Guest Work • May 30, 2017 •
By William van Caenegem, Professor of Law, Bond University The current row about the certification of Manuka honey, and whether it is a distinctly New Zealand product, is just the latest dispute involving Geographical Indications (GIs). These are markers that products have special qualities due to their origins in a specific region, like Champagne. There is … Read More
Guest Work • May 10, 2017 •
By Bernd Weber, University of Bonn Food is important for our survival, which is why all living beings have developed an urge for high energy foods, like those high in sugar and fat. Historically, this hadn’t been an issue, as energy dense foods weren’t always as available as they are today. But in modern societies, we not only … Read More
Eric Crampton • Apr 24, 2017 •
Twitter suggests there’s a pretty common fallacy out there that needs a bit more thorough treatment. Here’s how it looks: Free markets require informed choices Therefore the government should compel companies to label their products about things that I happen to care about. Otherwise how can people make informed choices? Why is this an error? There’s an infinite array of … Read More
Robert Hickson • Apr 20, 2017 •
Here’s a weak signal associated with changing dietary habits. Grasshoppers were on the menu at a Major League Baseball game in the US recently. At a Seattle Mariners vs Astros game six kilos of spicy grasshoppers sold out. I wrote in October in more detail about some of the trends and challenges associated with traditional western food consumption. Read More
Alison Campbell • Apr 11, 2017 •
On the stuff page today, Dr Libby was asked how someone could reduce their exposure to chemicals. While she distinguished between ‘natural’ & ‘synthetic’ chemicals, sadly, ‘natural’ doesn’t always equate to ‘safe’ or ‘good for you’ (as the list of plants growing in the Poison Garden in the UK makes clear). Similarly, there may be no difference … Read More
Guest Work • Feb 24, 2017 •
By Clive Phillips, The University of Queensland and Matti Wilks, The University of Queensland Futurists tell us that we will be eating in vitro meat (IVM) – meat grown in a laboratory rather than on a farm – within five to ten years. IVM was first investigated in the early years of this century and … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 30, 2017 •
By Wayne Martindale, Sheffield Hallam University Beef from Brazil, avocados from Mexico, lamb from New Zealand, wines from South Africa and green beans from Kenya – food shopping lists have a distinctly international flavour. And with many questioning the sustainability of importing so much food from so far away, we are beginning to ask if switching to a … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 29, 2017 •
By Prof Julia Rucklidge, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Canterbury. Mental illness affects one in five New Zealanders and, despite the wide availability of solid empirically supported therapies, these statistics are not getting any better. We appear to have reached an impasse improving outcomes, despite improvements in other areas of medicine. We need to explore new avenues. Read More
Guest Work • Dec 16, 2016 •
By Sophie Medlin, King’s College London A lot of people will have already made up their mind about whether humans need dairy in their diet and will be thinking that the answer is obviously “yes” or obviously “no”. But nutrition is based on science not opinion – so, here’s the latest research on the matter. Milk is … Read More
Robert Hickson • Oct 12, 2016 •
A US meat company is now an investor in vegan burgers, and selling them alongside meat patties. That’s just one of the signals pointing to big changes in food production systems in affluent nations. Lab-grown meat gets the headlines, but burgers made from plant proteins are well ahead of that, and likely to have a much lower yuck … Read More