Not on the Label by Felicity Lawrence - Book Review

You always know a book is going to be good when Brigit describes it as ‘life changing'.

Although I decided it was a must-read I have to confess to not really knowing what to expect. I assumed it would be good and informative but thought it would be about labelling contents: poor ingredients, hidden nasties and so on.

I was wrong!

It took many of my preconceptions about food, farming and the food retail industry and blew them to pieces.

Now, I am one of these naive people that although sub-consciously aware of what goes on in the food industry still likes to think that all animals cluck, moo or oink their free-range way around a farmyard, the ruddy-faced farmer petting them lovingly behind the ears on the way in to the farmhouse for his dinner. Then they are sold on to a kindly shopkeeper who, after paying the farmer a fair price for the goods, sells them on to his customers, all of whom he knows by name. But then again, I may have read too much Enid Blyton as a child...

So, first I skimmed over the contents page to get an idea of what the book was really about. There were chapters on various food types:

Chapter 1: Chicken - Having researched turkey farming for an earlier newsletter (read it here) I knew this wouldn't be pretty. It wasn't. But it was worse than I had previously believed. Again somewhat naively, I thought organic and free-range chickens had a better death, if there can be such a thing, than those poor little caged birds. But they don't. And this is the fact that really stuck in my head - after electrocution, they are all plummeted into the scalding tank, a process which makes plucking easier (wet plucking). However, firstly, not all birds are dead by this point and also the water in the scalding tank is contaminated with blood, feathers and faeces. It is only changed twice a day and regardless of whether your chicken is free-range, organic or intensively farmed, it goes in there. Other scary points raised are what can happen to some condemned meat and also to the meat we have imported from abroad, most notably Holland. It is not nice.

I was suitably shocked but then I thought I would venture into the other chapters, which were not such familiar territory.

As I read further down the contents page I thought in my ignorance ‘What can she tell me about prawns? Or salad? Or bread? Or beans? They are fairly harmless aren't they?'

I was wrong again!!

I won't spoil any more of the book for you because it is one that I think you really should read if you can as it is so eye-opening, but here are a few snippets for you...as a ‘taster' shall we say!

Prawns - You know those lovely big, fat, juicy prawns from the warm waters of the Pacific? Not so lovely. They are choc-full of nasties and intensive prawn farming has caused devastating problems in the poorer Asian countries where it has been introduced.

Bags of fresh salad - Not so fresh, reduced in vitamins and nutrients by the packing process, and the conditions of the immigrant workers paid a pittance to harvest and bag it will make you weep. One word to make you shudder - gangmaster.

Apples - Why are British apples rotting on the orchard floor when we are importing ours from New Zealand and South Africa?

Coffee - If you have ever drunk Nescafe coffee, you will want to read this. Fairtrade is not just a name and a pretty logo - it can be the difference between life and death...literally.

Ready Meals - just don't go there.

Bread - It's not just bog-standard supermarket plastic bread that is full of unnecessary fat and ‘flour treatment agents'. Even some bakers use this mixture as it speeds up the baking process. Labelling loopholes mean that by sticking all the additives in the flour treatment agent, the additives need not be listed individually on the label. Low cost bread is also used as a marketing tool for the supermarkets.

Which brings me to my final bugbear.

We all know supermarkets probably aren't the most ethical chaps in the business world but when I read this I was truly appalled. My poor husband was trying to sleep as I was sitting up in bed reading, nudging him every few seconds in horror, saying ‘Did you know...' and ‘Listen to this, it's terrible...'

Some examples for you to ponder over. Who do you think bears the brunt of the cost of the BOGOF offers? Not the supermarkets. Who do you think has to increase their order at very short notice to avoid being blacklisted? Not the supermarkets. Who has to pay a premium to have their food sold in supermarkets? Ok, you get the picture.

I thought I was pretty aware, ethically and environmentally, in my shopping but since reading this book I have dramatically reduced my supermarket shopping to the very bare minimum (loo rolls and cat food basically), grow and cook as much of my own food as I can and buy local whenever possible. Not all of us can do everything but if we all do our bit, then change may just happen! Who knows, I may get my Enid Blyton world after all!

Jo

Our affiliate merchant AMAZON has lots of books for sale around this subject. The Big Green Idea is paid a commission if you choose to buy via our links. These are not recommendations by the author and are chosen purely to give a representation.