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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent! It should be read by everyone with a conscience., 18 Oct 2004
This is the book the confirms all the sneaky suspicions you have always had when shopping in big supermarkets. Why is nothing ever out of season anymore? Why is everything packed in plastic? Why do we pay the same price for chicken today that our Grandparents did? If everything is so clean and perfect now-a-days why do we still have outbreaks of foot-and-mouth and bird-flu and E-coli, not to mention CJD? When I read this book I realised that deep down I was aware of the facts I'd just never linked them together. It has helped me to feel better about making the time to go to the butcher's, bakers, fishmonger's etc. It is worth taking the time to visit these local shops (if you have any left). The author explores the links between the movement of immigrant workers, packing factories, the congestion on our roads, the distances travelled by our food before it reaches the supermarket shelves. Her research is thorough and well followed through. I live in Spain and it just happens that after having read the chapter on salad and the greenhouse of Europe (southern Spain, Almeria(Andalucia)) we went to Roquetas de Mar for a weekend break. This had been booked long before I read the book! When we were there we couldn't stop thinking about everything the author had commented on during her stay in Roquetas, about the soil being used for 3 harvests a year, the pesticides needed to support this, water brought down from the north. In the meantime we, the tourist, were stuffing our faces at buffets and wasting water in an area that is a man-made oasis in the dessert. How long can this go on? I looked out of my hotel room window and saw the sea, the beach and a beautiful swimming pool. Then I went for a walk and could see all the plastic covering the greenhouses shimmering in the sun light and I thought of all the immigrants living in the rubble with no clean drinking water and little food, who wait by the road at sunrise to get selected to go to work or not. That lettuce is then sent by lorry to UK or other EU supermarkets. The book makes excellent reading, it is very well written, packed with information and facts. It should be studied in schools by our children, those who can make a difference to the future . The facts are presented in a coherent and interesting way making the author's points hit home hard. I am not an exremist in anything and am sometimes wary about reading this sort of thing, but it is not what I would call a doom and gloom book. The facts are there she has just used her considerable talent to link them together for a fascinating read. This book really has made me think and I would recommend it to anyone.
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by Joanna Blythman
by Joanna Blythman
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