An investigation of science, politics and our food production system, this text exposes the bogus science, political interference and flawed policies that threaten our food supply. The author tells the story of BSE, revealing how top scientists have been muzzled and how the epidemic continues. Then, against a backdrop of burning cows, Andrew Rowell exposes how trade and macro-economic policies overruled good science in the foot and mouth catastrophe. He also opens the black box of the so-called GM revolution to expose the myth behind the marketing. In tracing how critics are silenced in the bottom-line climate of commercialized science and privatized knowledge, Rowell tells the true story of the widely publicized Pusztai GM potato scandal of the late 1990s and the ongoing Mexican maize GM contamination affair. Finally, the book offers radical solutions to make science work in the public interest and provide food that really is safe to eat.

This text presents a controversial expose of the rise of the anti-environmental movement in the USA and its rapid spread worldwide. Rowell reveals how extreme violence, threats and international scapegoating and polarization seek to intimidate activists into inactivity and silence over oil company operations in Nigeria, the UK anti-roads movement, Canadian and Australian forestry and European marine resource disputes, Brent Spar and other recent controversies. The tide is turning against environmentalism as the political Right, industry and governments fight back. The backlash is set to get worse as resource wars intensify. But by offering a greater understanding of the challenges and threats facing global environmentalism, this book presents the environmental movement with a chance to reevaluate and change to beat the backlash before it is too late.

Britain, America and the New Scramble for Africa On November 10, 1995 the Nigerian government executed activist and author Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight other Ogoni activists. Their deaths brought the plight of their people and the role of British oil companies in Nigeria to the attention of the world. Ten years on, Nigeria and the other oil-producing countries of West Africa have only grown in strategic and economic importance to both Europe and the United States. The recent coup in Sao Tome and the botched attempt in Equatorial Guinea both indicate that the West is taking a much closer interest in the region. Recent history suggests that the people of West Africa will receive little benefit from the revenues from oil and gas, and that they will suffer instead from the dire environmental effects of pollution. Andrew Rowell and James Marriott here explain how western companies cooperate with local elites in West Africa to maintain control and they trace a long and ongoing history of colonial and neo-colonial exploitation.; They explore Washington and London's new interest in the region and they report on the efforts of local people to ensure that the benefits of development are sha

An investigation of science, politics and our food production system, this text exposes the bogus science, political interference and flawed policies that threaten our food supply. The author tells the story of BSE, revealing how top scientists have been "muzzled" and how the epidemic continues. Then, against a backdrop of burning cows, Andrew Rowell exposes how trade and macro-economic policies overruled good science in the foot and mouth catastrophe. He also opens the black box of the so-called GM revolution to expose the myth behind the marketing.In tracing how critics are silenced in the bottom-line climate of commercialized science and privatized knowledge, Rowell tells the true story of the widely publicized Pusztai GM potato scandal of the late 1990s and the ongoing Mexican maize GM contamination affair. Finally, the book offers radical solutions to make science work in the public interest and provide food that really is safe to eat.