February 2011 Printable Subscribers Newsletter

This month’s newsletter is a full read with reports that touch upon some of the big environmental issues. Joanna Blythman and Tom Levitt take a more considered look at the recent egg contamination scare than you probably would have read elsewhere, highlighting that rather than being an isolated case this is likely to be the latest horror story to arise from our growing reliance on industrial farming systems. Their alarming report echoes what The Ecologist has been saying for many years - that pressure to supply cheap food is resulting in a host of disturbing consequences for human health, the environment and animal welfare.

The worrying issue is that every time such stories break - whether it’s industrial poultry production being linked to the H5N1 strain of avian flu, or the MRSA bug found to be prevalent in pig farms - there is a flurry of concern and outrage from industry and ministers followed by pledges to tackle the problem, but very little actually changes. Until the blight of industrial agri-business is tackled as a whole it is an uncomfortable reality that food contamination and health scares will only increase - with potentially deadly results.

Sticking...

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