THE interest in alternative meats has been growing in recent years, with people, including Spectator, prepared to taste some of the more exotic varieties now available.

At one time ostrich was trumpeted as the meat of the 21st century with 400 farms in Britain at one time producing the 10,000 birds a year.

Ostrich meat didn't quite take off (excuse the pun) but according to the Meat and Livestock Commission, other "alternatives" are in fashion, at least in some parts of the world.

The MLC's Meat Demand Trends, a worthy tome which will set you back £40 if you are so inclined, says world consumption of meat from rodents (yes, including rats) and camelids (camel-type animals like llamas) amounted to 30,000 tonnes in 1999. Consumption of meat from ass and mule amounted to more than 320,000 tonnes.

Spectator's keen to see people being open-minded about diet but somehow doesn't expect our Farming Editor to be writing about rat farms and the state of the camel meat market just yet.

Careful words

Another example of the litigious times we live in came from a company called Syngenta who sent some information to our Farming Editor about crop protection.

A paragraph at the end pointed out that the press release contained "forward-looking statements...such as 'expect', 'would', 'will', 'potential', 'plans', 'prospects', 'estimated', 'aiming', 'on track' and similar expressions".

It then explained, in a lengthy and legal fashion, that nobody should read too much into these statements because the events to which they refer might not actually happen.

In other words, please don't sue us when things don't turn out as we hope.

Abuse of words

Darlington Council spent some time this week justifying the steepish rises in council tax it is to impose upon the town over the next couple of years.

The jist of the justification appeared to be that because everybody else in the North-East pays more, its time Darlington began to catch up.

And then there was the district auditor's view that the current low level should be reviewed.

Which is, of course, not the same as saying "put up your council tax"

Is Spectator splitting hairs or is this simply subtle hoodwinking