The celebrity seal of approval

So Liz Hurley is getting ready to bring out a range of organic food.

It’s easy to sneer isn’t it? What’s a model-turned-actor who looks as if food is an afterthought at best doing asking us to eat better and with more concern for the environment? A woman best known for wearing a dress barely held together with safety pins and sticking by Hugh Grant after his infamous fandango with a prostitute. Someone who has made a fortune as the face of a cosmetics conglomerate. Who is she kidding?

I remember getting a little fired up along similar lines about how the likes of Madonna and Angelina Jolie could seemingly pluck children out of Third World countries at will when friends of mine going through official channels were still waiting to adopt three years on. Oddly enough, it was my adopting friend who put it into perspective. “If it means one less child in an orphanage without a family, that’s all that really matters.”

A similar philosophy could be applied to lovely Liz’s foray into organics. Cynics may sniff, but if the fact that a glamazon thinks it’s important to eat organic, natural food encourages more people to do the same that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Star power hard to deny

Nothing pulls like celebrity. I mean who really cared about global warming until Al Gore started showing up with famous friends such as Leonardo di Caprio, hawking the message in populist soundbites. If you want something to come in from the cold, out of the fringes and into the mainstream, celebrity talks. And Liz, who lives on a biodynamic farm in the English countryside with her husband and young son, is by no means the only one touting organic fare.

Daryl Hannah, a longtime activist who famously stayed up in a tree for several weeks to prevent a community farm in south central LA from being bulldozed, champions organic food at farmers markets; Woody Harrelson, whose eco-warrior antics have resulted in more than a few brushes with the law, lives in Hawaii with his wife Laura, who co-founded organic food delivery service Yoganics; Christian Slater, who credits having children with changing his awareness about health and environment issues, is another organic food devotee who sings the praises of wholefoods.

Last year Barbra Striesand’s hubby, actor James Brolin, was talking up a chain of organic fast food restaurants. Impressed with the success of the WholeFoods supermarket chain, he could see money – and longevity – in organics (although there’s been no movement on the subject). “It’s becoming the thing for people who want to live an extra five years. You pay 25 percent more and live an extra five years – seems like a pretty good trade,” James says.

Right royal stoush

Then there’s the ultimate celebrity anointment – a royal seal of approval. The Prince of Wales launched his organic food line, Duchy Originals, back in the early 90s and it now has more than 200 products. A long-time advocate of organic food (and farming), Prince Charles recently came under fire from another celeb about the quality of his brand. Fiery chef Gordon Ramsay described Duchy Originals, which turns over more than £50 million a year with all profits going to charity, as over-priced and boring, processed food.

“Why would anyone pay that much money for one of his pies? I tried them,” the grumpy gourmet told The Telegraph. “Just because it has a stamp and his royal crest everyone thinks it’s fine, but the number of sodiums, and the sugar content, is embarrassing.”

Gordon may well be right; I haven’t tried the range so can’t attest to its content or flavour (although as The Telegraph pointed out, the Prince has previously been called to task about the level of salt in his produce compared with, er, a Big Mac). A big name attached to anything doesn’t automatically make it great; it just makes more people sit up and take notice. Witness the scale of the prince’s operation.

Fat free and packaged

Liz’s range will focus on low-fat because she is convinced of a link between fat and cancer, a cause close to her heart through the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. “We’ve been saying for a long time that many breast cancer specialists recommend sticking to as low fat a diet as possible, which all has to do with how oestrogen is stored in the body,” she told People magazine. “What I really, really want to do is pre-packaged meals. Fabulous versions that are delicious, healthy, not too expensive and very low in fat. So that’s my big dream, because there’s a massive hole in the market for that.”

Now whether fat is actually bad for you is highly debatable. I suggest reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food for a take on fat (real fat, not manufactured trans-fats) that will have you reaching for the butter quicker than you can say “skinny model”.

Nor would I have thought the world needs more pre-packaged meals. Surely we should be promoting the purchase of fresh food and the art of cooking it and sitting down to eat it together, rather than shoving something pre-cooked in the microwave. But I guess if the beauty can turn a few more in the direction of organic fare it seems churlish to mock. (Did I mention she also wants to bring out a cookbook? Yes guys, apparently she cooks too.)

Of all the celebs embracing the organic way, though, it’s hard to go past the reasoning or plain speaking of English author and actor Richard E Grant. The irascible star of Withnail and I was typically to the point when he was asked at a Soil Association event why it was important to go organic. “It comes down to a basic thing – if you eat shit you have a shit life and die early.”