A unique collaboration between the Ecologist Film Unit and Link TV lifts the lid on fracking and the shale gas boom sweeping into Europe and beyond… Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process that injects water, sand, and chemicals into underground rock (usually shale) at high pressure to extract natural gas. But it is highly […]
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Horsemeat scandal highlights murky trade in farm animals
The discovery of horsemeat in burgers and ready meals has revealed how live horses are shipped across Europe in a complex and secretive business. And it’s just part of a bigger global trade in livestock and poultry. Andrew Wasley reports The news that beef burgers and ready-made lasagne contain horsemeat has rightly caused alarm. Whatever […]
Illegal trade in shellfish risks our health
An underground trade in shellfish is putting the health of consumers at risk with tonnes of potentially contaminated seafood feared to be entering the food chain, an investigation by The Ecologist and The Independent has revealed. The scale of the illicit – and highly lucrative – trade has alarmed health officials and fisheries protection bodies who say they lack […]
Revealed: the prescription drugs most likely to harm or kill us
Official data suggests antidepressants, antipsychotics, stop smoking drugs, vaccines against swine flu and even paracetamol cause adverse drug reactions. So just how safe are they? Andrew Wasley & Bethany Hubbard report A drug used to treat schizophrenia and thought disturbances in patients with Parkinson’s disease is the medicine most likely to harm or kill you […]
Revealed: popular antibiotics linked to UK deaths
Millions of us are successfully treated with ciprofloxacin and other fluoroquinolone antibiotics each year. But for some patients the drugs are linked to severe adverse reactions involving terrifying physical and mental health impacts. Andrew Wasley reports Patients who say they’ve suffered severe adverse reactions to a common antibiotic are calling for action to prevent others […]
US fracking boom linked to pollution and social strife
The gas stored in the Marcellus Shale formation is the subject of desperate drilling to secure US domestic energy supplies. But the process involved – hydraulic fracturing – is the focus of a bitter dispute over environmental damage and community rights. Jim Wickens reports It is a timeless patchwork of small dairy farms and endless […]
Clydesdale Bank under fire over finance for Nocton ‘super dairy’
Campaigners claim the bank has refused to state what environmental assessments were carried out before supplying a mortgage – part of a £13-million land deal – to company behind controversial Nocton proposal. Andrew Wasley reports A leading high street bank has come under fire for part-financing the controversial Nocton ‘super dairy’ project which will – […]
Sour milk: undercover inside the US ‘super dairy’ industry
With planning permission for Britain’s biggest dairy at Nocton about to be re-submitted later this month, Jim Wickens travelled to California to examine intensive milk production US-style and found factory farms, conflict, intimidation, pesticides, pollution and small-scale farmers driven out of business… ‘You better get out of here or your gonna get your ass kicked […]
‘Super dairy’ may only meet ‘minimum welfare standards’
Advocates of Britain’s biggest dairy farm, at Nocton, have sold the concept on the basis of its outstanding animal welfare and environmental credentials. But new evidence suggests this may not be possible without public funding. Andrew Wasley reports The company behind the so-called Nocton ‘super-dairy’ has admitted that without taxpayers’ money the controversial mega-farm may […]
Sick as a pig: factory farming link to new MRSA strain
An Ecostorm-produced documentary, commissioned by the Soil Association and Compassion in World Farming, exposes the rise of a new strain of MRSA in pigs, and its link to the overuse of antibiotics on intensive farms. ‘Sick as a pig’ was filmed in the Netherlands, one of the countries most seriously affected by this farm-animal MRSA. […]
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