Michael Pollan - and the need for a defence of processed food

My review of 'In Defence of Food' is published today on spiked. While Pollan is often a perceptive observer of the perversities of the food debate, he draws a lot of very conservative conclusions

Who will defend processed food?

Another interesting piece on food prices

From today's Economist

'Most pundits, including Ms Sheeran, agree that the world now has plenty of food: last year saw a record cereal harvest. And the investments spurred by today's high prices promise even more food in future. Even if one allows for rising demand from Asia's middle classes, the real challenge is not the volume of food available; it is the problem of food being in the wrong place and at a price the poorest cannot afford. Michael Hess of USAID adds that famines are made inevitable by poor governance, not natural disasters. After all, "America has droughts, but not famine." '

Economist

Alcohol and pregnancy

New guidelines have been issued by the UK's National Institute for Clinical Excellence, advising women not to drink at all during pregnancy - despite the fact that there is little scientific evidence that moderate drinking is harmful. In fact, even immoderate drinking - alcoholism - only causes foetal alcohol syndrome in five per cent of cases. So what's the harm in a little tipple? Sounds like yet another case of pregnant women being the targets of unwarranted health scares.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7313319.stm

Jennie Bristow puts it well: 'Women are not being told to give up all alcohol during pregnancy because of a health risk, but because to do so indicates that they have the right, responsible attitude to motherhood: not doing anything for themselves that might conceivably impact negatively on the baby in any way. That the government feels free to be so explicit about this is very bad news. Not only does it panic women unnecessarily, adding extra guilt to the already burdensome process of pregnancy; it also fuels a process in which the mother-to-be is being cast as someone separate to her fetus, and who simply by being pregnant puts her baby-to-be at risk.'

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3422/

Concept of food miles questioned

The notion that 'food miles' can give an accurate assessment of the environmental impact of food production and transportation is further discussed, and criticised, in this week's Observer:

'The idea that "only local is good" has come under attack. For a start, food grown in areas where there is high use of fertilisers and tractors is likely to be anything but carbon-friendly, it is pointed out. At the same time the argument against food miles - which show how far a product has been shipped and therefore how much carbon has been emitted in its transport - has been savaged by experts. "The concept of food miles is unhelpful and stupid. It doesn't inform about anything except the distance travelled", Dr Adrian Williams, of the National Resources Management Centre at Cranfield University, told The Observer last week.

The problem is not how we measure environmental impact - it's the fact that we're obsessing on environmental impact in the first place.

Observer

How outside agitation hasn't helped Tibet

From the International Herald Tribune today:

'Protests have spread across the Tibetan plateau over the last two weeks, and at least 100 people have died. Anyone who finds it odd that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has rushed to Dharamsala, India, to stand by the Dalai Lama's side fails to realize that American politics provided an important spark for the demonstrations. Last October, when the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the Dalai Lama, monks in Tibet watched over the Internet and celebrated by setting off fireworks and throwing barley flour. They were quickly arrested.'

'It was for the release of these monks that demonstrators initially turned out this month. Their brave stand quickly metamorphosed into a protest by Lhasa residents who were angry that many economic advantages of the last 10 or 15 years had gone to Han Chinese and Hui Muslims. A young refugee whose family is still in Tibet told me this week of the medal, "People believed that the American government was genuinely considering the Tibet issue as a priority." In fact, the award was a symbolic gesture, arranged mostly to make American lawmakers feel good.'

The author, Patrick French, who was once heavily involved in the Free Tibet movement, goes on to say:

'When Beijing attacks the "Dalai clique," it is referring to the various groups that make Chinese leaders lose face each time they visit a Western country. The International Campaign for Tibet, based in Washington, is now a more powerful and effective force on global opinion than the Dalai Lama's outfit in northern India. The European and American pro-Tibet organizations are the tail that wags the dog of the Tibetan government-in-exile.'

'These groups hate criticism almost as much as the Chinese government does. Some use questionable information. For example, the Free Tibet Campaign in London (of which I am a former director) and other groups have long claimed that 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese since they invaded in 1950. However, after scouring the archives in Dharamsala while researching my book on Tibet, I found that there was no evidence to support that figure.'

Read on...