Articles

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?

If you want to know where someone stands on health and environment there can be few better barometers than their views on the Precautionary Principle (PP). The PP, which is part of the regulatory framework in the EU, but not in the US or many other countries, is based on the idea of ‘forecaring’. It […]

We may be eating more, but we are not eating better and the way we eat – which is fast becoming a dietary monoculture – is leading us down the path to global food poverty. That is the conclusion of two recent reports on global food supplies. The first is a comprehensive new study, relying […]

I don’t know about you but sometimes the sheer volume of ‘stuff’ I have to deal with leaves me feeling exhausted – and paralysed. When I say ‘stuff’ I mean the usual duties linked to house, family and home, but also the other stuff that I know I need to pay attention to: the media […]

As usual the world of health has thrown me several juicy topics to consider over the last week or so. There was yet another fake food scandal in the UK – further eroding trust in even the most basic foods that we buy. There was also the US recall of Uncle Ben’s Infused Rice products, sold in 5- […]

We call them persistent chemicals for a reason. Because they hang around in the environment and in our bodies for a very long time, breaking down, changing form and in some cases becoming even more toxic than when they were first used. Such is the case with DDT. Long banned in the West, this toxic […]

Soil Lives!: A Biography of the Uncelebrated Earth Beneath Our Feet by Martin Wood. Five Ways Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780957426603   Although described as “a book about science, culture and soil, viewed from the perspective of one family living in England in the Midlands over the past hundred years or so”, this book is so […]

So here we go again… In the UK the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has once more demonstrated his breathtaking lack of understanding and sensitivity to the environment by suggesting that if we don’t start planting GM crops in the EU, and soon, the world of agricultural innovation will pass us by. In his thinly-veiled shilling […]

In the last week Cosmetics Europe – the body that represents the interests of cosmetics manufacturers in the EU – issued an urgent warning to its members and the media. Following discussions with the European Society of Contact Dermatitis (ESCD), a statement was issued that the use of methylisothiazolinone (MIT) in leave-on skin products such […]