She'll probably shudder at the notion. But, in many ways, a meeting with Margaret Beckett is reminiscent of an audience with Britain's first female prime minister when she was at her political peak. The tough, steely resolve. The well briefed, focused style. The fashionable black suit augmented, appropriately, by a gold brooch in the shape of Parliament's portcullis symbol, with matching handbag, of course. Close your eyes and you're at an audience with Margaret Thatcher. Thus, if our exclusive interview with the DEFRA secretary of state showed anything, it is that the food and farming sector has a new sponsoring minister who is very much her own woman, with firm ideas for the future. That's just as well. For given the poisoned chalice she has inherited at the new superministry, can there ever have been an agrifood figure facing so many challenges? Yet amid all the well documented troubles overshadowing the sector, it was refreshing to hear high profile support, for example, for the growing calls for an intelligent UK debate on genetically modified foods. Set alongside the safety and sustainability issues facing food and farming, the vexed GM issue must merit a significant section of its own. In Mrs Beckett's words, the subject has to be a "matter of public debate and discussion in the way we haven't quite seen in the past". Quite so, minister. All the more reason then, for the government, and your department in particular, to share responsibility for ridding us of tired, misinformed hype and taking the talk onto a more intelligent level. Some may see Margaret Beckett as an aloof figure, and you can never be certain of anything with politicians. But this writer, having interviewed every top UK food minister since the 'sixties, left her Whitehall office with the impression that she is one formidable Labour figure who genuinely prefers action to soundbites. Face to face, she comes over as a political heavyweight who is prepared, when required, to wield a hefty handbag. And that brings back memories. Clive Beddall, Editor {{OPINION }}