bodies were burning. Talk was polarised for and against the farmers. Parasites or custodians? That's a policy choice the new Commission on the Future of Farming and Food will have to face. Views or food, or both? If so what food? We borrowed a car and drove through the Lyth Valley near Kendal. It used to be home to the damson trade. We tried to buy trees there for our farm years ago but a disease stopped sales. The orchards have now dwindled and only a pub called the Damson remains as a reminder of bygone days when trade once thrived in the area. When the British need to consume more fruit why isn't good ground being replanted? Why import other people's fruit (ie land) when we can grow it here? Our hosts, incomers 20 years ago and with a garden groaning with blackcurrants, had never even heard of the damson trade in Lyth. And in the height of the season, pubs were selling bought-in summer puddings (ie soft fruit). Home cooking' can mean re-heating something assembled in a warehouse by a motorway. Industrialised food or real. More localised food? Policy choices, choices! {{NEWS }}