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In recent years, modern methods of agriculture have attracted criticism on the basis that they are no longer sustainable, and may prejudice the health of humans and animals. Examines these issues, which form the rationale behind organic farming, along with the associated consumer and retailer response. Also discusses the potential of MAFF and the EC to develop organic farming.

Reviews changes in patterns of UK food and drink consumption over the past decade. While increased interest in healthy eating is a significant consumer trend the nutritional profile has not improved. Discusses this and the possible reasons for it.

Presents the history and rationale behind vegetarianism. Considers the nutritional profile of vegetarian diets before analysing the consumer response to vegetarian cuisine and retail products.

The causes of the recent increase in food contamination in the UK are examined. The scope extends beyond the normal focus on kitchen hygiene, to encompass malpractice at the supply end of the food chain. It is contended that the situation can be improved by making food policy consumer‐ rather than producer‐oriented; streamlining government responsibility for food safety, and breaking the culture of secrecy that pervades food policy; and instituting comprehensive hygiene management programmes.

The Consumers' Association is designing a campaign which will encourage catering establishments to introduce more healthy dishes onto their menus. In preparation for this initiative, catering students at Brighton Polytechnic were asked to devise a dessert trolley that would be both appetising and nutritious. This part of a menu presents health‐conscious caterers and customers with perhaps their greatest challenge, as typically all the best intentions seem to dissolve into oodles of cream, lashings of syrup and coatings of chocolate.

With one‐third of food now consumed outside the home, it is important for caterers to adapt their techniques in order to accommodate dietary advice on fat reduction. Considers how best to modify kitchen practice, and assesses the outcomes in terms of sensory and nutritional evaluation. It appears that dietary guidance is most effective when conveyed in terms of foodstuffs rather than nutrients.

A significant achievement of the past decade has been the emergence of a consensus on what contributes the optimum dietary intake for the population at large. A research project was conducted – utilizing recipe development, nutritional analysis and sensory evaluation – to ascertain effective means of applying this consensus to practical catering operations.

There is a need to understand both theoretically and empirically the dominant guiding principles that are becoming embedded in people's technologically mediated interactions and what the alternatives may be. Aims to provide an evaluation of the work of Rob Kling in helping to find guidance on these issues.

The paper combines narrative with argument and analysis.

How people communicate in different organisational contexts is informed by the way meanings are created (in this study, contractual understandings to supply material goods) and how various processes can be made to work in both offline and online environments. The results of this study illustrate one of Rob Kling's dictums: the social context of information and communication technologies (ICT) development matters.

Provides a contribution to the literature on Kling's work on social informatics.

To provide a view of Rob Kling's contribution to socio‐technical studies of work.

The five “big ideas” discussed are signature themes in Kling's own work in the informatics domain, and of his intellectual legacy.

This paper conveys something of Kling's presence in social informatics (SI) thinking by focusing on a number of “big” ideas – “multiple points of view”, “social choices”, “the production lattice” (and its corollary, the problematization of the user), “socio‐technical interaction networks”, and “institutional truth regimes”.

A growing research community has demonstrated the power of SI techniques. It is essential that this body of work is sustained and developed, demonstrating how to undertake investigation and observation, that is not driven by instrumentalism but is informed by and leads to “technological realism”.

The SI corpus, exposing the dangers of naïve instrumentalism as an approach to information systems design and management, can guide practitioners on how to unpack the history of what is in view. This may be a specific technology, a social formation, or a sociotechnical circumstance. Practitioners may draw on the concepts presented, not as a prescriptive toolkit, but rather as a sensitizing frame to assist those who wish to re‐vision the workplace.

Central to the successful utilisation of computers in work, we argue, is the continuing development of a portfolio of interpretive concepts (such as STINs, regimes of truth, production lattices) that can consolidate Rob Kling's “big” ideas that are the core of this paper.