Anthony Gibson OBE judges cider's supreme champion

On the 30th May the annual Royal Bath & West Show will open its gates. As always the Orchard and Cider Tent will be a focal point for many. Not only will the tent be a welcome stop for a refreshing drink, it will again be home to possibly the World's (certainly Europe's) largest Cider, Perry and Apple Juice competitions.

Anthony Gibson OBE, the NFU's director of communications will be the principle judge. He has campaigned for many years for the Government to introduce a definition of farmhouse cider that would require it to be made from at least 50% recognised cider varieties of home grown apples and preclude the use of imported apple concentrates. For ten years he was the Cider Correspondent for What's Brewing, the official magazine of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. On being invited to judge the competition, Anthony said, "As a son of the West Country, cider has been a lifelong enthusiasm. I have been writing about it, campaigning for it and of course drinking it for more years than I care to remember, and to be given the chance now to judge it will be a real pleasure as well as a great honour.

"Cider is one of the West Country's abiding glories and no organisation has done more to promote excellence in producing it than the Bath and West. I am sure that this year's competition will affirm yet again that, when it comes to farmhouse cider, the Bath and West leads the South West, and the South West leads the world!"

In 1984 Anthony founded Taste of Somerset, the first county food group, pioneering the local food movement. In 1990 he started the first regional food group, Taste of the West. He has been a regular broadcaster, journalist and commentator on farming and rural affairs and came to national prominence as a forthright protagonist for the farming cause in the two great crises of BSE and Foot and Mouth. In the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours he was aw