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Resource Pointer #379 How Safe is the Industrial Food Supply?
February 25, 2005

For copies of the following resources, please contact the appropriate publishers or organizations directly.

*Bad Taste: The Disturbing Truth about the World Health Organization’s Endorsement of Food Irradiation, 2002* Public Citizen and Global Resource Action Center for the Environment. Examines the implications of a WHO declaration that food “treated” with ionizing radiation is safe for human consumption. Considers whether the agency’s decision has corrupted the integrity of its analysis of the safety and wholesomeness of irradiated foods. 43 pages. Available as a free download at www.citizen.org/cmep/ or www.gracelinks.org/nuke/food/. Contact Public Citizen, 1600 20th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009; phone (202) 588-1000; email member@citizen.org. 

*Diet for a Dead Planet, 2004* Christopher Cook. Argues that our conventional food system has contributed to a staggering array of social, economic, and environmental epidemics. Corporate control of farms and supermarkets combined with ineffective regulation and misplaced export subsidies have produced an unhealthy and unsustainable harvest. The author applauds the movement for organics, farmers’ markets, and slow food and argues that a transformation of the U.S. food system is imperative. 326 pages. $24.95. Contact The New Press, 38 Greene Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10013; phone (800) 233-4830; fax (212) 629-8617; website http://www.thenewpress.com/.

*Food, Inc: Corporate concentration from farmer to consumer, 2003* Bill Vorley. Examines the impacts of the growing concentration of corporations who trade, process, manufacture and sell agricultural goods. The report also points to policies that can ensure more equitable trading relationships and provides options for re-balancing the markets. 89 pages. Available as a free download at http://www.ukfg.org.uk/. Contact UK Food Group, PO Box 100, London, SE1 7RT; phone (44 20) 7523-2369; fax (44 20) 7620-0719; email: ukfg@ukfg.org.uk.

*Not on the Label, 2004* Felicity Lawrence. Looks at some of the most popular foods and the process they have gone through to end up on the table. Considers how beef waste ends up in chicken, why a third of apples are thrown away, and why bread is full of air and water. Examines the social, environmental, and economic consequences of the global industrial system of food production and the negative health consequences for the buying public. 272 pages. £7.99. Contact Penguin Direct, Pearson Customer Operations, Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex, CM20 2JE; fax 0870 850-1115 (for UK orders only); website http://www.penguin.co.uk/; email orders@penguin.co.uk.

*Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism, 2003* Marion Nestle. Argues that century-old laws for ensuring food safety no longer protect our food and that ensuring a safe food supply involves politics. Demonstrates that powerful food industries oppose safety regulations, deny accountability, and blame consumers when something goes wrong. Safe food requires government and industry to act in the public interest, and consumers to exert democratic rights as citizens. 350 pages. $27.50. Contact California-Princeton Fulfilment Services, 1445 Lower Ferry Road, Ewing, NJ 08618; phone (800) 777-4726; fax (800) 999-1958; website http://www.ucpress.edu/press/; email orders@cpfsinc.com.

We encourage those interested in having resources listed in the PANUPS Resource Pointer to send review copies of publications, videos or other resources to our office.

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on pesticide issues that don’t always get coverage by the mainstream media. It’s produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

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