Articles

Sustainability: Are you a leader or a follower?

22nd June 2018

When it comes to sustainability in food and farming we need leaders and we need followers; what we can’t afford is freeloaders and easy riders who peddle nothing but buzzwords.

What’s in a name? The battle for food authenticity, integrity and sustainability

2nd June 2018

How bogus branding and marketing claims undermine notions of integrity of provenance and its hype and promotion suppresses real questions and more nuanced conversations about authenticity and sustainability.

Dead ends on the road to sustainability

15th May 2018

Sustainability is not just about carbon, energy, resources and pollution. It is also about health, wellbeing, tradition and culture. It also requires boundaries and restraint and therefore, trade-offs within those boundaries.

Have your say on how to reform food and farming after Brexit

3rd May 2018

We’ll be responding and you also have the chance to have your say in the government’s consultation on the future of food, farming and the environment – but you only have until Tuesday 8th May to do it.

Industrial food and the epidemic of childhood illness

2nd May 2018

In a new book Drs Michelle Perro and Vincanne Adams provide a convincing argument for how industrial food production – including pesticides and GMOs – is combining with other environmental factors to create a ‘perfect storm’ of health problems in kids.

Something fishy about sustainable fish, chef?

13th April 2018

A universal truth – whether you are buying a used car or sourcing ‘sustainable’ farmed of GMO fish for a restaurant – is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

High stakes for CRISPR and GMO regulation in Europe

23rd January 2018

The European Court of Justice has been considering whether organisms obtained by mutagenesis are exempt from the EU’s Genetically Modified Organisms Directive. Will its final verdict create clarity or further confusion?

Gates Foundation hired PR firm to influence UN over gene drives

4th December 2017

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has paid $1.6 million to a PR firm to recruit a covert coalition of academics to encourage the UN to think more favourably about a risky new GM technology.

Peace, love and (glyphosate in your) ice cream

9th October 2017

In a series of tests on Ben & Jerry’s ice cream sold in the UK and EU, worrying levels of glyphosate were found. Here’s what that means – and how Ben & Jerry’s responded and why you shouldn’t be too hopeful.

FDA: Fake meat GMO burger may not be safe to eat

16th August 2017

The US Food and Drug Administration has safety concerns about the fake meat Impossible Burger’s ‘plant blood’ – made via genetic engineering. Here’s what you need to know about the tech takeover of food.