SIRC Media Watch Archive
The Pick – October 2002
Modern food fads are becoming a little hard to swallow. In short, food has finally been democratised, and to the food snob this is a serious problem. But luckily for them, food snobs have found a new weapon in the arsenal of gastronomic snobbery – organic food…And just who are the beneficiaries of this food snobbery? The washed-out old hippies running boutique farms certainly are laughing all the way to the bank, as are the produce distributors and shop owners. Considering the fact that we're living longer and more healthily in the Western world than ever before, it's pure hokum to suggest that our food is slowly killing us. Those who use only organic food and suggest we're being poisoned by "normal" food are using that argument as a smokescreen for their real pretension. Sydney Morning Herald
Row grows over GM food aid for Africa, as 14 million starve. A United Nations human rights envoy has been accused of endangering efforts to save 14 million people from starvation after he questioned the safety of genetically modified food destined for southern Africa. Jean Ziegler, a UN special investigator for food, claimed that big corporations had more to gain from the use of GM food in the developing world than the poor countries that were trying to fight starvation … A senior international humanitarian aid official described Mr Ziegler's position as "morally bankrupt" yesterday. "It is outrageous that someone who claims to be working for human rights should be campaigning against the most basic human right — the right to food," the official said. Independent.
Organic food-hungry Britons pile on the air miles. If you believe the organic salad you just ate was good for you and for the environment, think again. Chances are, its ingredients flew half way across the world, polluting the air and burning more energy than was saved in growing them. Reuters.
