Alex Renton writes in The Times, "Clearly, keeping animals packed together in unnatural conditions is conducive to the breeding and mutation of viruses. Most food scares of recent years — dioxin contamination of Irish pork, antibiotics in Scottish salmon, salmonella in chicken, BSE and so on — come down to unnatural, intensive farming practices done on the cheap. Then there is the troubling disappearance of the honey bees, thought to have been caused by pesticide overuse.
Now, I’m not saying that buying organic will save us from swine flu or bring back the bees but, clearly, if you worry about these things you should choose to eat food that has been produced in a natural way, with minimal chemicals and without cruelty to animals."
The Times2 (1 May, p.12)

Traditional apple crumble and custard has been named the nation's favourite school canteen pudding in a study. The survey found that a fifth of women still turn to their favourite school desserts for comfort, because they brought back happy memories about their school days.
Daily Mail (4 Mar, p.35)

Almost half of the fresh fruit and veg sold across the UK is contaminated with toxic pesticides, according to the latest scientific surveys for the government. Nearly every orange, 94% of pineapples and 90% of pears sampled were laced with traces of chemicals used to kill bugs. High proportions of apples, grapes and tomatoes were also tainted, as were parsnips, melons and cucumbers. Alarmingly, as much as a quarter of the food on sale in 2008 - the date of the latest figures - was found to contain multiple pesticides. In some cases, up to ten different chemicals were detected in a single sample.
The revelations about the widespread contamination of conventionally-produced food have also prompted renewed attacks on the government's Food Standards Agency.
The FSA published a report last week casting doubt on the health benefits of eating organic food, which is mostly produced without pesticides.
The Herald (2 Aug)

Geoffrey Lean asks "what’s with the Food Standards Agency and organic food?" The agency stands for safer food… but has, from the start, campaigned against organic food, which no one claims to be dangerous. The article questions the agency’s impartiality and criticises the FSA for ignoring pesticides. Lean concludes that it reminds him of a minister who used to complain that there was a ‘myth’ that pesticides were ‘toxic’. "What, I asked him, would be the use of one that wasn’t?" Answer came there none."
The Daily Telegraph (1 August, p.24)