Those who insist that the food chain is populated by capitalist gangs of rip-off merchants out to fleece the British public of their very last bucks by flogging them expensive, unsafe food (oh yes, they're still out there), would do well to read the Food and Drink Federation's submission to the Farming and Food Commission. For this document, now residing in chairman Sir Don Curry's bulging in-tray, is one of the best balanced papers ever written about this industry. And that comment comes from someone who has been bombarded with food and farming propaganda of every shape and hue for more than three decades. Whatever else Sir Don and his team read between now and their end-of-year deadline, the FDF submission will surely give them the sanest message. Remarkable in that it is written without the gobbledygook or public relations excesses so often seen in documents of this type, the submission hits the nail on the head from the start. It focuses on three fundamental issues: consumer confidence, competitiveness in the supply chain, and regulatory frameworks. In short, it sets out to help the commission understand the need for profitability across the chain if it is going to be sustainable. It won't happen of course, but some of the self important Sunday tabloid, crackpot fringe who see the food chain as a soft target to fill empty columns with sensationalism, would do well to read it. After all, several are already preparing to rubbish the commission's findings, having decided, as one consumer writer lectured me this week, that the "whole thing will be a whitewash job which sucks up to the big guns in farming and food". But encouragingly, as our interview with him shows, Sir Don is boldly taking a realistic view, dispensing rapidly with the notion that we might return to a mythical golden age at the top end of the food chain. The commission is the most important agri-food industry probe since the war. Its findings must be taken seriously by doubting politicians and critical media alike. Clive Beddall, Editor {{OPINION }}