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Sir John Krebs heads the new Food Standards Agency. One of his first
pronouncements is a denunciation of the benefits of organic food on today's
BBC Countryfile programme. His views were extensively previewed on the front
page of yesterday's Independent and can be found at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Environment/2000-09/carrots020900.shtml
. Along with promoting better standards in food, it also seems that Sir John
is going tell us foolish subjective consumers that we should be objective in
our habits. His attack on organic food certainly caused me some trouble in
the public understanding bunker.
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Why?
I'm afraid I couldn't make much sense of the rest of the meandering message,
but Krebs's own account of what he believes, as he said when interviewed on
the radio, was in effect that the organic movement can sell itself on the
nutrition angle, or one the good that it does to the environment.
He makes the point that there is no scientific evidence for the former.
Is he supposed to claim that there is when there isn't? Has her missed the
evidence? (Perhaps you could point us to it.) Is he supposed to keep his
mouth shut because it might upset a bunch of middle class diddums who don't
like challenges to their 'religion'?
What is wrong with saying "no evidence"?
I find it worrying that there are people in the PEST 'bunker' — now there's
a giveaway — who are so lacking in knowledge of the processes of science.
MK
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Michael Kenward OBE / Phone: +44 (0)1444 400568 Fax: 401064
/
Science Writer & Stuff / For light relief visit http://www.absw.org.uk
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