Fearing Food: Risk, Health and Environment [Paperback]

The roots of the 'organic ecohype' are correctly traced to 1962 and to Rachel Carson's now heavily discredited book, 'Silent Spring'. Time and again, serious scientific research has undermined Carson's apocalyptic view of the future, a view that, as in the case of DDT, has far too frequently been allowed to warp public policy-making with regard to the safe use of pesticides and fertilisers. In Sri Lanka, DDT had, for example, reduced malaria to only 17 cases by the year 1963 when it was abandoned; now, there are again over two million cases per year, back to the levels of suffering experienced in 1948. Here we witness the dark side of Green politics, a neo-colonialist solipsism, which so often afflicts the poor and the disadvantaged of the developing world in the name of saving the planet, or more often some animals or plants in the North.

Through a series of well-argued and thoroughly referenced studies, 'Fearing Food' begins by examining the false logic behind the 'Frankenstein' image of agricultural technology that has been so assiduously peddled by campaigning organisations such as Greenpeace. In the Section entitled 'But is it true?', the fallacies of an organic utopia are nicely exposed along side searing deconstructions of the Green cases against pesticides, dietary nitrates, antibiotics, genetic modification, and food packaging. Dennis Avery rightly describes the organic lobby as followers of a 'faith', a faith that even fails to fulfil its own 'kinder to Earth' criteria, employing alien species, bare earth, and extensive methods. By contrast, Michael A. Wilson, John R. Hillman and David J. Robinson, in their excellent chapter on genetic modification and biotechnology, correctly reveal GM crops to be far kinder to the environment, lowering the use of chemicals, sustaining production, preventing further extensification into wildlands, reducing ploughing, among many other benefits.

In the second part of the book, nattily entitled 'If it's not part of the solution, it's part of the problem', authors go further and demonstrate that much of the policy and legislation founded on Green constructions of environmental knowledge are in reality counterproductive and an unwarranted constraint on real sustainable development. Around the world, for example, dietary guidelines are largely culturally constructed and are rarely justified by a balanced assessment of the scientific evidence. Linda Whetstone likewise shows how the infamous Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Europe is not only resulting in overspending and over-production, but also causing environmental degradation and undermining farming itself.

The book ends with a Section asking: 'So what is the solution?' Indur M. Goklany perceptively argues that new technologies are vital because they offer the possibility to humans of producing once again more food from the same amount of land, thereby reducing the amount of land converted from other uses, such as wildlife, and keeping us ahead of population growth. Bruce Yandle then takes up an earlier point made by Jean-Louis L'hirondel with respect to nitrate fertilizers, namely that 'command-and-control' measures are not an efficient way of controlling 'non-point source' pollution. He would prefer the use of marketable permits. Overall, I found this to be the only disappointing Section of the book; I would have liked to have seen it greatly expanded and for there to have been a conclusion with an assessment of future trends.

This may, however, have been asking a lot, for the book is already well edited, and it usefully provides an executive summary for quick absorption, author biographies, a comprehensive introduction, and full index. Its production was also urgent. The Green lobby has filled the air with noise and clamour and the world's media with myths and images that can only damage long-term human development in the face of our ever-changing world. Here the authors challenge the Green myths of pesticides, antibiotics, nitrate fertilizers, GMOs, food regulation, subsidies, and packaging with reason, care and science. They must be heard; I believe they are largely correct.

For me, however, the most powerful quotation in the whole book did not come from a modern author, but from Charles Darwin himself: "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." As in the past, modern food and agricultural development are the only way humans will survive population growth, environmental change, pests and diseases. To oppose such developments is not only folly, but deeply immoral. The idea that the Green movement holds the moral high ground has held sway for far too long. This book will help to challenge the lie. We adapt with new technologies, or we die.

Professor Philip Stott, University of London.

The contents suprised me. I found most of the chapters cogently argued and generally convincing. I certainly learned a lot of things that contradicted what I had read in many green publications. As with all emotive topics, I still feel I'd like to check out a few of the facts before reversing some of my beliefs but I'm well on the way.

The least convincing chapter for me was the one on packaging. I am well aware from my academic discipline of the importance of packaging for food items, however, I didn't follow why the use of complex, non-biodegradable and difficult-to-recycle plastics was necessarily a good thing. In fact there was virtually nothing on the pros and cons of recycling/re-use in the food industry. Disappointing. I also lost interest and failed to read the chapter on the use of credit systems for controlling things like pollution.

Anyway, I thought the book good enough as a future reference to have ordered a copy having returned the one I read to the library!