Fruit & veg
The Great Food Gamble
In our quest for cheap food, we’re not only destroying the environment, we’re also gambling with our lives. That’s according to John Humphrys, the presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme, and author of a new book called The Great Food Gamble (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99). Humphrys – who ran a small organic farm for 10 years – is highly critical of the agricultural revolution which has been taking place since the 1950s, as traditional methods are cast aside in favour of factory farming and the widespread use of pesticides and antibiotics. Humphrys acknowledges that new technology enables suppliers to produce predictably large volumes of food at a low price, but argues that the hidden costs are alarmingly high. Wildlife, the water supply and soil can be decimated by a build-up of toxic chemicals. And no one knows for sure what this is doing to our health. The reduction in fertility, the rise in certain cancers and an increase in childhood asthma and allergies have all been blamed on pesticides. For now, that’s pure speculation. But there’s no doubt that BSE and foot-and-mouth have caused untold devastation – and the spread of these diseases are indisputably linked to modern farming practices.
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