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Amazon.co.uk Review
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'Compelling' (Observer )
'Incisive and readable' (Mick Hume, The Times )
'Humphrys's level-headedness makes the arguments all the more powerful' (Paul Heiney, The Sunday Times )
'This could be the best diet book ever written' (The Sunday Times )
'Without being sentimental, it is a passionate discourse... well-written and accessible. My only concern is that its message is likely to be ignored where it matters most.' (Tim Lang, Independent )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well argued, shame about the polemics,
By johnppotts@excite.co.uk (Bristol, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Great Food Gamble (Paperback)
There have been plenty of issues that make people concerned over food in the last few years - Salmonella in eggs, BSE in cattle and the introduction of GM foods. John Humphrys gives a brief overview of how farming has changed since the Second World War from a small scale, largely family run business to a (mostly) intensive factory business, and how this has led to our food being increasingly adulterated with fertilisers, pesticides, hormones and anti-biotics.Now while there is plenty to get worried about in all this, and John Humphrys does present the risks well, I would have found it a lot more convincing if he hadn't given the impression that he'd really prefer it if farmers were non profit making, horny handed sons of the soil and that any sniff of profit should be ruthlessly eliminated. In this book, there are clear "goodies" and "baddies" - the goodies being the small organic farmers, the "baddies" being the EU, large pharmaceutical companies, supermarkets and the "barley barons" (a group he neither defines nor interviews). Now there is plenty of well argued science in here. The Chapter on the history of pesticides, and how new pesticides have been introduced as their predecessors have been banned, is enough to make anyone worry and the description of how the increasing monoculture throughout Britain's arable land is allowing the spread of crop diseases (which leads, in turn, to more spraying) is well argued, as is the Chapter on GM, which is surprisingly neutral (if erring on the side of scepticism) on the subject. Overall a good guide to the farming is practiced throughout Britain today, and if you don't mind the polemics against big business (agricultural, pharmaceutical or retail) it presents a coherent arguement about the quality of our food.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most important books written in the last 10 years,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Great Food Gamble (Paperback)
If you don't read any other book about the food industry, read this one! What John Humphrys has tried to do is assimilate into one very readable (indeed, unputdownable) book the research produced by many, many different people, ranging from eminent scientists across the world, to journalists, farmers and others involved in the food industry. He is careful to show precisely where research is inconclusive, and where there is more than one side to the arguments, and he concentrates as much on the impact of Government ministries and the large biotech and food manufacturing companies as he does on farming itself. This is not just a one-sided 'slagging-off' of farmers but a very fair appraisal of what has happened in the last 50 years and what might happen in the next 50 years if nothing changes.There are chapters on why farming moved into such an intensive phase in the first place (during and after the war when fears of food blockades and starvation were very real), on chicken farming, fish farming, the effects of current farming practices on the soil, antibiotics, genetic modification, and the impact of consumer choice on the rapid rise in interest in organic food. There are many pages of bibliographical references at the end for those who want to research further. Buy this book, read it, and give it to your friends. It will open your eyes and give you 'food for thought' for many months to come.
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent, good balance between fact and opinion,
By jan@jdeacon80.fsnet.co.uk (Oxford) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Great Food Gamble (Paperback)
Clearly written from the heart. Most of us by now are either extremely concerned about the food we are eating or wearing blinkers and earplugs to shut out the facts. John Humphreys expands on our fears about the food we eat. If you would rather not know about the damage to yourself and your family and the environment by over use of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, anti-biotics, to name but a few, this book is not for you.
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