Government says ambition for 2036 will be good for food and climate resilience, but concerns remain over funding

The government has set an ambition to increase the share of English land farmed organically to 10% by 2036, but concerns remain over how the transition will be funded.

Currently, just 3.4% of England’s agricultural land is farmed organically, one of the smallest shares in Europe. France, for example, farms 10.4% of its land organically, and aims to increase this to 18% by 2027.

Christopher Gardner, the author of Food Sense and director of nutrition studies at Stanford, says we have overcomplicated the question of what to eat

Finally, some good news: eating well is more straightforward than you think. “There’s a lot of good science out there, and it mostly agrees,” says Stanford University’s director of nutrition studies and professor of medicine Christopher Gardner from his office in Palo Alto – beaming, bronzed and the picture of health.

In the age of social media and wellness grift, we’ve overcomplicated the question of what to eat, he says.

A thrifty and delicious crumble-like autumnal treat, a bit like a cobbler … or a buckle … or a grunt …

We have a family tradition of making our daughter a fruit pie of some sort for her first day of school each September. Last year, it was a simple apple pie, but we intend to make our way through the myriad heritage desserts, from crumbles and crisps to cobblers, buckles, pandowdys, grunts, slumps and sonkers. This year, we made a brown betty, a wonderful, crumble-like dessert made with stale bread. We kept things seasonal with apples and blackberries from the garden, but any combination of fruit works really. I sweetened this one with maple syrup, but use your sweetener of choice: each adds its own unique flavour.

Bárbara Mori stars in tepid tale of a high-society wife who opens a restaurant in her home after her husband leaves her

What you expect from a film about a fancy high-end restaurant is a certain amount of heat: the roiling intensity of staff pushed to their absolute limits in the pursuit of gastronomic perfection. But this 1960s-set Peruvian drama instead maintains a gentle simmer, sedate and elegant. Perhaps it’s too elegant given the circumstances of its chef-proprietor, a high-society trophy wife with no catering experience who makes a high-stakes gamble on opening a successful restaurant.

Bárbara Mori is Norma, a glacial beauty who cultivates a kind of Jackie Onassis chic: huge sunglasses, massive blow-dry, makeup thickly applied like armour. One night, Norma’s husband humiliatingly leaves her for a beauty queen. You’d be sympathetic if Norma wasn’t so foul to the staff, lashing out at housekeeper Rosa (Hermelinda Luján) and chauffeur Oscar (Cesar Ballumbrosio). It’s Oscar (who is a bit in love with Norma) who suggests she opens a restaurant in the house to pay the mortgage. Norma’s father was the French ambassador to Peru, and she has picked up his passion for gastronomy. Although the script is a bit inconsistent on this, since Oscar also says he’s never seen her so much as light the oven.

Cultivating the nutritious bugs means families can raise livestock and enrich their own food, while lowering pressures on the land

A few minutes’ walk from his home in the Kyaka II refugee settlement, Kanane Bikanyale feeds black soldier fly larvae to chickens in a coop above a fishpond. The larvae disappear in a scrum of chickens. Nearby, more larvae grow in modified jerrycans, while adult flies are kept in netted boxes.

Bikanyale kept chickens before he fled to Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But the cost of conventional feed and shortages of ingredients made them increasingly difficult to raise – a widespread pressure for millions of smallholder farmers whose margins are tight.

Kanane Bikanyale tends to his black soldier fly larvae in a rearing unit in the Kyaka II refugee camp in Uganda

Declining stocks and increased fishing pressure have led to lower sustainability ratings for two popular cod alternatives

UK shoppers have previously been urged to avoid UK-caught cod and to buy European hake or coley instead – but now these fish are in trouble, too.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), an environmental charity, publishes its Good Fish Guide to help consumers and businesses make sustainable seafood choices. It uses a traffic-light system to rate seafood according to the health of fish stocks and environmental impact.

Celebrate seasonal British-grown produce with four easy dishes guided by a natural ingredient in its prime

Early autumn is one of the most generous and comforting times of year to cook with British produce: sweetcorn is at its peak, squash begins to sweeten as the weather cools and bitter leaves such as radicchio provide balance to the season’s abundance. Today’s recipes are simple celebrations of British ingredients, using just a handful of carefully chosen components to let each vegetable shine. Whether it’s a buttery cheese tart for sharing; a fresh, herby corn salad; sweet roast squash with warm, spicy ’nduja; or bitter leaves lifted with a floral dressing, they all rely on cooking with ingredients at their seasonal peak and allowing nature to guide the menu.