| This is increasingly typical of the way we are invited to worry about things. We fear medicine more than the disease. We fear additives more than the deficiencies they are there to prevent. But the latest fear is not always the greatest fear – in fact, the opposite is more likely to be the case. We are gaining the luxury to worry about ever lesser risks. These two are good news stories, not scares. The Panicologist advises: a little of what you fancy does you good. Get out and enjoy the sun – if you can find any. And go for a swim – it will do you good. But what about this, then? Food safety likewise now finds itself held hostage to food supply. ‘Lift BSE ban’, a Times headline suggested on Tuesday. Why? So animals can be fed processed remains of other animals – chicken to pig and vice versa in particular – so we can eat the grain they’re scoffing at present. Does this mean that we will all be put at risk of exposure to BSE again? (The Times headline implies that BSE would become readily available to all as a kind of human right.) No, scientists insist. But the safety of feeding animal remains to animals depends on biological mechanisms about which science is far from sure and on strict regulation, which experience has shown can be ignored. Again, the latest risk may not be the greatest risk. Surely it’s better to bear a rise in food prices – which are still low historically – rather than jettison sensible precautions at the first sign of the slightest discomfort. |
