As consumers struggle to balance finances with food issues, Charlie Cottrell from Channel 4 Food spoke to Raymond Blanc to find out why he's flying a flag for real food

Why are you supporting the Real Food Festival?

I was involved with these issues from moment I came to England and picked up a frying pan.

The farmer has lost his craft, the consumer has lost his craft, so for me the Real Food Festival is about bringing back knowledge and a sense of responsibility; bringing back one's regions and one's soul, because gastronomy must take its roots from one's soul. It's about connecting our food with our culture and deciding what kind of food landscape we want for tomorrow.

What is real food?

It's common sense. It's going back to the truth and the soul. It's food which doesn't harm the environment to grow it, which rewards the farmer in a fair way, grown as naturally as possible with the least help from chemicals.

If you grow a vegetable in a polytunnel in a heated ambience and temperature of course it's going to grow fast and be beautiful - but for me that vegetable will probably have very little character and flavour. Now imagine growing the vegetable outside; it will take all the goodness from the earth, will have to fight the cold of the night and the heat of the sun and the wind and the caterpillars - of course that vegetable is going to be stronger. It's a bit like a man. It's through challenges we grow and get character. With food it is not so different.

Isn't that a job for the government?

Every time you make a food choice you make a political choice, a socio-political choice, an environmental choice and a health choice. Most of the food we are eating in this country and beyond has been selected according to how big it grows, how fast it grows and how long its shelf life is, never mind about taste and texture - as long as it looks beautiful. We live in an aesthetical culture. The Real Food Festival is about connecting with the values right at the heart of each of us. The values inside rather than outside; what really matters.

What are the big issues with the food we eat?

Food is not separate from our culture and what Great Britain has done in the last 50 years is separate food from culture; looking at food as merely a commodity, when really it connects with every part of our life. And of course we have forgotten what food tastes like.

There is something unacceptable happening at the moment, morally, when 50 per cent of world's population has not enough to eat and 50 per cent has too much. We have to be very aware of what's going on. And very soon we have to answer the question: what food will we grow tomorrow? What is the food we are going to choose for the future? Is it going to be transgenic farming? Is it going to be organic? Is it going to be more of same or some sort of intelligent farming?

Why should we be supporting these producers?

Selecting an imported Chinese apple, because it is so cheap, dampens the market; none of our farmers could compete by creating their own orchard. If we started measuring the real cost of that Chinese apple we might find that it costs much more through the CO2 footprint, all the pollution it takes to grow that apple and the ill side effects because that apple is full of residue. This has killed, completely, biodiversity and means that foods all over the world don't taste the way they should.

Isn't it all a bit snobby?

We consumers have benefited these last 10 years; we are used to the deflation in the price of food and we had plenty of it grown from everywhere. The farmer lost his craft, the consumer lost his craft. The whole food chain was like the financial system. We've lost a sense of responsibility. The financial crisis, to me, equates to the environmental and the farmers' crisis.

I do most shopping in the supermarket - can I still eat real food?

Supermarkets will always be there but I think they will change. Italian and French supermarkets have a different approach to local producers. Italian supermarkets have a farmers market in the middle that showcases local specialities and French supermarkets have a legal obligation to stock a certain amount of locally produced food. Maybe retailers in Britain should be pressured to integrate local farmers' food with supermarket products.

I think what we are going to see is revival of regions. I believe it really strongly. It makes sense. When food is seasonal there is plenty of it. If there's plenty then it's less expensive.

What changes are you seeing in the food industry in the past few years?

The morality is being re-established. You can see it with gastronomy. Chefs had completely lost their way; now, at last, they are reconnecting with gastronomy and their own region. It's a bit nationalist but on the other hand it's a good thing because it will help to give colour and character to our own villages and that helps the village not to lose its bank, not to lose its post office. It will grow a stronger farming community and develop crafts like cheese-making.