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Fearing Food: Risk, Health and Environment

Edited by Julian Morris, Edited by Roger Bate

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Environmental and consumer activists have for a long time blamed pesticides, fertilizers and other aspects of intensive farming for causing environmental degradation and human disease. Yet, as the authors in this book show, intensive farming has enabled growth in food production at a rate greater than population growth, thereby ensuring that people are better fed than ever before, whilst simultaneously limiting the effect of farming on the environment. The authors debunk numerous pervasive myths, including: Myth: Pesticides are bad for the environment and bad for human health Fact: Synthetic pesticides enable the production of large quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables, which means that people are better protected against cancer. In addition, the synthetic pesticides themselves are often less toxic than natural pesticides. Overall, synthetic pesticides present a net gain in health terms. Myth: Antibiotic resistance in animals is spreading to humans. Fact: The use of antibiotics in young animals keeps meat prices low and does not materially contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans. Myth: Nitrate fertilizers are a threat to human health. Fact: Nitrate fertilizers are probably beneficial to human health. Myth: Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are bad for the environment and bad for our health. Fact: Many environmental problems associated with agriculture can be reduced by using GMOs, which have the potential to improve yields and quality which simultaneously reducing associated inputs, such as fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Commercially produced GM foodcrops have no known impacts on human health and future GM foodcrops are likely to have health benefits (enabling such things as low-fat chips/french fries and non-allergenic peanuts). Myth: Instances of food poisoning would be reduced if we had more regulations. Fact: Instances of food poisoning in the UK may have been exacerbated by over-cautious government regulation. Myth: Subsidies are needed to order to ensure that food and fish are produced in environmentally sound ways. Fact: Subsidies to fisheries and farming have caused widespread environmental degradation. Myth: Packaging and transporting food is environmentally unfriendly. Fact: Packaging enhances the shelf life of products and reduces wastage during transport. Transporting food allows society to take advantage of different environmental and socio-economic conditions that exist in different places.

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The Memory Collectors: A Novel

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Fifteen Dogs

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Paperback / softback
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was: R 315.95
now: R 283.95
Available from overseas. Dispatched in aprox 4-8 weeks as local supplier is out of stock

A pack of dogs are granted the power of human thought - but what will it do to them? A surprising and insightful look at the beauty and perils of consciousness.

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The Ballerina and the Bull: Anarchist Utopias in the Age of Finance

Johanna Isaacson
Paperback / softback
288 pages
was: R 321.95
now: R 289.95
This title will take longer to obtain, and should be delivered in 6-8 weeks

Our moment has seen the resurgence of an anarchist sensibility, from the uprisings in Seattle in 1999 to the Occupy movement of 2011.

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