From Sam Edge, Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
Sophie Attwood’s observations made me nod in agreement. It is nonsensical to reject “artificial” foodstuffs while allowing synthetic materials to be pumped into our bodies for cosmetic ends and eating meat from animals stuffed with pharmaceuticals and industrially made cattle feed(30 August, p 19).
Touching on another of her insights, companies that now only sell lab-grown diamonds – advertising that this means they are far more ethical and environmentally benign than the “natural” ones that were often mined in horrendous conditions – are perhaps an example that the synthetic food industry might emulate. Consumers need to be disabused of rose-tinted notions about the wholesomeness of the farming industry.
