Posted by Andrew Wadge
on 08 January 2010 in General interest
Hats off to the BBC for two excellent programmes on food last night, which compliment the Government's food strategy 2030 published this week. Jimmy Doherty's investigation into farming in Brazil tackled the issues of how you use science to help increase food production in a way that's sustainable and good for consumers, farmers and the environment. The sight of fleets of combine harvesters across endless prairies harvesting soybeans, followed immediately by a phalanx of seed drillers planting the next crop may not be everyone's idea of farming, but feeding a growing population will take innovation, and Doherty was able to move beyond the tired old argument that intensive farming is always bad. I will certainly be watching the next three episodes.
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Posted by Andrew Wadge
on 08 January 2010 in Science, safety and health
I welcome the report from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee into nanotechnology, which was chaired by Lord Krebs, a former Chair of the Agency. New and emerging technologies can bring about risks as well as benefits for consumers, so what we need is open debate, not dogma. Our priority in the FSA is protecting consumer interests, so I fully support the need to develop a research capability in the UK so that we can assess the potential effects of nanomaterials on health; we're working with other research funding bodies to co-ordinate the necessary research.
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