Katie Derham speaks to Lord Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association about the organisations recent consultation on whether air-freighted organic food should be banned from carrying the SA's organic food logo. In an in depth interview, Katie quizzes Lord Melchett on the potential impact of the consultation on food miles and the African economy and his thoughts on GM contamination in organic food.  

Peter Melchett is policy director of the Soil Association, a UK organic food and farming organisation. He runs an 890-acre organic farm in Norfolk, with pigs, beef cattle, sheep and arable crops. He is a member of the BBC's Rural Affairs Committee and the Government's Organic Action Plan Group, and was a member of the Department of Education's School Lunches Review Panel.

He was a special lecturer in biological sciences at Nottingham University from 1984 until 2002, is on the board of the EU £12m research project ‘Quality Low Input Food', and works as an environmental consultant. He was a Labour government minister from 1974-79, at the Departments of Environment, Industry, and Northern Ireland (covering education and health). He was president or chair of several conservation NGOs, was director of Greenpeace UK (1985-2000), and chaired Greenpeace Japan (1995-2001).