3 August 2015

They’re spreadable.

1. So enjoyable when science proves what people have known all along: researchers use pigs to root out problem weeds. I particularly like the suggestion that “[t]his method of weed control could be used in organic farms”.
2. I’m also all for the scientific study of gluten intolerance, and this report on gluten psychosis boggled my mind.
3. Can it be possible, though, that food-safety scientists refer enquiries to Wikipedia? Yes it can: “FDA officially refers consumers to Wikipedia for information on food pathogens”.
4. And staying with food safety, what would be a suitable punishment for someone who knowingly sold Salmonella-laced peanut butter? Life imprisonment?
5. Rachel Laudan plumbs Knight’s New Mechanical Dictionary to consider My Great Grandmother’s Industrially Processed Food. She spoke to me about the benefits of industrial sugar and salt a couple of years ago.

An old friend sent me a cutting of a column in The (London) Times magazine, exploring the contents of Food Editor Tony Turnbull’s larder. I’d like to take credit for inspiring this, the very week of my podcast on the same topic, but I know how magazine journalism works and the piece was probably rustled up long ago.

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