Articles (Ecologist)

The organic world has been celebrating a rare ‘win’ this week. A new analysis has found that, compared to conventionally grown crops, organic crops contain higher levels of certain antioxidants, lower levels of pesticides and lower levels of the heavy metal cadmium. According to the scientists, eating organic food could boost a person’s antioxidant intake […]

It’s always a good day when you hear that levels of a particular toxin that harms children are going down. Earlier this year a report out of Monroe County, New York, showed that levels of lead in children there were declining. This mirrors a national downward trend which suggests that levels of this neurotoxic ‘heavy […]

Question: How many government officials does it take to make sensible decisions about pesticide regulation? Answer: Nobody knows, because it’s never been done. Anybody who follows the pesticide news trail will be aware of the recent report from the US that traces of glyphosate – which since the introduction of GMO crops has become the […]

A widely publicised study released today has suggested that eating organic food doesn’t stop you getting cancer. Both sides of the debate are scrambling to make their soundbites seem more sensible than the other guys’ – and for reasons known only to newspaper photo editors, pictures of Gwyneth Paltrow are being used to illustrate the […]

As the UK Prime Minister welcomes the recommendations of his science advisors to ‘go it alone’ in Europe and embrace GMO crops, I wonder – whatever happened to the Precautionary Principle?

After a week of events throughout the UK aimed at highlighting the health risks of eating genetically modified foods, Pat Thomas highlights a key health message that many of us have missed… It’s easy to see why biotech companies are anxious to separate the pesticide issue from the GM debate We are continually told that […]

In the midst of a growing list of bizarre decisions taken by the current UK government – particularly with regard to the environment – the recent commitment to growing more genetically modified crops must surely come out on top, argues Pat Thomas… As environment secretary Owen Paterson made his speech at Rothamstead, the location of […]

Last weekend more than 2 million people worldwide joined a March Against Monsanto. While Monsanto has become the focus of many people’s justified ire, the real issue extended beyond the company that has brought us such scientific ‘miracles’ as Agent Orange and aspartame to the continued skulduggery of all the biotech companies including Syngenta, BASF, […]

What we do to the bees we do to ourselves. Imagine what it must be like to forget your way home. To not be able to communicate effectively with others, especially those you live with. To forget the faces, colours, sounds and smells that have been the landmarks in your ‘map’ of life. These things […]

If you are despairing over the weather, you are not alone… Distressing, urgent news is coming at us so thick and fast at the moment that it is hard to keep up. There’s the EU’s failure to ban bee killing neonics, the UK government’s increasingly pro-GM stance, the ongoing scandals of horsemeat adulteration in our […]